Since the Glazers bought the club. And subsequently dragged it down to almost relegation level, and almost broke level.
The day they bought us they loaded debt on us, which they have never paid off whilst lining their pockets
Not only that we have had a succession of good managers dragged down by the situation. The league was an impossibility because of poor buys and no continuity. Despite which we have won trophies to show the managers were not clueless.
I don't know how we get out of this mess, they are still here, and have the controlling interest.
I don't believe chemical Jim is the answer, he is a business man and certainly won't want to lose money.
The future looks bleak, the two ways out are to sell to an oil rich state where money is no problem.
Or to hope that we have, or get, a manager who can rise above it all which brings much more income, and Jim keeps his hands out of the money pot.
Twenty years anniversary
posted on 13/5/25
They’ve not invested in the infrastructure of the club or brought it into the 21st century. They have let the club rot and turn into a side likely to be fighting at the bottom of the table
posted on 13/5/25
As owners, they know little about football, and actually running a club.
As mentioned before, they were fortunate to have SAF, who could by the time they came in, manage the club with little interference. An old school type manager but that whole premise was changing when he left. They (understandably??) were underprepared when bringing in a new manager etc - they probably thought, we'll bring in Moyes, he'll just do the same thing hunky-dory.
It probably was mission impossible to take over from SAF, but it was then that the club suffered, in terms of not having the right people between Moyes and the owners to say - ok, things are changing, this is what we need to do and what needs to be in place.
This of course was never addressed, so just a succession of managers and money spent, but not often very wisely, and no long-term thinking / approach. It never really felt that Utd were on their way back. Of course the Utd juggernaut was still giving them money, so maybe little incentive for them to change things.
And we are where we are today. Picking the wrong manager can be 'more acceptable' if the process in doing that is sound - sometimes it just doesn't work out. But the process of how we got rid of ETH was flawed which in effect affected how we got Amorim. It may turn out Amorim is not the right guy, but how much that is affected by when we got him in, it may have made a difference, it may be he turns out never to have been good enough anyway.
I digress slightly, but the Glazers were always ill-equiped to cope post-SAF, and it's pretty much been downhill since, except for the occasional blip.
posted on 13/5/25
comment by Vidicschin (U3584)
posted 13 hours, 10 minutes ago
comment by フレッド - #TWENTYTIMES (U3979)
posted 2 hours, 24 minutes ago
comment by Tyranny of the majority (SE85) (U21241)
posted 1 hour, 9 minutes ago
The club died that day in many ways. Obviously some success followed but it was kicking the can down the road as they never intended to pay off a single penny of the 500m they leveraged against us.
I wish nothing but bad things on that family. If they all dropped dead tomorrow I'd reach for the bubbly.
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Wow. All because they own a football club you like.
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Liverpool fans were exactly the same over Hicks and Gilet. And they did nowhere near as much damage as the Glazers.
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?
The Bank forced the sale as they had no money to pay the debts they ran up. The following year Hicks Sports Group went in to bankruptcy. We were very close to folding if they hadn't been forced out. I don't see the Glazers having done that to you lot.
posted on 13/5/25
comment by The God Fowler (U2538)
posted 31 minutes ago
comment by Vidicschin (U3584)
posted 13 hours, 10 minutes ago
comment by フレッド - #TWENTYTIMES (U3979)
posted 2 hours, 24 minutes ago
comment by Tyranny of the majority (SE85) (U21241)
posted 1 hour, 9 minutes ago
The club died that day in many ways. Obviously some success followed but it was kicking the can down the road as they never intended to pay off a single penny of the 500m they leveraged against us.
I wish nothing but bad things on that family. If they all dropped dead tomorrow I'd reach for the bubbly.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Wow. All because they own a football club you like.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Liverpool fans were exactly the same over Hicks and Gilet. And they did nowhere near as much damage as the Glazers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
?
The Bank forced the sale as they had no money to pay the debts they ran up. The following year Hicks Sports Group went in to bankruptcy. We were very close to folding if they hadn't been forced out. I don't see the Glazers having done that to you lot.
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They didn't leverage debt against your club though did they? You ran that debt up yourselves.
Our situation was totally different. How do you go from debt free to £500m in debt in 24 hours plus massive annual interest payments and dividend payments booked in for the forseeable.
No my friend the Glazers have been far worse unless you don't understand how finances work. No other club in the world could have survived what they did to us which I presume is why they chose us.
I want them all dead and to suffer in the process.
posted on 13/5/25
Mr Jim is their puppet - he literally bailed them out and there is a lot of talk that Joel Glazer is very much obsessed with United and very much involved. The club is in a dire mess tbh.
posted on 13/5/25
I will add a little ps to my post.
I don't wish them harm or dead.
I do wish them gone.
posted on 13/5/25
Liverpool fans were exactly the same over Hicks and Gilet. And they did nowhere near as much damage as the Glazers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
?
The Bank forced the sale as they had no money to pay the debts they ran up. The following year Hicks Sports Group went in to bankruptcy. We were very close to folding if they hadn't been forced out. I don't see the Glazers having done that to you lot.
...............
Your club was not even worth half the debt the Glazers put on United.
In five years, the Glazers took out more than Hicks and Gillett paid for Liverpool, just to put it in perspective for you.
posted on 13/5/25
comment by Ronaldo McDonaldo 2 (U8472)
posted 3 hours, 49 minutes ago
I would like to see some Devil’s Advocate type arguements for them. It doesn’t all have to some hysterical doom and gloom thing. Let me have a go:
They took £1billion out of the club - over 20 years that’s £50million a year, how much would we have paid out to shareholders if we’d remained as a PLC? Also add in all the fees and staff we’d have to pay if we were a PLC then how much would have gone out of the club over 20 years?
They’ve shown no interest in United over those 2 decades - well, if you threaten to murder them in chants then can you blame them for staying away?
They haven’t invested in the club - Maguire, Antony, Di Maria etc etc. we’ve had the big money players come in over the years and a lot of them have not done well here but excelled when they’ve left. Look at Darmian and Mikhataryan both in the Champions League final, McTominay tearing it up in Italy, Elanga, AWB etc. all doing really well for their clubs.
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Hear, Hear.
I am all for having an objective take and you do raise some valid points.
I am a businessman at heart and can't begrudge them for some of the things that they have done. When it comes to actually investing in players, we really can't complain much over the last decade.
The problem is, they know sweet all about this game, and once the great man and Gill left all they cared about was making money whilst the foundations of this club started to decay. They have firmly planted Japanese Knotweed at this great club, which is running rampant.
Ultimately, their ownership, from a performance stance has been nothing short of a dismal failure.
posted on 13/5/25
comment by scholayScholes (U13961)
posted 32 minutes ago
comment by Ronaldo McDonaldo 2 (U8472)
posted 3 hours, 49 minutes ago
I would like to see some Devil’s Advocate type arguements for them. It doesn’t all have to some hysterical doom and gloom thing. Let me have a go:
They took £1billion out of the club - over 20 years that’s £50million a year, how much would we have paid out to shareholders if we’d remained as a PLC? Also add in all the fees and staff we’d have to pay if we were a PLC then how much would have gone out of the club over 20 years?
They’ve shown no interest in United over those 2 decades - well, if you threaten to murder them in chants then can you blame them for staying away?
They haven’t invested in the club - Maguire, Antony, Di Maria etc etc. we’ve had the big money players come in over the years and a lot of them have not done well here but excelled when they’ve left. Look at Darmian and Mikhataryan both in the Champions League final, McTominay tearing it up in Italy, Elanga, AWB etc. all doing really well for their clubs.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hear, Hear.
I am all for having an objective take and you do raise some valid points.
I am a businessman at heart and can't begrudge them for some of the things that they have done. When it comes to actually investing in players, we really can't complain much over the last decade.
The problem is, they know sweet all about this game, and once the great man and Gill left all they cared about was making money whilst the foundations of this club started to decay. They have firmly planted Japanese Knotweed at this great club, which is running rampant.
Ultimately, their ownership, from a performance stance has been nothing short of a dismal failure.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
100% this.
There is really no excuse for the state our squad is currently in, nor how poorly we have done since SAF left. Not in a financial sense anyway. We have spent plenty of money on transfers and wages and should still be competitive in that regards. We have just spent the money on the wrong players.
That said, we have been run poorly from top to bottom, which ultimately falls at the owners' feet.
I should also add that they were our owners during what I would regard our best spell as a club; 2006-2011.
posted on 13/5/25
Our best spell would have still happened even as me as owner. It was down to the already strong foundations in place and SAF. Soon as he and Gill the club has been on a major decline. Relegation really is the final destination. New owners are required not glazer puppets.