Glazers / Woodward out! (One down)

Stacks

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Some people are very passionately anti-Glazer. That's their right, and I respect their opinion, and I share part of their concerns and opinions as well.

Look, I rated Jadon Sancho, too. I'd be happier too, if we signed him. But it seems like for some reason signing Jadon Sancho this window became almost some sort of litmus test for whether or not the club has any nous in the transfer market and the club's and/or the Glazer's willingness to strengthen the team. And that transfer hasn't come off, so it seems like some people have decided it's a reason to lose all perspective.

I really wanted us to sign Paul Gascoigne. I was crushed when he signed for Tottenham.

Things we didn't do when we didn't get Gascoigne:
  1. Hope for the manager to get sacked
  2. Act like it's the end of the world
  3. Lose all perspective and lapse into conspiracy theories
  4. Hope we lose matches or get relegated to prove a point
Different times I guess.
Excellent post. I mostly agree. I was also disappointed with the poor (lack of) investment following Ronaldo's sale, and the way that the Ferguson/Gill transition was conducted.
I agree too.

Ole is now being implicated unfairly because it suits the Board and this is almost the MOST DANGEROUS cost of this window. Ole led our team over half of last season to the most points in the PL, achieving an almost-unthinkable position of 3rd and CL qualification from 14th place.

Rather than leveraging this promising finish (as Liverpool's owners did by buying VVD and Alisson in the summer of 2018 after Klopp had got the 2017/18 team playing well) the board has acted as they have in EVERY instance post-SAF by underspending once CL qualification is achieved. I would include the underspending pre-SAF too, but we were lucky because of the pre-Glazer purchases of Rooney and Ronaldo and because SAF was a wonder.

At the end of last season I would have thought we needed a CB, a RW and DM most urgently. We haven't achieved any of those goals and therefore have started the season badly AS A DIRECT RESULT OF UNDERSPENDING.

Which do you think is a cheaper strategy for the board - actually invest to go for the title or implicate and fire a manager every 3 seasons at the top4 profit-maximising sweet spot? So, obviously, now will start the idea that Ole is responsible for our troubles caused by underspending. He is not alone in this - while I thought the football under Mourinho and LvG was tumescent and non-United, they too suffered for the board's top4-as-the-only-goal policy.

The Glazers are small-time strip mall owners and lucked into a leveraged buyout of the biggest club in the world so I can't blame them for following their economic incentives. For me, the person who has let us down most is SAF. His is the only voice that could make a difference but he is too used to being part of the establishment, first as a manager and now as a Board member, to raise his voice.

Focusing our ire on Woodward/Judge is useless - they are the messenger. The message is that the Glazers never had enough money to do anything other than a leveraged buyout of Utd in 2005. That event is still the reason why we are at this alien, for the great Manchester United, sorry state in 2020.
Virtually noone singed 100million pound players this window nor spent more than 100million net, bar Chelsea. I wonder why?

Spending is down across the board, most likely due to the effect of uncertainty with fans yet you thought United would be the ONLY ones safe and outspend everyone.
 

Bestietom

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How long more will fans put up with this lot. Glazers and Woodward are killing our club. Pulling the wool over our eyes every year. Not one guaranteed first teamer brought in. All cover players.
 

White Fury

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Im glad more and more people realize that the root of Man Utds rot comes from the Glazers, their right hand man Woodward and his university buddies Judge,Arnold.

Said it before and will say it again, we will never win the League or CL ever again under Glazers/Woodwards regime. Its good thing more people start to see this as well. Doesnt matter which manager we hire or how many players we buy per window it will lead to failure under this structure. Just look at our scatter gun transfers. Every year is the same.

They are thick and dont learn. I think violence is necessary to have those vermins react properly or sell up.
 

MancunianAngels

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You wont be missed. There will be 2 million more fans replacing you.

There is nothing wrong about Saudi Arabia. Whatever accusations you may have of the Saudis, the same can be applied to the British and American Governments. You just chose to believe their spin. Serious crimes committed in Iraq. Basically destroyed an entire nation on the back of lies.

Saudi Money funds the national health service in Britain. No one refuses medical treatment because the NHS gets funds from Saudis.

I don't care if Saudis, Putin or Angela Merkel own Manchester United. I want to support a team that matches the ambitions of the fans and respects its history to compete and win major trophies.

How can you defend the Glazers rubbish show? Since Fergusson left we have never been in a title race. Is that acceptable to you?

Apparently we have spent money like anyone else. That is not the argument. We should be spending more than them because we make more than them. Simple.

Put it this way. Our demise is a direct consequence of the Glazer ownership. In any organisation Woodward would have been sacked already. He won't be sacked here because his job is to preserve dividends for the Glazers and himself.

I wish most of our fans could wake up and smell the coffee. Teams like Everton and Aston Villa are making better transfer decisions than United. And you think that's acceptable.
A point I've made before but back in 98 when Murdoch tried to buy us, there were thousands against it. He would have guaranteed trophies every season and a load of fancy new players but at what cost? Imagine the stain on the clubs reputation when various allegations came out about him?

That battle was for the soul of the club not just about transfers.

The Glazers are horrible but so are the other options really. If you're happy for the club to be used almost as a PR exercise for a state with shall we say slightly dodgy records on human rights then fair play but don't expect everyone to feel the same.

What a horrible situation.
 

Icemav

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Some people are very passionately anti-Glazer. That's their right, and I respect their opinion, and I share part of their concerns and opinions as well.

Look, I rated Jadon Sancho, too. I'd be happier too, if we signed him. But it seems like for some reason signing Jadon Sancho this window became almost some sort of litmus test for whether or not the club has any nous in the transfer market and the club's and/or the Glazer's willingness to strengthen the team. And that transfer hasn't come off, so it seems like some people have decided it's a reason to lose all perspective.

I really wanted us to sign Paul Gascoigne. I was crushed when he signed for Tottenham.

Things we didn't do when we didn't get Gascoigne:
  1. Hope for the manager to get sacked
  2. Act like it's the end of the world
  3. Lose all perspective and lapse into conspiracy theories
  4. Hope we lose matches or get relegated to prove a point
Different times I guess.
Agree.

The major thing is that despite probably the best efforts of the upper management of the club we have been poor for the past 8 seasons and treading water at best. The top brass probably think they have done a great job of steering all matters related to running a plc, and to an extent they are probably correct. Problem is that we underpeform on the football side and they lack the bit of magic to figure out why.
 

Eplel

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Virtually noone singed 100million pound players this window nor spent more than 100million net, bar Chelsea. I wonder why?

Because "they can only dream of the thing we can do in the transfer market".
 

Stacks

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Because "they can only dream of the thing we can do in the transfer market".
Ed is a fool for saying this kind of stuff TBF. Especially when he doesn't back up this claims. He needs to keep quiet and stop the puffery. I don't think we are as flush as people make out. Plus people will try to rinse us like Leicester
 

Crimson King

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I really don't understand how Woodward still has a job. It doesn't matter how many noodle sponsors we sign, he's made us look a laughing stock at board level. Compare this with David Gill, who seemed to just work quietly in the background. I bet most opposition fans didn't even know he existed.

I get the Glazers only care about making money, but a stronger club/'brand' would help that. If anything, just appointing a CEO who wasn't so heavily linked with their aggressive takeover, and who would hire a Director of Football and other people with experience in the game to conduct transfer negotiations, would diffuse a lot of the anger amongst the fan base. I mean surely they'd like to return to the days when we were at least somewhat regularly successful, and they could quietly siphon away money without anyone noticing?

Not that I agree with that at all, I'd still like the feckers to feck off, but the fact they seem almost content with the discontent just baffles me.

It just highlights how disconnected the owners are from the club. And, perhaps more worrying in many ways, it just shows that they're actually terrible businessmen.
 

arthurka

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I really don´t care that much that we didn´t sign Sancho as a deal worth over a 100m shouldn´t be a given to begin with but that said we are again all over the place with no structure buying a 33 year old striker on the last hours of the window and a glaring RW shortage for years and we can´t say that we have added a first team player there. This club is rotten to the core.
 

Icemav

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Ed is a fool for saying this kind of stuff TBF. Especially when he doesn't back up this claims. He needs to keep quiet and stop the puffery. I don't think we are as flush as people make out. Plus people will try to rinse us like Leicester
It was extremely naive and possibly idiotic. United were cannon fodder for clubs and agents after that. Should have said precisely the opposite. Its like walking into a used car lot and announcing you are loaded and are happy to blow a ton of dosh. Moronic.
 

Revan

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It was extremely naive and possibly idiotic. United were cannon fodder for clubs and agents after that. Should have said precisely the opposite. Its like walking into a used car lot and announcing you are loaded and are happy to blow a ton of dosh. Moronic.
People who actually think that clubs increased their price on players cause Ed said that are the real morons.
 

Revan

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Why is it that United consistently break transfer records? Is it poor negotiation? buying from within England etc
Identifying wrong targets. Almost exclusively we go for players from clubs who do not need to sell, and whom are under long contracts. When we actually go for players who do not fall under those categories, we seem to get them on decent prices (like Bruno, Telles, VDB etc).

Of course, it also doesn’t help when we go for players playing in England. Maguire would have been just an okay signing at half his price, AWB would have been a bad one even on free but we spent 130m on them. That is just poor scouting.

I don’t think there is such a thing as us being bad at negotiating (after all the same people do the negotiating for sponsors when we seem to do great). The problem is going for wrong targets, which means we have to overpay. Hopefully this is changing, this season we got all players except the Atalanta winger at very good prices, mostly cause we targeted players at clubs that need to sell.
 

Icemav

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People who actually think that clubs increased their price on players cause Ed said that are the real morons.
Noted. I haven't actually got a clue how the football world really operates behind the scenes and more specifically at United where I engage the most in what they do. However when I see talk of adult Disneyland and bravado about signings and confusion from managers about why they were not asked about their playing vision.... well lets just say I am not particularly impressed. You mention in a post about negotiation skills for sponsorships. Its lucky for Woodward and co that United is one of the top 3 most supported clubs in the world. Fishing with dynamite really. Player acquisitions, divestments and contract extensions surely must take on a slightly different flavor? Probably wrong again but such is life.
 
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Fridge chutney

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You wont be missed. There will be 2 million more fans replacing you.

There is nothing wrong about Saudi Arabia. Whatever accusations you may have of the Saudis, the same can be applied to the British and American Governments. You just chose to believe their spin. Serious crimes committed in Iraq. Basically destroyed an entire nation on the back of lies.

Saudi Money funds the national health service in Britain. No one refuses medical treatment because the NHS gets funds from Saudis.

I don't care if Saudis, Putin or Angela Merkel own Manchester United. I want to support a team that matches the ambitions of the fans and respects its history to compete and win major trophies.

How can you defend the Glazers rubbish show? Since Fergusson left we have never been in a title race. Is that acceptable to you?

Apparently we have spent money like anyone else. That is not the argument. We should be spending more than them because we make more than them. Simple.

Put it this way. Our demise is a direct consequence of the Glazer ownership. In any organisation Woodward would have been sacked already. He won't be sacked here because his job is to preserve dividends for the Glazers and himself.

I wish most of our fans could wake up and smell the coffee. Teams like Everton and Aston Villa are making better transfer decisions than United. And you think that's acceptable.
Your trainwreck of a post is barely worth a response, but I'll leave it at this: not wanting to be owned by a murderous, homophobic and sexist regime is not equivalent to defending the Glazers.
 

Stacks

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Identifying wrong targets. Almost exclusively we go for players from clubs who do not need to sell, and whom are under long contracts. When we actually go for players who do not fall under those categories, we seem to get them on decent prices (like Bruno, Telles, VDB etc).

Of course, it also doesn’t help when we go for players playing in England. Maguire would have been just an okay signing at half his price, AWB would have been a bad one even on free but we spent 130m on them. That is just poor scouting.

I don’t think there is such a thing as us being bad at negotiating (after all the same people do the negotiating for sponsors when we seem to do great). The problem is going for wrong targets, which means we have to overpay. Hopefully this is changing, this season we got all players except the Atalanta winger at very good prices, mostly cause we targeted players at clubs that need to sell.
Agree with all of this. It does kinda link in with trying to show our "financial muscle" by going for stupid targets though. As Neville says, we aren't very smart in the market. Liverpool got Thiago and Jota at good prices. City basically swapped a CB and paid on top.
 

DanClancy

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Arsenal's spending the last 3 year is very similar to what we've spent despite missing out on the CL for the last 4 seasons, that is a disgrace.
 

Stretender

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Your trainwreck of a post is barely worth a response, but I'll leave it at this: not wanting to be owned by a murderous, homophobic and sexist regime is not equivalent to defending the Glazers.
Its only a trainwreck to you though.

You show me a country in the world that is clean we can start the debate.

Until then let's focus on bashing the Glazers and Ole.
 

Tom Van Persie

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I’m not pro-Glazers, I wish we had different (responsible and respectable) ownership or the Glazers would run the club infinitely better. I’m also not really Ole In or Ole Out, I’ve seen some very good things Ole has done and some things that are quite concerning.

There are a couple of narratives that have become dogma on here, that I really wish would be scrutinized more.
  1. "The Glazers are investing in Tampa Bay, and not Manchester United." This is the stupidest one of all. Anyone who understands how the NFL and the salary cap and structure works for the NFL knows that the Glazers are not investing money in the Tampa Bay Bucs and it most certainly is not being siphoned off from Manchester United. If you believe this to be true, I encourage you to talk to any Tampa Bay fan and ask them, “How do you like getting all those players from the Glazers with our money.” They will treat that line of questioning as imbecilic. Want proof, how many Tampa Bay fans have accused the Glazers of investing in United every time United buys a player, instead of their team for the past 15 years? Answer: Not one, because they understand how the NFL salary cap structure works.
  2. "United (The Glazers) only invest in the team when we’re not in the Champions League."
    1. 2015/2016 (Made the Champions League under LvG the year before): We bought Martial, Schneiderlin, Depay, Darmian and Schweinsteiger and got Romero on a free. Many people thought, at the time this was one of our best transfer windows ever. We did sell quite a few players (Di Maria, Chich, RvP, Nani, Jonny Evans, etc). So, from a net spend perspective maybe it wasn't a huge outlay. However, I don’t recall anyone at the time saying that LvG wasn’t backed in the transfer window. People were really happy and optimistic with this window.
    2. 2018/2019 (Made the Champions League under Mourinho the year before): We bought Fred and Dalot, and Lee Grant. This is the one everyone is talking about. But let’s go back and remember this period. Mourinho was already unpopular, and then proceeded to sulk through the Summer, including his surly interviews on the Summer Tour. I remember posting he's done himself no favors with his employers with his interviews criticizing the tour, he also lost his shit about hotel accommodations at one point. His position was tenuous at best, with the club, the players and the fans. The players the media were linking us to, like Jerome Boateng, were horrifying. I contend they stopped backing the manager because of the manager, not because of “we made the Champions League”.
    3. And then there’s this year… everyone can judge that accordingly.
    4. To try to keep a bit of perspective, we were also convinced the board didn't back Fergie in 2003 and it was the end of days. That year we signed Tim Howard, Eric Djemba Djemba, Kleberson ... and one Cristiano Ronaldo.
    5. My point is, this idea that seems to have become dogma around here that “United only invests when we’re out of the Champions League” is flimsy at best, and pretty much untrue. Now, I will say this, it doesn’t apply to Ferguson, because we were always in the Champions League under Fergie although I recall a different, yet equally flimsy variant of this during Fergie's time which was, “We only invest when we lose the league”. Oh, to be able to go back to those heady glory days of tin-foil hat conspiracy theories, eh, chaps? By the way, I think that the "we don't invest as much when we win the league" stuff went back to pre-Glazer ownership.
There are many valid reasons to be dissatisfied with the Club and or the Glazers, like:
  1. The debt, it’s management, and the failure to make more significant strides to decrease the debt
  2. The transfer policy and/or lack of a director of football
  3. The managers we’ve hired
  4. Our wage structure and contract extensions
  5. Lack of investment in the stadium
  6. Failure to engage with supporters

I agree with a few of those strongly, and disagree with a couple. Namely, I’m not a huge proponent of a DoF, and I don’t think it’s the magic bullet that will solve all the issues at the club. Many clubs are successful without a DoF. I’m not opposed to trying a DoF at this point, but my expectations that appointing a DoF will magically fix all of our issues are tempered. I am very passionate though that our wage structure and contract extensions have been horrifying at times, and the club should be rightly damned for those (although we really don’t know how much the managers were responsible, it’s rather mysterious isn’t it?). That’s my biggest grievance with the club.
Good post especially that part about the Buccaneers and how the NFL actually works. I'm a huge NFL and American sports fan in general so reading comments from United fans accusing the Glazers of taking money out of United to invest in the Buccaneers is laughably inaccurate. I've heard fans say they used money from United to sign Brady. :lol:
 

Tom Van Persie

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You wont be missed. There will be 2 million more fans replacing you.

There is nothing wrong about Saudi Arabia. Whatever accusations you may have of the Saudis, the same can be applied to the British and American Governments. You just chose to believe their spin. Serious crimes committed in Iraq. Basically destroyed an entire nation on the back of lies.

Saudi Money funds the national health service in Britain. No one refuses medical treatment because the NHS gets funds from Saudis.

I don't care if Saudis, Putin or Angela Merkel own Manchester United. I want to support a team that matches the ambitions of the fans and respects its history to compete and win major trophies.

How can you defend the Glazers rubbish show? Since Fergusson left we have never been in a title race. Is that acceptable to you?

Apparently we have spent money like anyone else. That is not the argument. We should be spending more than them because we make more than them. Simple.

Put it this way. Our demise is a direct consequence of the Glazer ownership. In any organisation Woodward would have been sacked already. He won't be sacked here because his job is to preserve dividends for the Glazers and himself.

I wish most of our fans could wake up and smell the coffee. Teams like Everton and Aston Villa are making better transfer decisions than United. And you think that's acceptable.
:lol:
 

mazhar13

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There are many valid reasons to be dissatisfied with the Club and or the Glazers, like:
  1. The debt, it’s management, and the failure to make more significant strides to decrease the debt
  2. The transfer policy and/or lack of a director of football
  3. The managers we’ve hired
  4. Our wage structure and contract extensions
  5. Lack of investment in the stadium
  6. Failure to engage with supporters
I liked reading your post overall, and there are a couple of things I wanted to highlighted based on what I quoted above.

First off, our transfer policy and squad management is all on the manager. That's why we've seen different types of players recruited under different managers. The scouting committee offers additional options and recommendations to the manager. Ultimately, however, the manager decides on who they want in the team. They then pass their options and priorities over to our negotiators, who then perform the work in negotiating the transfers. I have several concerns over this approach:
  • Depending on who's managing us, there's potentially no contact between the football personnel and the players we want to recruit
    • Ole takes care of this himself
  • The club does nothing to establish relations with other clubs
    • No clear lines of communication
    • No key United contacts
    • Reliance on third-party negotiators
    • Should the manager pick up this responsibility?
  • We rely more on third-party intermediaries (typically the player's agent(s)) to negotiate on our behalf
    • Building relations with other clubs is difficult
    • Agents can misinform/mislead the club
The other problem that wasn't highlighted here is how the club is losing its qualities that made it a more likeable club. The club's higher-ups aren't interested in establishing or maintaining any sort of culture within the club. When Sir Alex was around, the higher-ups worked to present United as a family club with a friendly atmosphere. We built good relations with not only other teams but also sponsors and staff within the club. We also took care of players and ensured that they were looked after at all times. When Gill left and Woodward came in, this changed. We stopped establishing long-term relations with our sponsors and used our huge profile to extract as much value as possible from sponsors. We've also taken a cold, hard stance with player/manager departures (see Rio, Evra, etc.). The club isn't flexible with players who don't want to stay/have no future in the club, making their departures more difficult (see Smalling, Rojo, Romero, etc.). We also don't do a good job of informing managers when their time's up. All in all, this makes our club look less friendly to both people who work in the club and those outside of the club. Ole's starting to change this, but the fact that it's all tied to the manager is a huge concern. The culture should be established from the very top, not the manager.

TL;DR: our leaders don't run the football club; the manager does. The leaders only get involved in football matters when money is involved. This is where a DoF would help as they'd establish a culture within the club and a more amicable profile to others. Maldini serves this role well at AC Milan; we can do something similar at our club.
 

croadyman

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A point I've made before but back in 98 when Murdoch tried to buy us, there were thousands against it. He would have guaranteed trophies every season and a load of fancy new players but at what cost? Imagine the stain on the clubs reputation when various allegations came out about him?

That battle was for the soul of the club not just about transfers.

The Glazers are horrible but so are the other options really. If you're happy for the club to be used almost as a PR exercise for a state with shall we say slightly dodgy records on human rights then fair play but don't expect everyone to feel the same.

What a horrible situation.
Yeah I mean can anyone name someone that has a spare 5 billion just kicking around doing nothing
 

croadyman

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I really don't understand how Woodward still has a job. It doesn't matter how many noodle sponsors we sign, he's made us look a laughing stock at board level. Compare this with David Gill, who seemed to just work quietly in the background. I bet most opposition fans didn't even know he existed.

I get the Glazers only care about making money, but a stronger club/'brand' would help that. If anything, just appointing a CEO who wasn't so heavily linked with their aggressive takeover, and who would hire a Director of Football and other people with experience in the game to conduct transfer negotiations, would diffuse a lot of the anger amongst the fan base. I mean surely they'd like to return to the days when we were at least somewhat regularly successful, and they could quietly siphon away money without anyone noticing?

Not that I agree with that at all, I'd still like the feckers to feck off, but the fact they seem almost content with the discontent just baffles me.

It just highlights how disconnected the owners are from the club. And, perhaps more worrying in many ways, it just shows that they're actually terrible businessmen.
Unfortunately they were always going to appoint someone who could just be their puppet and take all the anger from the fanbase as well away from them. They don't want a Monchi/Mitchell/Van Der Sar who have experience of the game and understand the negotiation of current player contracts but also transfers of both incoming and outgoing players as well. I really don't know when this is ever going to change and I am sick to death of seeing these ridiculous club briefs about appointing a DOF because lets face it they have no intention of doing it whatsoever.
 

Fridge chutney

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Its only a trainwreck to you though.

You show me a country in the world that is clean we can start the debate.

Until then let's focus on bashing the Glazers and Ole.
There's no debate to be had. I don't want my club being owned by a homophobic, sexist and murderous regime.

As for your last sentence, bash away at the Glazers, but I will never condone bashing a genuinely nice club legend, even if I disagree with the job he's doing.
 

Big Ben Foster

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Since Malcolm was dead, his six children are running this club. Sir Alex or Sir Bobby are not part of the board member.


Richard Neil Arnold482013Group Managing Director & Director
Joel Glazer522012Co-Executive Chairman
Avram A. Glazer582012Executive Co-Chairman
Cliff Baty49-Chief Financial Officer & Director
Edward Gareth Woodward482012Executive Vice Chairman
Bryan G. Glazer552011Director
Kevin E. Glazer57-Director
Edward S. Glazer49-Director
Robert Mark Leitão56-Independent Director
Man Utd Sawhney522012Independent Non-Executive Director

Avram and Joel are directly involve managing with Woodward, Arnold, and Baty. But Bryan is the majority share holder and he didn't interest in football at all.
It's difficult to get rid all of them, but can we kick them out one by one?
Obviously starting with Woodward, then may be someone has to convince Bryan to take his money elsewhere. It will be the chaos in the board and the end of Glazers in this football club.
Sadly, this scheme is only in my fantasy.
"Man Utd Sawhney" :lol:
 

Stretender

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There's no debate to be had. I don't want my club being owned by a homophobic, sexist and murderous regime.

As for your last sentence, bash away at the Glazers, but I will never condone bashing a genuinely nice club legend, even if I disagree with the job he's doing.
It's not your club though. Millions would accept that kind of ownership and like I said , who would notice if you left?

Would anyone care that you have left?

Don't over estimate your importance pal.
 

Icemav

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It's not your club though. Millions would accept that kind of ownership and like I said , who would notice if you left?

Would anyone care that you have left?

Don't over estimate your importance pal.
Getting a bit personal aren't we? Someone preferring us not to be Saudi owned is a fine position to hold.
 

glazed

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This article by Henry Winter in The Times is spot on about the Glazers. Reproduced it in full - fek Murdoch's paywall. It's ostensibly about the new premier league rules but it belongs equally well in this thread...

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a9c03dda-0ca2-11eb-94f0-d7c8706d29dd

Yes, English football needs leaders – but not mercenary opportunists like Joel Glazer and John W Henry

Henry Winter
Chief Football Writer
Monday October 12 2020, 5.00pm, The Times

Yes, Joel Glazer, I saw you. I saw your contempt for English fans. I was there outside the main entrance at JJB Stadium in Wigan on May 11, 2008. I was chatting to Manchester United supporters an hour and 20 minutes before kick-off, genuine football people whose life revolves around this great club you’re privileged to own, proper football souls who care for the greatest game as well as their beloved club. And you swept past, smiling smugly.

Yes, Joel, I saw you, you ambitious ruler of the English game. I saw your bouncers pushing United fans out of the way, your fans. I saw your look, your sense of self-entitlement. I saw how out of touch you were with English football, the passion, the flaws, the glory, and you still are. As now, I saw then that you don’t understand the responsibility of being guardian of Manchester United, the absolute honour, and the opportunity for leadership for club and sport. You’re not fit to spend a second in the distinguished company of Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton, legends who have given so selflessly to club and sport.

We know your game, Joel. Your game is simple, fistfuls of dollars. Fair enough. Money’s your business, turning sport into business, into dollars. Sadly, you don’t have any emotional connection with United. Your game is the Bucs and the bucks.

But hear this: we don’t want Joel Glazer running English football. Fans, government, clubs don’t want the representative of a family who have taken almost £1 billion out of Manchester United deciding who is a fitting owner of another club, deciding how much other clubs should receive in broadcast money, restricting opportunity for those wanting to challenge him and his Gang of Six in this disgraceful, doomed “Project Big Picture”.

Welcome to English football: behind closed shops? No chance. We’ll fight the cabal. We don’t want Joel Glazer, or John W Henry at Liverpool, deciding that two places are to be cut permanently from the vibrant, competitive Premier League, that two places are to be cut permanently from the historic, passionately supported EFL?

Who are the leaders? Not you. “The fact that our two greatest clubs are showing leadership at a time when the game is crying out for it is fantastic,” Rick Parry, chairman of the EFL, told the Daily Telegraph. Parry’s right, the game is crying out for leadership, but not the type of commercial opportunism masked as altruism from Glazer and Henry.

Where have all the real footballing leaders gone? The men and women who thought of the interests of their sport first, themselves second? The people not seduced by the power, the inflating of their egos and, occasionally, bank balances? Where are those like David Dein and David Sheepshanks? Owners and administrators who cared.

Richard Scudamore kept the 20 Premier League owners in a line, which Richard Masters has failed to. Adam Crozier was a leader of the FA, too strong for the internal politics, but an undeniable leader. Ian Watmore walked away from the FA, exasperated by the agendas. English football is too riven with self-interest. Gordon Taylor at the PFA loves the game, genuinely, but fails to lead properly, sadly.

So a message to Glazer and Henry as you try to seize leadership of English football. Some humility, please, some respect for this great game, for this footballing country that nursed into life and codified this wonderful pastime that already provides you with such profits.

Please, some acknowledgment that fortunes, footballing and financial, fluctuate. Special status? How entitled you are. Know your history. Big six? Leicester and Leeds have won the title since Spurs have. Villa have won the European Cup more than City, Arsenal and Spurs. This is not to decry any of those magnificent clubs, simply to apply the big picture.

So, Joel and John, you don’t offer the leadership English football craves, the sense of financial probity and community. They do exist within football. I’d trust Mark and Nicola Palios at Tranmere Rovers and Steve Lansdown at Bristol City to lead the EFL better than Parry. Port Vale’s Carol Shanahan would represent and work better for the EFL than Parry; she cares for her club and community, and runs a hugely successful business.

I’d trust Matthew Benham at Brentford to do a better job with the maths than Parry, who is trying to sell football’s soul for £3.5 million a club. I’d trust Tony Bloom at Brighton to get the figures right without wronging anybody. I’d trust Clive Nates at Lincoln City, Andy Holt at Accrington Stanley and Simon Sadler at Blackpool to be more in tune with balance sheets and fans’ concerns than Parry.

I’d trust Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, Leicester’s owner, and his principled chief executive, Susan Whelan, to run the Premier League with more savvy and empathy than Glazer and Henry. I’d trust Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens at Villa more than Glazer and Henry; they understand dreams, studious investment, striving to challenge the elite, pushing against the door that Glazer and Henry want to close.

I’d trust Andrea Radrizzani at Leeds to do a better job on broadcast rights than Glazer and Henry, sharing the riches around, appreciating the importance of competition. I’d trust Steve Parish at Crystal Palace to do the right thing when it counted, to think of the greater good.

I’d trust Delia Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones as proper stewards of the national game than Parry. They’re not into Norwich City for the possibility of profit; just the opposite, it has cost them. And how the EFL misses a smart mind and big heart like Dean Hoyle, who has stood down at Huddersfield Town. Now there’s a man with a moral compass. His sons worked in the club shop, he broke down with emotion when his beloved Town were promoted at Wembley, and was so concerned about local children that he established breakfast clubs to feed the needy.

So Parry is right: English football does need a reset, but not dictated by those whose start, middle and end is the bottom line. Not Glazer and Henry. English football needs leaders who care for all, but also possess the financial expertise to make the sport a viable business. For years, it has been tottering towards the “cliff-edge” as Parry calls it, and is now teetering.

Proper leaders, those with a real big picture, would have reined in the ludicrous wages, making them more performance-related. Proper leaders would have confronted the unconscionable, extravagant, multi-layered system of paying agents.

This is not a plea to retreat down memory lane, finding sanctuary in the iron-fist Fifties leadership of Alan Hardaker, the Football League secretary who protected convoys on brave Royal Navy duty during the War, who played for Hull, who fought for his sport. It is about tapping into the intellectual property that exists in football, in the minds of Shanahan, Whelan, and the cerebral Palios couple, and working as a collective to sort English football’s myriad ills, to bring the real leadership, not the greed of a Joel Glazer. We know what you’re doing, Joel.
 

Russky14

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This article by Henry Winter in The Times is spot on about the Glazers. Reproduced it in full - fek Murdoch's paywall. It's ostensibly about the new premier league rules but it belongs equally well in this thread...

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a9c03dda-0ca2-11eb-94f0-d7c8706d29dd

Yes, English football needs leaders – but not mercenary opportunists like Joel Glazer and John W Henry

Henry Winter
Chief Football Writer
Monday October 12 2020, 5.00pm, The Times

Yes, Joel Glazer, I saw you. I saw your contempt for English fans. I was there outside the main entrance at JJB Stadium in Wigan on May 11, 2008. I was chatting to Manchester United supporters an hour and 20 minutes before kick-off, genuine football people whose life revolves around this great club you’re privileged to own, proper football souls who care for the greatest game as well as their beloved club. And you swept past, smiling smugly.

Yes, Joel, I saw you, you ambitious ruler of the English game. I saw your bouncers pushing United fans out of the way, your fans. I saw your look, your sense of self-entitlement. I saw how out of touch you were with English football, the passion, the flaws, the glory, and you still are. As now, I saw then that you don’t understand the responsibility of being guardian of Manchester United, the absolute honour, and the opportunity for leadership for club and sport. You’re not fit to spend a second in the distinguished company of Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton, legends who have given so selflessly to club and sport.

We know your game, Joel. Your game is simple, fistfuls of dollars. Fair enough. Money’s your business, turning sport into business, into dollars. Sadly, you don’t have any emotional connection with United. Your game is the Bucs and the bucks.

But hear this: we don’t want Joel Glazer running English football. Fans, government, clubs don’t want the representative of a family who have taken almost £1 billion out of Manchester United deciding who is a fitting owner of another club, deciding how much other clubs should receive in broadcast money, restricting opportunity for those wanting to challenge him and his Gang of Six in this disgraceful, doomed “Project Big Picture”.

Welcome to English football: behind closed shops? No chance. We’ll fight the cabal. We don’t want Joel Glazer, or John W Henry at Liverpool, deciding that two places are to be cut permanently from the vibrant, competitive Premier League, that two places are to be cut permanently from the historic, passionately supported EFL?

Who are the leaders? Not you. “The fact that our two greatest clubs are showing leadership at a time when the game is crying out for it is fantastic,” Rick Parry, chairman of the EFL, told the Daily Telegraph. Parry’s right, the game is crying out for leadership, but not the type of commercial opportunism masked as altruism from Glazer and Henry.

Where have all the real footballing leaders gone? The men and women who thought of the interests of their sport first, themselves second? The people not seduced by the power, the inflating of their egos and, occasionally, bank balances? Where are those like David Dein and David Sheepshanks? Owners and administrators who cared.

Richard Scudamore kept the 20 Premier League owners in a line, which Richard Masters has failed to. Adam Crozier was a leader of the FA, too strong for the internal politics, but an undeniable leader. Ian Watmore walked away from the FA, exasperated by the agendas. English football is too riven with self-interest. Gordon Taylor at the PFA loves the game, genuinely, but fails to lead properly, sadly.

So a message to Glazer and Henry as you try to seize leadership of English football. Some humility, please, some respect for this great game, for this footballing country that nursed into life and codified this wonderful pastime that already provides you with such profits.

Please, some acknowledgment that fortunes, footballing and financial, fluctuate. Special status? How entitled you are. Know your history. Big six? Leicester and Leeds have won the title since Spurs have. Villa have won the European Cup more than City, Arsenal and Spurs. This is not to decry any of those magnificent clubs, simply to apply the big picture.

So, Joel and John, you don’t offer the leadership English football craves, the sense of financial probity and community. They do exist within football. I’d trust Mark and Nicola Palios at Tranmere Rovers and Steve Lansdown at Bristol City to lead the EFL better than Parry. Port Vale’s Carol Shanahan would represent and work better for the EFL than Parry; she cares for her club and community, and runs a hugely successful business.

I’d trust Matthew Benham at Brentford to do a better job with the maths than Parry, who is trying to sell football’s soul for £3.5 million a club. I’d trust Tony Bloom at Brighton to get the figures right without wronging anybody. I’d trust Clive Nates at Lincoln City, Andy Holt at Accrington Stanley and Simon Sadler at Blackpool to be more in tune with balance sheets and fans’ concerns than Parry.

I’d trust Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, Leicester’s owner, and his principled chief executive, Susan Whelan, to run the Premier League with more savvy and empathy than Glazer and Henry. I’d trust Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens at Villa more than Glazer and Henry; they understand dreams, studious investment, striving to challenge the elite, pushing against the door that Glazer and Henry want to close.

I’d trust Andrea Radrizzani at Leeds to do a better job on broadcast rights than Glazer and Henry, sharing the riches around, appreciating the importance of competition. I’d trust Steve Parish at Crystal Palace to do the right thing when it counted, to think of the greater good.

I’d trust Delia Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones as proper stewards of the national game than Parry. They’re not into Norwich City for the possibility of profit; just the opposite, it has cost them. And how the EFL misses a smart mind and big heart like Dean Hoyle, who has stood down at Huddersfield Town. Now there’s a man with a moral compass. His sons worked in the club shop, he broke down with emotion when his beloved Town were promoted at Wembley, and was so concerned about local children that he established breakfast clubs to feed the needy.

So Parry is right: English football does need a reset, but not dictated by those whose start, middle and end is the bottom line. Not Glazer and Henry. English football needs leaders who care for all, but also possess the financial expertise to make the sport a viable business. For years, it has been tottering towards the “cliff-edge” as Parry calls it, and is now teetering.

Proper leaders, those with a real big picture, would have reined in the ludicrous wages, making them more performance-related. Proper leaders would have confronted the unconscionable, extravagant, multi-layered system of paying agents.

This is not a plea to retreat down memory lane, finding sanctuary in the iron-fist Fifties leadership of Alan Hardaker, the Football League secretary who protected convoys on brave Royal Navy duty during the War, who played for Hull, who fought for his sport. It is about tapping into the intellectual property that exists in football, in the minds of Shanahan, Whelan, and the cerebral Palios couple, and working as a collective to sort English football’s myriad ills, to bring the real leadership, not the greed of a Joel Glazer. We know what you’re doing, Joel.
Absolutely concur.

United fans can't stand by this bullcarp the Glazers want more money to leech from our club and our game.
 

Listar

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Aug 3, 2014
Messages
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It is days like this that reminds me if we have competent people running upstairs we will be challenging for the league, and with a few good signings winning it comfortably. We got a good core team and a manager that seems to know what he is doing.

Don't let good results like this obscure the fact that what they did in the summer is unacceptable.
 

Waynne

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Aug 21, 2014
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We just need a team of highly rated football men running the football side of the club with the full backing of the owners and Woodward.

When that happens, I'll be happy knowing that we some direction for the club and will be looking forward to the journey in getting there.

I don't want to bad mouth the owners. All I want from them is to put experts in their respective positions. From there on things will work themselves out.
 

hubbuh

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UK, hun?
It's not your club though. Millions would accept that kind of ownership and like I said , who would notice if you left?

Would anyone care that you have left?

Don't over estimate your importance pal.
This is a really cnuty way of speaking to a fellow United fan.

EDIT. I'd also just like to add that there'd be millions of United fans that would be against the move. You have feck all idea about how the global fanbase would react on the whole so why don't you take it easy in trying to belittle people on a forum.
 

Grande

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The Land of Do-What-You-Will
It is days like this that reminds me if we have competent people running upstairs we will be challenging for the league, and with a few good signings winning it comfortably. We got a good core team and a manager that seems to know what he is doing.

Don't let good results like this obscure the fact that what they did in the summer is unacceptable.
Agreed.
 

RedDevil@84

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Jun 5, 2014
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Typical moneyman. Times the interview or news to come out just after a good result

https://www.manutd.com/en/news/deta...-man-utd-resilience-in-face-of-covid-pandemic

“On the field, we will never be satisfied at Manchester United, unless we are winning trophies,” he said. “But our third-place finish in the Premier League and strong cup runs last season showed that, while there is more hard work ahead and the path is not always smooth, we are making progress. We have a clear strategy under Ole to build a successful, committed team, with a core of homegrown talent blended with high-quality recruits, that plays fast flowing, attacking football.
“To that end, we are pleased with our recent additions to the first-team squad of Donny van de Beek and Alex Telles, two players we had been tracking as part of our recruitment process for a long period, and Edinson Cavani, a top striker who adds a new option to our forward line.

“We also welcome Facundo Pellistri and Amad Diallo, who will join in January, two exciting young prospects who have also been scouted extensively. Added to the arrival of Bruno Fernandes earlier this year, these recruits underscore our continued commitment to strengthening the squad and take our net investment in new players since summer 2019 to over €200m – more, I believe, than any other major European club over that time period.