Tag Archives: ineos

Stinkin’ Thinkin’

The summer is supposed to provide a window of respite from any United-related stresses. As well as giving your liver and bank balance a chance to recover, it usually means a quiet 8 weeks with no ballot deadlines to remember, no tickets to sort and no transport to organise. It’s all quite enjoyable switching off and not thinking about it for a couple of months – something the dopamine-addicted, transfer virgins on social media should try to experience at least once.

For a large number of reds the last couple of months have been anything but stress-free if they happened to receive ‘the email’ – the club’s latest attack on ST holders and members with the usual justification of it being part of their ongoing effort to ‘combat touting’. Yeah right, of course it is. For the hundreds affected it was a case of guilty until proven innocent, with the club threatening to revoke tickets yet at the same time, choosing not to disclose what individual supporters were actually being accused of.

It’s further evidence that the club now sees legacy supporters as a target and this latest move is proof that they’re escalating attempts to take us down. United aren’t unique in this, it’s a scenario being played out across the Premier League with mandatory digital tickets now in place across the board. In reality it just gives clubs more tools to pry into into peoples’ habits (ie how we use the ticket portals they’ve insisted on) and impose threats and sanctions under the guise of caring about supporters’ safety. What a crock of bullshit.

The club insists that a robust appeals process is in place but given it’s now a few days from the first home game and many people are still on tenterhooks, I’m not sure it’s as solid as they claim. If supporters are logging in on multiple devices, what business is it of the club? It’s really not uncommon for people to have a desktop computer, a laptop, tablet, a couple of phones and various work devices accessible – what gives the club the right to demand explanations of how people choose to use these? It’s not just overstepping the mark, it’s completely absurd.

In the carefully-worded, non-apology posted on the official website, the club highlighted the fact they’d uncovered an instance of a single device accessing over 1000 different accounts. Fantastic, so they’ve likely stumbled on an actual tout there – mission accomplished, you’d presume. Clearly there’s something dodgy going on in that particular case, so focus efforts there and do something about it. Using such an extreme example as justification for them accusing hundreds of others was just plain disingenuous, however.

I’m convinced the purpose of this exercise was simply to cull a few hundred more tickets in the hope that people would react to the email by saying, “I can’t be arsed with this anymore so I’m not gonna appeal”. I’m sure they knew full well that the overwhelming number of recipients weren’t touts, but despite that they chose to send it anyway. It increases resentment, it causes upset, it creates divide. This as exactly what they want as they know full well the traditional support has no desire to embrace whatever ticketing bullshit they’re planning to introduce at their crap new stadium.

The club has set a precedent that means this level of intrusive snooping will only continue. “You can keep your ticket for now, but be warned that we’re watching you.” Again, I simply refuse to believe that this anything to do with combatting touting – that’s just a sideshow. This is all part of a wider initiative aimed at maximising revenue from match day tickets. My ticket works out at £45 a game and the club are acutely aware that in their hands they could get 3-4 times that price if they threw in a free programme and sold it as part of a hospitality package.

ST holders might have served a purpose in previous eras providing a guaranteed steady income stream, now they’re just a nuisance with clubs looking to attract high spending football tourists instead. Like the World Cup in the summer, the Premier League has moved to a place that’s beyond commercial – it’s cynical, greedy and exploitative. They might try and spin the narrative that they’re concerned with fan safety and ticket touting (ie trying to help us), but ultimately this is about weeding us out so they can fleece bigger idiots with deeper pockets.

With all this dominating the summer discourse there wasn’t much pre-season optimism floating about this year – which seems entirely prescient given the absolute shitshow served up at Hull. I was hoping we might avoid being 7 points behind in September for once, but based on Saturday’s evidence that might be wishful thinking. Honestly, I don’t know where to start. Sloth-like movement, players not looking fit, complete failure to press and once again, an entire team seemingly shocked and stunned by the intensity of the PL.

I was quite enthused by the Tielemans signing but the guy looks woefully out of shape and even slower than Casemiro. Santos was slightly better but I still can’t help thinking we’ve not really plugged any of the holes that were evident last season. Baleba is an apparent done dealio and is going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting over the coming months. A lot of the conversation has been about needing a new LB this summer, but Mazraoui had another terrible game on the opposite flank. It demonstrates just how bad United were when I’m stood there pining for Dalot to be brought on after half an hour.

To cap it all, there’re still no takers for Marcus Rashford. I’m praying something happens over the next week or so otherwise this current marriage of inconvenience will likely end in disaster. The club doesn’t want him and he doesn’t want to be here either. It says everything about him that he’s literally putting money ahead of his career by insisting on seeing out this contract. There’s been lots of good work done in weeding out corrosive figures in United’s dressing room, this shouldn’t be jeopardised by giving a fresh opportunity to someone who burnt his bridges a long time ago.

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Thieves Like Us

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Confession: up until a couple of years ago I was broadly in favour of a new ground. I’m not particularly sentimental when it comes to buildings, plus I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that OT lost its soul when the Stretford End was demolished. So when the question of moving periodically came up, I would blithely wave it away and claim I wasn’t really bothered. Admittedly, this could also have been influenced by the fact I didn’t think there was even the remotest chance of it ever happening. The club has been saddled with massive debts for 20 years+ so the prospect always seemed a non-starter.

Other clubs have borrowed heavily to finance new stadiums but United are already mortgaged up to their eyeballs just to try and remain competitive. That’s the net result of 2 decades of Glazer occupation during which time OT has barely changed. In an ideal world we’d have built over the railway line when plans for that were drawn up in the early noughties. They’ve shown no interest in infrastructure investment from the minute they took over. Instead it’s been the odd lick of paint here and there and several failed attempts at fixing the famously leaking roof. Scandalous really, but that’s where we’re at.

It’s now 18 months since there was any news on the proposed new stadium but last week Collette Roche was wheeled out to provide an update of sorts. Although she trilled enthusiastically about making a lot of progress over the last year, as usual there was little substantive detail provided. Apparently the land acquisition is progressing “really, really well” but there was nothing to suggest any movement on the reported deadlock with Freightliner. Given there’s a reputed £350M gap in valuations to overcome, don’t expect this one to be resolved quickly.

There’s still no indication of exactly who’s planning to pay for it either, although the club have now confirmed (as long suspected) that they’re seeking outside investment. The likely source of funding will be from US-based private equity giants, the likes of Blackstone Inc, Ares Management or Apollo Global. Another possibility would be the Carlyle Group, who were reported to be in talks with the Glazers when they were finalising plans to sell part of their stake in the club back in 2023.

Aside from coming clean about financing, there was literally nothing else to report. The rest of the interview saw Roche trotting out the usual platitudes about fan engagement, “we want to build this stadium with them, not for them”, which is quite frankly the biggest load of bollocks I’ve ever heard in my life. Not a single United fan I know wants this move and most people actively despise the idea. As has been clear from the start of this process, the club had a preordained idea what they wanted and any efforts to consult with fans on the subject are merely performative

At the first round of Town Hall Meetings at OT in 2024 we were told that this was just the first step and there would be plenty more opportunities to engage. In the subsequent 18 months there’s been a single survey sent out gauging reaction to various ticketing options (rest assured, this proposed debenture scheme will definitely happen)… and that’s it. Apparently there were some smaller focus groups held last year (including season ticket holders and members) but I’ve no idea how they were selected – I attended the first meeting and haven’t heard anything since.

Whilst I’m sure the club are determined to retain outright ownership of the new stadium, the fact the entire project is reliant on outside investment raises the distinct possibility that this might not be the case. Further debt financing is neither desirable nor affordable so I expect an entirely new structure could be the most likely outcome. MUFC would become a separate entity with a joint venture company or special purpose vehicle (SPV) forming to encompass everything related to the new stadium.

Although there’s no official confirmation that MUFC won’t be the primary owners, given that existing debts are at such a high level, it’s hard to see how they’ll secure funding without setting up a “stadium company” model. This kind of lease-back arrangement with shared ownership would be infinitely more attractive to any potential investor. It would result in MUFC technically paying rent to the stadium company who would then use that revenue to pay down the loans taken out that funded the building costs.

The optics around this are pretty terrible of course, but INEOS are well-versed in spin and they’ll be plenty of client journalists on-hand to pretend this is all very wholesome and above board. Call me a dinosaur if you like but I’m still fuming that we’re being led down this path to start with. I’m absolutely convinced that the club’s claim of 52% of ST Holders and members being in favour of moving was inaccurate. Whilst we’re on that subject, why were members consulted at all? I’m not interested in what Rory from Hemel Hempstead who goes once a season thinks

I strongly suspect the main driver behind all this, ultimately, is the desire for one final gargantuan payday prior to the Glazers selling up. By borrowing heavily to fund a new stadium they’ll essentially be repeating what they did in 2005 – using someone else’s money to buy something they can’t afford and saddling the club (or “stadium company” in this case) with another couple of billion pounds of debt. Once the project is greenlit, both the club and the surrounding land will appreciate in value and revenue projections will increase. At that point the share price will rise sharply and they’ll be free to ride off into the sunset.

Every club who moves starts off thinking their new home is brilliant before the initial excitement subsides and they start lamenting what they’ve lost. West Ham and Spurs went through it and Everton are currently in the process of realising life at the Hill-Dickinson isn’t all that. I’ve been to both the Met-Life and the SoFi in the USA and although visually impressive, they’re essentially gigantic, corporate megadomes. I’m calling it now, the novelty of selling off our history for chicken tenders, cup holders and £1500 season tickets will wear off in a matter of weeks.

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Don’t Stop

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Well that was pretty good, wasn’t it? I don’t think even the most ardent optimist could have predicted that set of results during Michael Carrick’s first month in charge. I mean, we could all see that Amorim’s favoured 5-3-2 wasn’t exactly working but I didn’t quite grasp the extent to which it was actively holding us back. I know it’s early days and I’m not getting carried away yadda yadda but basically everything is sorted now. Even if we don’t win the league this year we’re definitely winning it next season.

Obviously I’m not being entirely serious here but credit where credit’s due, given the absolute dross served up in recent times it’s been quite the turnaround. We’ve played some lovely stuff over the last few games featuring some scarcely believable passages of play from the same group of players who’ve been unable to string 3 passes together for much of the last 18 months. Whereas previously they looked tentative and passive, they now appear hungry and confident. This is more like it, lads.

There’s been a few parallels drawn with the similarly feelgood start to Solskjaer’s time in charge during the winter of 2018/19. United won 8 on the bounce and 14 of his first 19 games in charge prompting Woodward to hand him a 3 year contract. Form then nosedived completely and we won 2 of the next 10, missing out on a CL spot that should have been achieved comfortably. Needless to say, it is vital that the club avoids making a similar judgement on Carrick now. Yes, it’s all very encouraging but let’s see how the season plays out before making any kind of decision.

That’s not to say I wouldn’t want to see him given the job full-time. If this kind of form continues for the remainder of the season he’ll rightly be seen as a very strong candidate. Out of all the names mentioned there’s only Ancelotti who I’d feel confident in and he’s already kiboshed the idea saying he’d only consider Real Madrid after his stint in Brazil comes to an end. If the other contenders are limited to the bloke from Crystal Palace and the bloke just sacked by Spurs then I expect Carrick has a great chance irrespective of what happens from now until May.

Football punditry continues to get worse year by year, mainly due to the need to fill hour after hour of non-stop coverage on multiple platforms. I thought we’d reached saturation point when Sky Sports News became a thing, but it’s even worse now due to the fan cam crowd and already over-exposed faces like Neville and Keane now having their own YouTube channel or whatever it is. I don’t actively seek out any of this content but it’s still everywhere because even if you don’t watch it you’re force-fed clips on social media or their latest nonsense makes the next day’s headlines. It’s exhausting.

Arsenal are currently getting it from all angles just because the media decided to crown them PL champions back in October. This wasn’t based on anything other than City had a bad start and Liverpool’s form dropped off a cliff. Now to clarify, I don’t like Arsenal but compared to City and Liverpool I really don’t mind them that much. I don’t like their manager, their knobhead internet fans (same as every other club) and I don’t like them fouling goalkeepers at corners. I do find the reaction to their current sticky patch to be pretty pathetic, however.

The PL is a genuine test of endurance and given the level of competition, winning it is incredibly difficult. Truth be told, Arsenal don’t look anything like the team they were a couple of years ago. Literally everyone in my circle has agreed for months that they still expect City to win it – it didn’t take a genius to predict they would improve after Christmas and Arsenal’s nerves would kick in as the run-in approached. Nevertheless, the media consensus was that it was basically a one-horse race and they were going to walk it.

So now there’s a tedious pile-on since the cracks are starting to show and their lead has been reduced to 2 points. You expect this level of discourse from Goldbridge-level bantz merchants but now it’s all over the mainstream media too. I’m honestly sick of it and it genuinely impedes on my enjoyment of the sport. I get more nuance and perspective talking to mates in the pub than I do from any talking head on Sky Sports filling another 30 mins of mind-numbingly banal content. I’ve honestly reached the stage where I don’t wish to hear Gary Neville utter a single word on any subject for the rest of my life.

Another one who needs to stop talking is Jim Ratcliffe, who continues to show he’s a genuinely terrible person each time he opens his mouth. It’s not exactly a shock to learn that a 73 year old billionaire holds some Enoch Powell-esque political opinions, but most of those operating in the public eye at least have the good grace to keep them under wraps. Monaco-dwelling Jim is proving himself a massive hypocrite and is in a major strop because his business is struggling and UK industry isn’t thriving post-Brexit as he predicted.

Ratcliffe may well have valid grievances with the government about Net Zero and its effect on the chemicals sector, but using talk of colonialism as a stick to strike back at them is incredibly snide and disingenuous. The Britain First march in Manchester last weekend serves as a reminder how the far right are quick to capitalise whenever the subject of immigration hits the headlines. Whether that was his intention or not, public figures like Ratcliffe espousing broadly similar views plays directly into their hands and provides further oxygen for their narrative.

If any other club representative had expressed similar sentiments it would likely have resulted in a reprimand and disciplinary action given the current climate of football club’s promoting diversity and inclusivity at every opportunity. It’s easy to scoff at ‘wokeist’ initiatives and how they’ve become almost obligatory for pretty much every organisation existing in modern Britain. Ratcliffe’s comments give a clue as to precisely why they’re necessary.

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