Glazernomics

[Deleted]

Aug 21, 2018 8:32:08 GMT redcase said:

Everything starts at the top.

It's fucking time for the banners, the scarves, the airplane and the fucking kitchen sink. If not those leeching cunts, at least their spineless minion - GET HIM THE FUCK OUT.

While I agree this won't solve anything until we all come together. There are too many tourists that go to home games where they just sit there and watch the game in silence.

It needs to be a united front and the voice needs to be heard, not in dribs and drabs. I'm all for changing, bringing out banners and scarves etc (that's if they don't get banned or confiscated) but its pointless if its just a few individuals.

Edit - by tourists I mean people that treat the game as a day out and have no real interest or commitment towards the club.

[Karma]

170 million investment and well over a billion in dept repayments.

They are no better than the tin pot chancers who have walked into other clubs. Fergie's empire continues to cover their arses long after he retired.

There's a place in hell for the fecking lot of them.

[Bestie]

They're fucking worse.

[Deleted]

[Deleted]

Found this article on the debt, surely this cant be right can it? If it is then its a lot worse than I first thought.


From Thomas Clare:
Depressing reading and shows just how much the initial 485 million has cost us in the last 13 years - 1.7 BILLION - and the original 485 million is still there and is not being paid down.

United results and conference call for the year to June 2018

Revenue
United announced record revenue of £590m (only Man City (£503m) have broken thru the £500m barrier but that’s with all the financial doping) . But United’s financial juggernaut is slowing. Only 1.5% rise in revenue compared to 2017. Typically we have seen double figure rises (apart from year we missed out on Europe under LVG).
Broadcast revenue up (£194m to £204m). Match day revenue down slightly (£112m to £110m) due to 5 fewer home games compared to 2017. Hopefully, no ticket price rises. The interesting part is Commercial revenue
nearly the same as last year (£275m versus £276) i.e. no growth. In 2016 to 2017 it only increased 3%.
When you compare the 4th quarter 2018 to the 4th quarter 2017, commercial revenue is actually down 6.5%.
Has the commercial bubble finally burst with all the shite football over the last 5 years?

Dickie Arnold said that some sponsors have not renewed so they have to replace those as well. Although he did say this was a “small” number.

Part of the rationale to hiring Collette Roche as head of operations is to allow Dickie Arnold to focus on the commercial business. That said, since June United have signed deals Kohler, Chivas, and MoPlay. Plus extended deal with Melitta. So maybe there’s an upturn on the way. We’ll see when first quarter results are announced.

United is forecasting revenue next year to be £615m to £630m

Profit
United’s cash profit (‘EBITDA’), which shows how underlying business is functioning, fell to £177m from £202m

Debt
Actual debt is £495m. We are not paying any of the debt off. Only the interest on it each year (£18m in 2018). We have been doing this for years. The club quotes “net debt” in its press release which is misleading because it’s a calculation of ‘actual debt’ minus the ‘cash in the bank’ as at 30 June. This is £495m minus £242m. It’s misleading because cash in the bank at June is high because of season ticket revenue and payments from UEFA. Cash is much lower later in the year. Keep the £495m in mind

The total interest paid on the debt by the United since 2005 is a mind numbing £785m

Wages
Wages bill of £295m is highest in the league (City next at £260m). But wage to revenue ratio still at target 50%

Ed’s Conference Call
Much fuckwittery about social media (“most clicks…..” “fastest growing YouTube channel”…)
Ed says club “aligned with fans to win trophies”
Ed says United expect long-term financial trends are good because of the club’s Over-The-Top media strategy (see latest RN) and the proposed UEFA summer club competition

Glazers’ Financial Rape
Here’s an update and reminder of the money the Glazers have taken out of United since 2005

a. Interest & Fees £785m
b. Debt £495m
c. Dividends £66m
d. Shares Sales £416m
Total £1,762m

[Rustin Cohle]

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/loyal-manchester-united-fans-betrayed-by-glazers-greed-cc5h3czpr

Loyal Manchester United fans betrayed by Glazers’ greed

Even the most faithful are turning against José Mourinho. One Manchester United diehard, with a usually measured perspective acquired from watching them home and away for four decades, confessed yesterday that if anyone around him in the Scoreboard End begins a chant of “Mourinho out” tonight he “will be tempted to join in”. Another bemoaned United becoming “joyless” under Mourinho. Another sighed that “it’s just miserable”.

These are neither tourists, passing through M16, nor newcomers recently succumbed to an obsession with England’s foremost sporting institution. These are neither the easily disgruntled besieging phone-ins nor those habitually quick to ignite social media with inflammatory posts. These are supporters who date their passion, and presence at Old Trafford, back to the 1960s. And that’s why they need heeding should they end their disapproving silence during the Champions League game against Valencia tonight and finally voice discord.

These fans long committed to United confide that they have accepted stoically Mourinho deploying midfielders, such as Ander Herrera and Scott McTominay, in defence in an apparent gesture to Ed Woodward, the club’s executive vice-chairman, that he should have pushed harder for Toby Alderweireld. These hardcore fans stamp their feet in vexation at Mourinho’s shabby man-management of Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial, Paul Pogba, Phil Jones and Eric Bailly, but have still to vent any dissent.

They do not want to cheapen themselves or United’s reputation, becoming like some other clubs, frothing at their managers. They do not want United to become the Chelsea of the north, forever sacking managers.

They are, though, reaching a tipping point, and Mourinho’s negative tactics, agendas and joylessness are the antithesis of what their club traditionally represent. They remember marvelling at George Best and, more recently, Ryan Giggs, and those pictures in their minds remain full of colour whereas now the football is just filmed in monochrome.

Ruefully, they watch rivals Liverpool being galvanised by Jürgen Klopp, who has that charismatic mix of shrewd recruitment, uplifting man-management, belief in youth, and commitment to attack, attack and attack. They see the innovation and inspiration of Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, bringing football from another planet and, again, whisper that in Mourinho they have the wrong man. In dignity, disposition and footballing DNA, Klopp and Guardiola are more suited to United than Mourinho.

While he was winning the League Cup and Europa League, any concerns could be put to one side, and Mourinho came with a swagger they warmed to. Not now. He is losing games and, many believe, the dressing room. They heard yesterday’s provocative comment that some United players “care more than others” and nodded their heads, riled that some don’t play for the shirt, and some would happily sell Pogba, but they are also aware of the damage such a toxic statement can wreak on the dressing room. Careless talk costs support. It’s as though Mourinho, with his destructive tactics and critiques, does not care.

Painfully for them, United are adrift of City, Liverpool and Chelsea, among others, in points and plaudits in the Premier League. Even though Mourinho faces a negotiable week, against a decent but not imposing Valencia side this evening, and then troubled Newcastle United on Saturday, any wins only mask problems. Woodward is so adept at landing sponsorship deals that he could probably find a Far Eastern decorating business to paper over the cracks but the tension remains.

And the cracks run deeper than simply Mourinho’s rifts with certain players. Gary Neville, the type of intelligent, defiant leader that United’s dressing room craves, spoke with typical sense when he tweeted on Sunday: “It’s not the manager, it’s the lack of football leadership above him. They are bouncing all over the place with no plan!”

There is no direction, no vision, no plan. What is the thought process that brought in the likeable but inexperienced — at the top level — David Moyes, then the veteran, methodology-obsessed Louis van Gaal and then the arch-pragmatist Mourinho?

The man in charge, the Glazers’ yes man, Woodward, can nail a noodle deal but not provide any heavyweight footballing guidance or astute succession planning. Woodward is not a football man, he’s a money man, a brilliant one, but United have to tilt back priorities scrambled under the Glazers with their yearning for earning.

Woodward’s predecessor, David Gill, got the balance right and his departure looks ever more damaging by the passing season and closing transfer window. Gill could steer Sir Alex Ferguson when required without alienating him. They worked in tandem. Mourinho and Woodward are not a partnership. A director of football is required partly to compensate for Woodward’s weaknesses in the football realm.

Before considering a new manager, United must first rediscover old values — “values that the club had been built on for 100 years,” Neville says — in deciding what type they want, preferably one with good man-management skills, who won’t throw players under the bus, who gives youngsters a chance and attacks. Woodward, perhaps advised by somebody such as Neville, should establish the criteria before chasing the candidates when Mourinho eventually goes.

Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham Hotspur looks an obvious contender, brimming with positivity on and off the field, but good luck negotiating with Daniel Levy. Pochettino seems settled at Spurs and has still to prove that he can work with the biggest names.

Zinédine Zidane is at ease in stellar company, being one of the game’s greats, and is the bookies’ favourite. Where Zidane would particularly appeal, certainly in contrast with Mourinho, is that he exudes humility and dignity (barring that extraordinary headbutt on Italy’s Marco Materazzi in 2006). After Real Madrid’s three Champions League wins under Zidane it was noticeable how he made sure his players took the limelight, and he almost had to be cajoled into posing with the trophy. As somebody who spent his career in the headlines, the former Ballon d’Or winner was clearly happy for others to be centre stage. He doesn’t demand the spotlight as Mourinho does.

The squad needs almost as much refreshing as the dugout. On being appointed Real coach in succession to Rafa Benítez, Zidane was able to pick such quality as Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Cristiano Ronaldo, Isco, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema for his first game, at home to Deportivo de La Coruña on January 9, 2016. Casemiro was on the bench while Raphaël Varane and James Rodríguez came on. Class everywhere.

Nobody can question that Zidane calmly reorganised Real, and restored their belief after the dysfunctional spell under Benítez, but no one can doubt the luminous nature of the squad he inherited. United’s squad still needs work. Zidane would lift morale, and Pogba and Martial would surely respond with alacrity to the arrival of a compatriot they grew up admiring, but this is about more than the dugout. Mourinho has a myriad faults, but so does the command structure at United, certainly compared with the infrastructure behind Klopp at Liverpool and Guardiola at City. The impression at United is that the only thing behind Mourinho is a giant sales chart and a grinning Woodward.

It is why there is understandable annoyance in Mourinho’s camp that the board did not pursue more fully Ivan Perisic, the Croatia winger who went on to score in the World Cup final, and would have filled a large hole out wide. Perisic would have brought assists, goals and urgency yet, according to sources, was not considered enough of a marquee name, enjoying global appeal, and so driving revenue.

This is the curse of the Glazer era, the shift away from a football focus and more on to marketing, in itself an underlying frustration for those many longstanding United followers whose goodwill and patience is now being tested to breaking point.

[Karma]

This idea that we are different from any other club and we do things differently needs to stop.

The 'brand' has been whored out to every business available to secure funds for their association to the name.

We had no trouble sacking managers in between Busby and Fergie. The club's most successful long standing managers have led us to where we are today.

We became like everyone else once Fergie left, history aside.

We along with Liverpool are the most successful British club. We like them had the misfortune to be taken over by American opportunists. Fortunately for them, theirs were chased out of town. A massive stroke of luck on their part.

[ratbag]

Oct 2, 2018 8:21:26 GMT Karma said:

This idea that we are different from any other club and we do things differently needs to stop.

The 'brand' has been whored out to every business available to secure funds for their association to the name.

We had no trouble sacking managers in between Busby and Fergie. The club's most successful long standing managers have led us to where we are today.

We became like everyone else once Fergie left, history aside.

We along with Liverpool are the most successful British club. We like them had the misfortune to be taken over by American opportunists. Fortunately for them, theirs were chased out of town. A massive stroke of luck on their part.

I think we would like to do things differently...I am talking as a fanbase here...but the incompetence and money-chasing combine to make us no better than the rents when it comes to sacking managers...

I am certain that our fans would love to return to managerial longevity but we are now being driven towards pragmatism and that does not make for stability, particularly as we keep picking the wrong manager...

[Karma]

Oct 2, 2018 11:49:52 GMT ratbag said:

Oct 2, 2018 8:21:26 GMT Karma said:

This idea that we are different from any other club and we do things differently needs to stop.

The 'brand' has been whored out to every business available to secure funds for their association to the name.

We had no trouble sacking managers in between Busby and Fergie. The club's most successful long standing managers have led us to where we are today.

We became like everyone else once Fergie left, history aside.

We along with Liverpool are the most successful British club. We like them had the misfortune to be taken over by American opportunists. Fortunately for them, theirs were chased out of town. A massive stroke of luck on their part.

I think we would like to do things differently...I am talking as a fanbase here...but the incompetence and money-chasing combine to make us no better than the rents when it comes to sacking managers...

I am certain that our fans would love to return to managerial longevity but we are now being driven towards pragmatism and that does not make for stability, particularly as we keep picking the wrong manager...

Managerial longevity is a thing of the past. If you do well you get rewarded with a new contract but that doesn't stop managers wanting  to move on for new challenges/ better offers.

Its the way it is now. Same goes for players! 

[Deleted]

www.theguardian.com/football/2018/oct/04/glazers-manchester-united

Manchester United have been owned by the Glazers for 13 years. No wonder they’re struggling
David Conn
David Conn
The Glazers’ takeover has drained more than £1bn out of United since 2005, not too far off the amount Sheikh Mansour has invested into City

Thu 4 Oct 2018 15.00 BST
Last modified on Thu 4 Oct 2018 19.55 BST

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Manchester United fans, wearing green and gold scarves, protest against the Glazers in January 2010.
Manchester United fans, wearing green and gold scarves, protest against the Glazers in January 2010. Photograph: Julian Finney/Getty Images

At Manchester United, the football club’s multilayered travails, the misery of the manager and the palpable sense of soullessness around Old Trafford are all stark reminders of how quickly the world can change. United won the Premier League with a final farewell to Sir Alex Ferguson as recently as 2013, and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi bought their noisy neighbours only 10 years ago. Yet the long modern era, when United’s conveyor-belt successes were further highlighted by City’s repeated mishaps, is already becoming a little hard to recall.

One United veteran lamented to me this week that City now not only eclipse United so vividly on the field, in the style and brio with which Pep Guardiola’s winning teams are playing, but in all areas. United, owned and financially exploited by the Glazer family, and run by Ed Woodward, the former banker who orchestrated their debt-loading takeover, are floundering. Yet if they have needed a model for how to do things much better after bungling their challenge, albeit fraught, of replacing Ferguson, they can see it across Manchester.
Messi magic and the Aston Villa cabbage quandary – Football Weekly Extra

City, of course, is the far-fetched project of a sheikh from an oil-rich country subject to serious human-rights concerns which has its international image to curate when endeavouring to do the right thing in Manchester by the supporters and deprived neighbourhoods around the club’s stadium. But as is now widely acknowledged, whatever their motivation and soft-power gains, and the strange structure of English football which allows such super-fuelled international funding into the people’s clubs, Mansour’s executives have gone about the project intelligently.

They appointed consultants at the beginning to assess the takeover and the most considered future-shaping of a successful Premier League football club. They, the chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak and his key advisers recognised that a director of football structure was vital, to administer the multimillion pound operation a playing side is, and try to recruit players in a planned way.

They understood that although modern football clubs are branding corporations, for their health they must embrace supporters’ sentimental loyalties. Accepting that a football club is still considered a community centrepiece led them also to accompany the investment with public benefits, the community college and leisure centre built next to the £200m academy, old mills refurbished into good apartments for reasonable (ish) rent in Ancoats, and emphasis on social inclusion projects.
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The academy itself blasted United’s Carrington operation into inferiority, although United have belatedly upped spending on theirs to £24m a year. The Old Trafford club is finally now looking for a head of recruitment-style appointment, which will be aimed at avoiding the personalised process which blew up in José Mourinho’s resentment at Woodward this summer for refusing to sanction signing another centre-half.

City’s supremacy, of course, has been facilitated by the extraordinary £1.3bn Mansour has spent on City since 2008, most of it on paying huge transfer fees and wages for players. But if there is one club besides Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea which cannot validly complain that it has been disadvantaged by this Abu Dhabi investment, it is United. The Glazers’ takeover has in fact drained out of United more than £1bn in interest, costs, fees and dividends since 2005, not too far off the amount Mansour has invested into City.
Avram Glazer (left) and Joel Glazer (centre) talk with Jose Mourinho on the club’s tour of Asia in 2016
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Avram Glazer (left) and Joel Glazer (centre) talk with Jose Mourinho on the club’s tour of Asia in 2016. Photograph: John Peters/Man Utd via Getty Images

United continue to financially serve the Glazers every year. United published their latest accounts last week, with the football world agog at the then-latest episode in the war of the grumps between Mourinho and Paul Pogba, his underperforming stellar player. It showed record income of £590m – still a lot more money than City’s £500m – for the operation of selling strata of sponsorships, which Woodward minted after he moved from the bank JP Morgan to United’s Mayfair office in 2005. The accounts also showed that United’s borrowings remain at £487m from the Glazer takeover, which Woodward was instrumental in structuring with £525m debts loaded on to the club, including £275m high interest “payment in kind” loans.

This debt is more than financially manageable now after Ferguson’s successes saw United through the early Glazer years of eye-watering payments, but the 2017-18 finance costs were still £24m. That could have helped pay for one of the players Woodward refused as short-term fixes on cost grounds.

The six Glazer siblings who collectively own 97% of United’s voting shares were paid approximately $23m (£18m) in dividends, the third year dividends have been paid. The total paid to them and the other financial investors was £22m, following £23m in 2016-17 and £20m the previous year, a total of £65m out of the club. The salary packages paid to directors and senior executives, which includes the six Glazers, was £13m, following £12m in 2016-17 and £11m the year before. A year ago, the Glazers’ holding company, Red Football, sold 4.3m shares in Cayman Islands-registered United, for $17 per share. That is a further $73m (£56m) made by the Glazers from their heavily leveraged acquisition of a football institution.

Pogba, a World Cup winner for France, hankers after the freedom to play with more elan; Mourinho sulks about Pogba, being denied a defender and Woodward not supporting him publicly to assert his managerial authority. These, though, are only the most visible symptoms of a cultural dislocation which radiates from the top in New York and Old Trafford, via the Cayman Islands.
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Oct 2, 2018 7:53:02 GMT Rustin Cohle said:

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/loyal-manchester-united-fans-betrayed-by-glazers-greed-cc5h3czpr

Loyal Manchester United fans betrayed by Glazers’ greed

Even the most faithful are turning against José Mourinho. One Manchester United diehard, with a usually measured perspective acquired from watching them home and away for four decades, confessed yesterday that if anyone around him in the Scoreboard End begins a chant of “Mourinho out” tonight he “will be tempted to join in”. Another bemoaned United becoming “joyless” under Mourinho. Another sighed that “it’s just miserable”.

These are neither tourists, passing through M16, nor newcomers recently succumbed to an obsession with England’s foremost sporting institution. These are neither the easily disgruntled besieging phone-ins nor those habitually quick to ignite social media with inflammatory posts. These are supporters who date their passion, and presence at Old Trafford, back to the 1960s. And that’s why they need heeding should they end their disapproving silence during the Champions League game against Valencia tonight and finally voice discord.

These fans long committed to United confide that they have accepted stoically Mourinho deploying midfielders, such as Ander Herrera and Scott McTominay, in defence in an apparent gesture to Ed Woodward, the club’s executive vice-chairman, that he should have pushed harder for Toby Alderweireld. These hardcore fans stamp their feet in vexation at Mourinho’s shabby man-management of Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial, Paul Pogba, Phil Jones and Eric Bailly, but have still to vent any dissent.

They do not want to cheapen themselves or United’s reputation, becoming like some other clubs, frothing at their managers. They do not want United to become the Chelsea of the north, forever sacking managers.

They are, though, reaching a tipping point, and Mourinho’s negative tactics, agendas and joylessness are the antithesis of what their club traditionally represent. They remember marvelling at George Best and, more recently, Ryan Giggs, and those pictures in their minds remain full of colour whereas now the football is just filmed in monochrome.

Ruefully, they watch rivals Liverpool being galvanised by Jürgen Klopp, who has that charismatic mix of shrewd recruitment, uplifting man-management, belief in youth, and commitment to attack, attack and attack. They see the innovation and inspiration of Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, bringing football from another planet and, again, whisper that in Mourinho they have the wrong man. In dignity, disposition and footballing DNA, Klopp and Guardiola are more suited to United than Mourinho.

While he was winning the League Cup and Europa League, any concerns could be put to one side, and Mourinho came with a swagger they warmed to. Not now. He is losing games and, many believe, the dressing room. They heard yesterday’s provocative comment that some United players “care more than others” and nodded their heads, riled that some don’t play for the shirt, and some would happily sell Pogba, but they are also aware of the damage such a toxic statement can wreak on the dressing room. Careless talk costs support. It’s as though Mourinho, with his destructive tactics and critiques, does not care.

Painfully for them, United are adrift of City, Liverpool and Chelsea, among others, in points and plaudits in the Premier League. Even though Mourinho faces a negotiable week, against a decent but not imposing Valencia side this evening, and then troubled Newcastle United on Saturday, any wins only mask problems. Woodward is so adept at landing sponsorship deals that he could probably find a Far Eastern decorating business to paper over the cracks but the tension remains.

And the cracks run deeper than simply Mourinho’s rifts with certain players. Gary Neville, the type of intelligent, defiant leader that United’s dressing room craves, spoke with typical sense when he tweeted on Sunday: “It’s not the manager, it’s the lack of football leadership above him. They are bouncing all over the place with no plan!”

There is no direction, no vision, no plan. What is the thought process that brought in the likeable but inexperienced — at the top level — David Moyes, then the veteran, methodology-obsessed Louis van Gaal and then the arch-pragmatist Mourinho?

The man in charge, the Glazers’ yes man, Woodward, can nail a noodle deal but not provide any heavyweight footballing guidance or astute succession planning. Woodward is not a football man, he’s a money man, a brilliant one, but United have to tilt back priorities scrambled under the Glazers with their yearning for earning.

Woodward’s predecessor, David Gill, got the balance right and his departure looks ever more damaging by the passing season and closing transfer window. Gill could steer Sir Alex Ferguson when required without alienating him. They worked in tandem. Mourinho and Woodward are not a partnership. A director of football is required partly to compensate for Woodward’s weaknesses in the football realm.

Before considering a new manager, United must first rediscover old values — “values that the club had been built on for 100 years,” Neville says — in deciding what type they want, preferably one with good man-management skills, who won’t throw players under the bus, who gives youngsters a chance and attacks. Woodward, perhaps advised by somebody such as Neville, should establish the criteria before chasing the candidates when Mourinho eventually goes.

Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham Hotspur looks an obvious contender, brimming with positivity on and off the field, but good luck negotiating with Daniel Levy. Pochettino seems settled at Spurs and has still to prove that he can work with the biggest names.

Zinédine Zidane is at ease in stellar company, being one of the game’s greats, and is the bookies’ favourite. Where Zidane would particularly appeal, certainly in contrast with Mourinho, is that he exudes humility and dignity (barring that extraordinary headbutt on Italy’s Marco Materazzi in 2006). After Real Madrid’s three Champions League wins under Zidane it was noticeable how he made sure his players took the limelight, and he almost had to be cajoled into posing with the trophy. As somebody who spent his career in the headlines, the former Ballon d’Or winner was clearly happy for others to be centre stage. He doesn’t demand the spotlight as Mourinho does.

The squad needs almost as much refreshing as the dugout. On being appointed Real coach in succession to Rafa Benítez, Zidane was able to pick such quality as Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Cristiano Ronaldo, Isco, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema for his first game, at home to Deportivo de La Coruña on January 9, 2016. Casemiro was on the bench while Raphaël Varane and James Rodríguez came on. Class everywhere.

Nobody can question that Zidane calmly reorganised Real, and restored their belief after the dysfunctional spell under Benítez, but no one can doubt the luminous nature of the squad he inherited. United’s squad still needs work. Zidane would lift morale, and Pogba and Martial would surely respond with alacrity to the arrival of a compatriot they grew up admiring, but this is about more than the dugout. Mourinho has a myriad faults, but so does the command structure at United, certainly compared with the infrastructure behind Klopp at Liverpool and Guardiola at City. The impression at United is that the only thing behind Mourinho is a giant sales chart and a grinning Woodward.

It is why there is understandable annoyance in Mourinho’s camp that the board did not pursue more fully Ivan Perisic, the Croatia winger who went on to score in the World Cup final, and would have filled a large hole out wide. Perisic would have brought assists, goals and urgency yet, according to sources, was not considered enough of a marquee name, enjoying global appeal, and so driving revenue.

This is the curse of the Glazer era, the shift away from a football focus and more on to marketing, in itself an underlying frustration for those many longstanding United followers whose goodwill and patience is now being tested to breaking point.

I agree with most of that, but that bit about Perisic is why Mourinho as well as Woodward should fuck off.

1 Martial and Rashford have regressed since all of that shit about Perisic and Mourinho is a baby for stropping about it. What message did it send to those players mid season last year and both have massively regressed

2 He got Sanchez anyway and misused him there trying to make him Perisic, or he's just shit now either way what's the problem

3. There are young players like Gomes and Chong that need to be introduced soon in that area. They should be back up to an improving pair like Martial and Rashford not moved further back behind the likes of Sanchez and Perisic

Total fucking confusion from the WRONG, MISERABLE ONE AND THE STUPID ONE. BOTH SHOULD BE FUCKED OFF  

[Rustin Cohle]

Daily Star, make of it what you will:

www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/736192/manchester-united-news-takeover-saudi-arabia-salman-family-malcolm-glazer-billions

Manchester United fans excited club could be sold to one of the world's richest families

MANCHESTER United fans last night blitzed social media sites to welcome claims the club could be sold to one of the world's richest families.

Saudi Arabia's ruling Salmans – who are said to be worth £850bn – are reportedly interested in buying the football giants from existing American owners the Glazers.

According to reports from the Middle East the price would be around £4bn.

The move would form part of the Salmans' plan to diversify Saudi Arabia's future economy away from oil.

They also hope to compete with fellow Gulf states Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as world football powers.

Qatar owns French giants Paris St Germain and is hosting the 2022 World Cup.

Manchester City are owned by Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour.

United have long-term links with Saudi Arabia.

Last year the club agreed a "memorandum of understanding" with the Arab country's General Sports Authority to help a `sustainable and thriving football' sector.

According to United's official website the "strategic partnership" involves "United lending its business and sporting expertise to clubs, sporting authorities and individuals in Saudi Arabia".

"The partnership forms part of Saudi Vision 2030 - the plan to diversify the Saudi economy and to develop its public sectors, announced last year by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman," the website said.

United's group managing director Richard Arnold said at the time: "The club has a long-standing relationship with Saudi Arabia and has over five million passionate fans in the region.

"Our partnership with Saudi Telecom is the longest running of all our commercial partners.

"Having the chance to help shape the football industry in the Kingdom is a great honour and it is something where we believe we can make a big difference.''

GSA chairman Turki Al-Shikh said: "This relationship is part of an exciting programme we are undertaking to transform sport in Saudi Arabia.

"Manchester United has a phenomenal reputation for delivery in these areas.

"We believe their knowledge and experience will be invaluable in making this project successful.''

Earlier this year Saudi Arabia striker Mohammad Al-Sahlawi, 31, was invited to spend three weeks training with United to sharpen his game before the summer World Cup in Russia.

According to web football forums and Twitter the Salmans want to take over the club which has struggled so far this season sitting eighth in the Premier League amid rumours boss Jose Mourinho could be sacked.

One United fan messaged: "I'm hearing #MUFC reps met with Arabs to potentially buy us – could be huge this."

"Saudi rumours are rife,'' wrote another.

A third said: "It’s predictable and logical for Saudi Arabia to have football presentation given the Qatar one in PSG , so if it’s Man Utd time will tell."

"Best thing that could happened to our club if its indeed true. Would make sense to sell no considering they would get abt 4b,'' said another.

United failed to respond to requests for comment.

[Tatty]

Wonder what Fergie, the anti-journo would think of the Saudi's as owners...
























*I'm having a tongue in cheek joke here. Don't lose your shit!

[ScholesEvilTwin]

"According to web football forums and twitter"

So that's Greg the lawyer on Twitter

And web football forums, quoting Greg the lawyer from Twitter.

[Bestie]

Couldn't we just con Putin into believing Ed, Avram, Joel et al are former Soviet sleeper agents or something?