Since Sir Alex Ferguson stepped away as manager of Manchester United, it is not unfair to say we have more struggled as we lurched from managerial replacement to managerial replacement, and there are plenty of fans who questioned the over all vision of the board as new manager actually seemed to follow the same pattern, or the same ethos, as the man they replaced.
Hopefully, this will all change now following the appointment of Dutch gaffer Erik ten Hag, and given the upheaval and issues (Cristiano Ronaldo anyone?) he had to deal with in his opening season in charge, it appears we have a boss back who is truly the boss and not at the whim of players, and we have all seen the improvements made – even if we have further to go.
In the background though there are understandable concerns about our continued ownership by the Glazers, and few fans have forgiven them for the financial joke of a deal that saw them take us over, without effectively investing or spending a penny of their own – in the eyes of normal fans.
United should never be somebodies play thing or trophy, but that is what we have become for far too many fans. Now fair enough, the Glazers have said they are open to a sale now (presumably having made enough money off us, and they are bored of the protests) but there is an irony in the fact that Tuesday saw a further protest from the fans, which was originally aimed to coincide with the release of our kit for the 2023/24 campaign. But an hour after the protest we released our third quarter forecast results and some would say that was curiously timed.
Not least, as it showed a potential further growth in revenue despite the fact we did not have Champions League riches to count on last season given the previous seasons performance.
There will be those who put two and two together and think our owners are not really interested in a proper sale, especially given takeover talk has rumbled on now for months despite reports of offers being in, but that they want to retain some kind of ownership to continue the deluge of benefit have already taken.
Shareholders rightly should not make money when a company is running a claimed debt in excess of £950 million, of which, more than £160 million is outstanding transfer fee payments yet to be made good on, but is that not the kind of situation where you expect your owners to put money in – as opposed to seemingly just taking it out?
Image from: unsplash.com
