Never understood the hate for the Glazers since 2013

ReallyUSA

Full Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2015
Messages
2,989
The consensus is that the team was bought on debt, so they take from the team while other big club owners give to their team to help them go through certain rough points. They've spent money, but that is also due to them making money off the worldwide fandom of United.
 

tjb

Full Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2013
Messages
3,309
I’ve never had an issue, we were a plc and there to be bought, fans could have gotten together in the early 90’s and bought the club but didn’t, so it was always going to happen.
I hate the banks that allowed it though.
Liverpool aren’t exactly loose with their money either, so the money thing means nothing, they spend plenty and the plc was much tighter with the cash.
Problem is they seem to have no real plan post Fergie, other than to trust Fergie’s choice, leave it to Ed, and now with Phelan and Ole they are clearly back to “trust Fergie’s advice”.
Hopefully the advice from Fergie and others in the club is right this time, it certainly does seem more “sustainable”, even if at some point we do change managers, the transfer board system does seem to have built a much better squad that’d suit many managers and shouldn’t need to be ripped up.
Truth is, us becoming a PLC when we did allowed us to be what we are now. The biggest club in the world that can withstand years of not being competitive yet sustaining its value.
 

ravi2

Full Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2012
Messages
9,043
Location
Canada
Probably going to be murdered but I really don’t get it. I agree beforehand when they put the club into debt to purchase us and if it wasn’t for the greatness of SAF we probably would of won feck all during them years.

But since SAF has retired we have spend over 1 billion on transfers and during this time when it got bad all the fans turned on them and Ed. Now I understand Ed getting hated as he is the one negotiating in and outs but I doubt the Glazers even know half the players we bought over the last 7-8 years.

They bought the club(shouldn’t of been allowed put us into debt for it) and too them yes it is a business but they have invested heavily over the last few years not really their fault Ed and our previous bought crap.

Can someone fill me in why you dislike them especially in recent times ?

Something must be seriously wrong with you to post a thread like this.
 

tjb

Full Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2013
Messages
3,309
Well said.

They had to spend. How else were we going to replace Rio, Evra, Vidic, Carrick, Rooney, Giggs, Scholes and Fletcher?

Not like we replaced most of the above players as we been pissing a lot of the money down the drain due to the poor management that the Glazers hired.
That is not a fair statement. At the time, most of us believed that United simply needed a midfielder; in truth we should also have been scouring for winger. In 2012, we did attempt to sign both Hazard and Moura, but both players turned us down. Fergie also tried to start blooding in players like Phil Jones and Smalling...I truly believe he felt they were going to be class, so purposely refrained from making defensive signings. One thing people never factor is that Fergie was never able to develop a centre back in his years at United. We struggled for years to replace Stam. In addition, nobody though Vidic would fall of the way he did in 2014, even after the injury. When he played in 2013, he still seemed to have dominant performances. Evra would have gone on for years if Moyes didn't come in.

The Glazers may have been cheap in the particular year of 2010 when we didn't replace Ronaldo or Tevez, but prior to that, they spent heavily in 08 and 09 and from 2012 onwards. I think people heavily exaggerate the idea of negligence on their part. United have never been spenders on superstar signings; Veron was the exception, not the rule.
 

amolbhatia50k

Sneaky bum time - Vaccination status: dozed off
Joined
Nov 8, 2002
Messages
95,336
Location
india
They could have replaced Ed and hence cannot escape blame.
 

Threesus

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Nov 13, 2020
Messages
728
We will revisit this conversation if results start going south. I would be interested in what you have to say if we miss out on our main targets in the coming transfer windows, if we go another 10-15 years without the PL and the CL. FYI, as it stands currently, we have not won the CL in 13 years and we have not won the PL in 8 years.
 

Escobar

Shameless Musketeer
Joined
Jun 8, 2004
Messages
30,063
Location
La-La-Land
I never liked them for obvious reason. They have damaged the club heavily and their spending (or investment) is zero.
 

Tallis

Full Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2020
Messages
982
There is an analysis which I saw that since the Glazers came over, the net cash outflow from Utd to our shareholders and debtholders is the highest of any club in the EPL. That would make them the worst owners in the league from a financial point of view. All this talk about then expanding our marketing revenue is nonsense - we are one of three most famous clubs in the world and any competent management team would have been able to exploit that opportunity.
But beyond the financial decisions, the football decisions have been horrendous. Like having Ed run the club, basically a football novice.
 

Zlatattack

New Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2017
Messages
7,374
We spent after years of neglect, they were happy to let the squad get worse because Sir Alex could win the league with a box of matches and an elastic band.

We've fallen behind many top clubs in Europe due to a lack of proper footballing direction which has resulted in a haphazard transfer policy and managerial appointments.

It's resulted in us going back to basics by only after a decline that had been occurring after Ronaldo left but only truly became noticeable once David Moyes took charge.
Excellent post. This coupled with the debt they've saddled us with.
 

Steve Bruce

Full Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2008
Messages
1,311
Unless I missed it...

During the 90s into the 00s we heavily invested in Old Trafford & our other facilities. We always looked to set the standards on the pitch & off the pitch. Old Trafford is decaying badly & our facilities are well behind the elite in football.

This lot just look to squeeze United for what we're worth with putting the minimal amount of investment into the infrastructure of our club.

If anyone thinks the Glazers have been anything but bad for this club really need to research & reassess their position.
 

Heardy

Full Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2009
Messages
8,852
Location
Looking for the answers...
They haven’t really “invested” in us though have they? They’ve milked a cash cow and lined their pockets whilst riding the commercial powerhouse wave that fergies success bought.

We’ve bought because we are still very strong commercially but let’s talk about investment when they throw £500m at Old Trafford or whatever it’ll take t make up for the years of neglect.
 

SecondFig

Full Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2008
Messages
6,518
Location
▲ You Are Here
Unless I missed it...

During the 90s into the 00s we heavily invested in Old Trafford & our other facilities. We always looked to set the standards on the pitch & off the pitch. Old Trafford is decaying badly & our facilities are well behind the elite in football.

This lot just look to squeeze United for what we're worth with putting the minimal amount of investment into the infrastructure of our club.

If anyone thinks the Glazers have been anything but bad for this club really need to research & reassess their position.
100% this. It's not just the investment into the first team squad that's an issue, it's their absolute neglect of Old Trafford - a stadium that used to be world class and is now well behind the times. They let our youth system fall apart to a point where ex-players were sending their kids to City because they had a far better infrastructure and set-up - that's starting to improve ever so slightly, but still well behind where we were in the 90s.

Plus, over anything else, they've taken hundreds of millions out of the club. It's not that LUHG fans want a Gulf sugar-daddy to invest billions into the club, it's that we don't want owners to plunge the club into debt while drawing out an absolute fortune.
 

TrustInJanuzaj

'Liverpool are a proper club'
Joined
Mar 26, 2015
Messages
10,665
All I know for certain is they are miles better than the Liverpool owners, who seem to receive praise from all corners despite purely lucking out on Klopp. They aren’t even spending now despite winning the Chanpions League and League title. Can you imagine the uproar if the Glaziers did that?
 

kafta

Perpetual Under 11's Team Player
Joined
Sep 29, 2004
Messages
5,612
Location
Beirut
Every penny spent is income made off of United's name and success. On the other hand, every transfer window we didn't spend, and we allowed our squad to age and lose quality was because we were paying off the glazer's debt, and we are being run by a chairman who is not of a football background, who is not competent in transfer dealings, and who's motives do not match that of the fans to keep the club at the top of world football.

Manchester United is a club with global support and very passionate fans, and our owners should be fans of the club who won't accept the club not being top of the pile.
 

Tallis

Full Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2020
Messages
982
Though I agree and did put it the OP that SAF’s greatness covered up a lot. But doesn’t a lot of that fall on Ed ? Yes they are the one that employs him but even if they said right we want to do this and play this way, It would be up to Ed too make that happen. That is one of the big issues I have with them is Woodward should of been sacked but I guess he is a great marketing tool.
I think you’re listing all of the things they did wrong but somehow you don’t think they should be blamed for it ?

- Putting the club in debt which has constrained our ability to invest in facilities and our players for a decade now.

- Hiring Ed to run the club and sticking with him ? Even though it’s verifiable clear he has no credentials to run a foodball club. Even if they hire a CEO to run the club, as representatives on the board and owners, they have the responsibility to ensure the best for the club.I am sure major purchases and other decisions all need to be vetted by them, as is the case for any listed company. If I buy a hospital and hire a janitor to run it, is it the janitors fault or mine when the hospital folds up ?

BTW this whole notion that Ed is a comercial genius has never made sense to me. He was a banker (so am I). We don’t know anything about comercializing stuff - we are financial people.
 

lysglimt

Full Member
Scout
Joined
Jun 1, 2008
Messages
15,108
I am not going to say I love the Glazers - but the fact is, they could be a lot worse. First of all none of us know how much they interfere with the daily running of the club, but they have over the last 6-7 years let us spend a lot of money. You could argue they are at fault for hiring Woodward, but it's not really their fault that we have wasted so much money on crap in that period.

And as for people complaining about our debt. This was an issue in 2010 when our debt was AWFUL. (£780 million) - but before Corona, our debt was 2/3 of our revenue. However in 2010, the debt was more than twice the revenue. So regardless what people think of the Glazer, today the situation at United is much improved - and we are given a lot of money to spend - so I am not too concerned with the Glazers anymore.
 

jeepers

Full Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2015
Messages
790
Honestly, nobody can say with certainty what the Glazers have done poorly and what they’ve done well.

However, from what we can see and infer, their biggest mistake was to put Ed Woodward at the top of the pyramid.

Woodward has done well IF his KPIs only involved getting sponsorships (aka commercial aspects), but that’s not his main role and responsibility as chief executive of United.

Obviously though, if they’ve had thought things through, they would have already hired a Director of Football by now. I guess things will remain the way they are so long as they remain owners of the club.

Finally, what the actual feck, why has there been so many shite threads made?
 
Last edited:

Judas

Open to offers
Joined
Jun 28, 2010
Messages
35,964
Location
Where the grass is greener.
Utd fans not understanding the hate for Glazers is just baffling really, I admire the balls to even post this thread though.

Any "success" we've had has been despite them, not thanks to them.
 

Drainy

Full Member
Joined
May 5, 2009
Messages
14,721
Location
Dissin' Your Flygirl
They have not been proactive owners. Choosing to wait until problems emerge before attempting to invest.

As others have said, the academy and facilities have fallen behind and needed heavy work to catch back up. The first team squad is also catching up due to poor planning
 

red thru&thru

Full Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2004
Messages
7,657
There's simply not one answer. It's a culmination of things.

Business wise, they have been good. We have been regularly topping the charts of finances since they've been here. And with this pandemic, it really shows how much better we really are compared to the likes of Real and Barca, who have been the other 2 who we've contested against in the financial tables.

However, as for on the bread and butter of the club, the football, we've not been so good. I do blame the Glazers mainly for this. They should have the correct people in the correct places running the club, and they haven't. We might be getting there now but time will tell.

Simply put, the club's mission statement, "is to be the best football club in the world, both on and off the pitch'...and we simply aren't the best on the pitch.
 

Zen86

Full Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2007
Messages
13,871
Location
Sunny Manc
Probably going to be murdered but I really don’t get it. I agree beforehand when they put the club into debt to purchase us and if it wasn’t for the greatness of SAF we probably would of won feck all during them years.

But since SAF has retired we have spend over 1 billion on transfers and during this time when it got bad all the fans turned on them and Ed. Now I understand Ed getting hated as he is the one negotiating in and outs but I doubt the Glazers even know half the players we bought over the last 7-8 years.

They bought the club(shouldn’t of been allowed put us into debt for it) and too them yes it is a business but they have invested heavily over the last few years not really their fault Ed and our previous bought crap.

Can someone fill me in why you dislike them especially in recent times ?
Most fans are fickle, and the mass hate and twitter protests mysteriously only surface when we’re not doing very well.
 

freeurmind

weak willed
Joined
Mar 10, 2017
Messages
5,883
Ah is it that time of year when Ed sends out his minions to do propaganda?

Any opinions that do not hold a negative view of our owners are either stupid or lying and nothing else.
 

united_99

Takes pleasure in other people's pain
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
9,565
All I know for certain is they are miles better than the Liverpool owners, who seem to receive praise from all corners despite purely lucking out on Klopp. They aren’t even spending now despite winning the Chanpions League and League title. Can you imagine the uproar if the Glaziers did that?
They added Jota and Thiago to a squad which won the CL and League in the last 2 years, hardly under investment. Plus this season apart from the oil clubs no one can afford to spend big.
 

Wumminator

The Qatar Pounder
Joined
May 8, 2008
Messages
22,933
Location
Obertans #1 fan.
They’re knobs. They put the club in serious jeopardy and it could have gone horrendously wrong.

However, compared to the alternatives (Liverpool, City, Chelsea, Arsenal) they’re better probably.
They’re certainly better than the Saudis.
 

Hound Dog

Full Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2011
Messages
3,192
Location
Belgrade, Serbia
Supports
Whoever I bet on
We spent after years of neglect, they were happy to let the squad get worse because Sir Alex could win the league with a box of matches and an elastic band.

We've fallen behind many top clubs in Europe due to a lack of proper footballing direction which has resulted in a haphazard transfer policy and managerial appointments.

It's resulted in us going back to basics by only after a decline that had been occurring after Ronaldo left but only truly became noticeable once David Moyes took charge.
This this and a million times this.

They could have invested 2 billion after SAF retired and it would have still been difficult to get things right after so many years of systematic neglect that preceeded his retirement.

Also, United were supposed to be spending the kind of money that Real and Barcelona do if they were ever to become a true European powerhouse.
 

stw2022

New Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2021
Messages
3,687
They remind me of the UK government during a pandemic. Afraid to do anything until it’s too late. Things have
Every penny spent is income made off of United's name and success.
That’s always been the case for this club though.

Pre-Glazers we were a club run by businessmen looking to use the clubs income and success for their own end. Now since the takeover we are a club run by businessmen looking to use the clubs income and success for their own ends.


Nothing really changed. When we were a PLC the board or shareholders weren’t declining dividends. Whether is dividends or share payments or interest payments it makes no difference.

I understand the objection in principle but the idea the Glazer ownership represented a radical change as to how he club was run simply because interest payments replaced dividends, never made any sense to me,
 

Andycoleno9

matchday malcontent
Joined
Mar 4, 2017
Messages
28,576
Location
Croatia
They could be worse. Arsenal owner spends club's money on his football team in USA.

But yeah, they are leechers. Spending our money, put us in dept and are happy with top 4.
 

Counterfactual

Full Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2019
Messages
3,289
Location
Mobil Avenue station
Incompetence of putting Ed in charge of football transfers and keeping him there for so long. How long have we been awful at transfers until Bruno? Overpaying, delaying, missing out? Sheesh. When the fans get annoyed we get palmed off with talk of a DoF, who never appears, and nothing changes.

Neglect by not caring for the club, just their dividends and loan repayments. The culture of winning comes from the top, and the Glazers don't care. Look at what Levy does for Spurs. Does he care? Yes. Do the Glazers care or invest? No.
 

Adam-Utd

Part of first caf team to complete Destiny raid
Joined
Sep 10, 2010
Messages
39,954
The simple fact is they’ve held us back.

they haven’t used any of their own money to help the club, and they take £90 a year to line their own pockets.

we could have easily had sancho this summer if they didn’t take this money for example.

the club could have been so much stronger, we might have 3/4 more league titles and a few extra European trophies.
 
Joined
Oct 12, 2020
Messages
1,424
Brief points.

Martin Edwards was stingy. It was SAF that saved him from criticism.

When the board became a PLC we were still stingy, BUT we spent a lot of money on the club improving the stadium gradually from 40000 to 75000 we also built built Carrington which at the time was the best in the world.

Current problem with the Glazers is because of the debt that they placed on the club and interest payments we can’t invest in players like we have been post SAF and improve the stadium/training ground... it’s really only one or the other.

Ed gets flack but what’s he really done ? He’s overseen our biggest spending sprees, he refused to sign Sancho for £120. A decision that was very wise. Look at Chelsea in the summer they looked like they had done good business, but have they?
 

wolvored

Full Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2016
Messages
9,871
There was a good read about 3-4 years ago about as the Glazers took a billion quid out of Utd the City owners invested a billion and it's only since they took over you could see the slow decline of Utd to the point that on the pitch the youth the stadium even investments are catching up and gradually passing Utd by. It's only the vast mid to older fanbase that's keeping Utd in front. Newer fans especially abroad are more and more following City due to on field success, awhile we have declined. I have tried to find it for a link, but can't remember who wrote it or what it was called
 

Red00012

Full Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2018
Messages
12,087
Probably going to be murdered but I really don’t get it. I agree beforehand when they put the club into debt to purchase us and if it wasn’t for the greatness of SAF we probably would of won feck all during them years.

But since SAF has retired we have spend over 1 billion on transfers and during this time when it got bad all the fans turned on them and Ed. Now I understand Ed getting hated as he is the one negotiating in and outs but I doubt the Glazers even know half the players we bought over the last 7-8 years.

They bought the club(shouldn’t of been allowed put us into debt for it) and too them yes it is a business but they have invested heavily over the last few years not really their fault Ed and our previous bought crap.

Can someone fill me in why you dislike them especially in recent times ?
One billion spent from money that the club earned , not one penny spent from the Glazers pockets. They’ve taken millions out of the club down through the years , they have neglected upgrading Old Trafford , taking dividends out each year while debt remains . Shit manager appointments , shit transfer activity due to an overall short term plan , not appointing a DOF because they think the sun shines out of Ed’s arse from structuring sponsorship deals.

They own Utd for financial reasons not footballing ones , I literally could go on all day why they are a cancer for this club .
 

Zen86

Full Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2007
Messages
13,871
Location
Sunny Manc
Who do people really see as the alternative to the Glazers?

The class of 92 isn’t going to rescue us nor is some good samaritan non-profit outfit. Nobody’s spending billions to buy Manchester United so they can sink hundreds of millions more to upgrade Old Trafford.

We don’t want the Saudis to take over, and if you do you’re a moron. Anyone else and you’re only going to be swapping one set of profit-oriented businessmen for another, and there’s much, much worse out there than what we have now.
 

RashyForPM

New Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2020
Messages
3,183
One billion spent from money that the club earned , not one penny spent from the Glazers pockets. They’ve taken millions out of the club down through the years , they have neglected upgrading Old Trafford , taking dividends out each year while debt remains . Shit manager appointments , shit transfer activity due to an overall short term plan , not appointing a DOF because they think the sun shines out of Ed’s arse from structuring sponsorship deals.

They own Utd for financial reasons not footballing ones , I literally could go on all day why they are a cancer for this club .
There we go. Zero capital, billions of drawings. Disgusting.
 

ivaldo

Mediocre Horse Whisperer, s'up wid chew?
Joined
Nov 15, 2012
Messages
28,699
Football sold it's soul a long time ago. Long gone are the days of successful locals investing a little back into their community. We need to view it through the lens of a multi billion pound industry - because that's exactly what it is. The inconvenient truth is the fans have, in part, facilitated all this. Players are bought and sold as commodities. We all know how utterly absurd it is for a player to cost £150m, yet we want our club to spend that kind of money anyway. The communal aspect of football is dead and buried. It's all about success now at any cost. A large portion of our fans genuinely don't care where the money comes from, as long as we spend it. They would happily accept a Sheikh Mansour, who has far more sinister designs for City than profit, if it meant he pumped money into the club.

The Glazers saw an opportunity and they took it. The fans could've bought shares in the club well before the Glazers did. The initial assessment of many of the doomsayers have since proven to hugely overblown. We aren't crippled by debt. I still believe money was available for Fergie that he didn't spend. If we had won the league for the five years following Fergie's departure then it would all have been forgotten. The Glazers biggest mistake was trusting in Fergie's succession plan. They allowed Moyes to gut the club of everything that made it so successful from the period 30 years. But people don't want to point the football at Fergie because we owe him so much.

I will never like the Glazers, but there are far worse owners out there. It's a pragmatic way of looking at things but there you have it. We'll continue to invest enough money to stay at the top. They'll continue to take money out of the club, and we as a fan base will pretend this is all their fault.
 

dinostar77

Full Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2014
Messages
7,198
I'm sorry but an actual United fan posting anything that even mildly excuses the Glazers just comes across as pure ignorance to me at this point.

The Glazers owning this football club is the worst thing that's happened to the club since Munich (Yes, worse than us being relegated) and they should rightfully be condemned wholeheartedly by all of us until they go or until they miraculously clear the debt and have the footballing operations of the club take precedence over purely squeezing profit out of us year after year (Don't hold your breath on that one :annoyed:)
Totally agree.

They have taken over £1billion out of the club for themselves. City owners have put in over £1 billion in transfers alone since they took charge.

We had a state of the art training ground under fergie. Now City, Spurs etc have better training grounds and facilities.

We had a very good stadium thats been left to rot under their stewardship. Didnt want to expand the stadium as it would hit there dividends for a few seasons. Cant have that. City, Spurs etc have better stadiums than us.

Still took dividends out of the club during the covid crisis.

Refusal to appoint a DoF.

A approach to player negotiations that has been described by other DoF and chairman as ponderously slow and out of date.

Will only spend money of Utd dont make CL qualification if Utd look they they will then the budget is reduced. Has happen every season they have been in charge.

They couldnt give too hoots about Utd winning the league or CL. As long as we qualify wvery season and glazers can continue to take their annual dividends.

Controversially as some journalists insist they wanted fergie out so they could have more control of the club in a day to day basis and when he said he was retiring they did nothing to change his mind into staying on or even try to alleviate his workload.

Put it this way, take away the £474mil of debt and the £1billion taken out of the club and ask yourselves where the club would be now without them ever having taken control. The glazers are the worse thing to happen to this club since Munich disaster.
 

tomaldinho1

Full Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2015
Messages
17,374
It's a tough one and I actually agree because what else did we expect? I think there's a romanticism that still lives on in in football of the Dave Whelan type owner but they don't really exist anymore unless you go into the lower leagues, if you are a big CL club you're either a hobby for some rich oligarch, a sports washing project or just a business, geared to make as much profit as possible for it's owners. We fall into the latter, along with Arsenal, Pool, Newcastle and most PL clubs.

The Glazers' have removed themselves from the day to day, the hiring and firing and (as far as I can tell) anything that goes on at the club. United are portfolio company for them, they care about us but not because they love the club or the history but because we are their investment. Most of our gripes are more with Woodward and the slap dash approach to hiring, particularly managers, that has come after SAF.

Personally, it angers me at how the club is run but this is a bigger issue with sports club ownership/monetization and is ironically much to do with us as fans - the beauty of investing in a big club like United is the massive fan base don't disappear, most stick with the club for life. The Glazers' are just doing what most owners are doing, they just have the biggest cash cow. I guess at least they seem consistently frugal across their franchises, have to feel for Arsenal fans who have the same situation as us with an owner who puts nothing into the club but is building a huge stadium for his NFL club with his own money.
 

Borys

Statistics Wizard
Joined
May 10, 2013
Messages
9,023
Location
Bielsko Biala, Poland
I hold my judgment after this season. We've made big progress last two seasons under Ole, and if we go big in the summer, we have a serious chance to compete for any trophy. Or we could, you know, just go for "substitutes" and end up with players Ole didn't really want but were cheaper. It's a question of what will be the priority, challenging for trophys or business.