Chesterlestreet
Man of the crowd
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2012
- Messages
- 19,530
Yes. There's a tendency to look at the money United have made in the Glazer era and then go "just imagine what we could've spent, who we could've bought, if it weren't for the pesky debt and the greedy leeches grabbing dividends..." but it doesn't work like that, does it?I highly doubt the previous owners would have been able to weather the post-SAF storm and deal with the explosion in the price for playing staff (transfer fees and wages) given their willingness to sell and the need for outside investors.
In addition to what you say there, one could add that the old plc took out sizable dividends too, insisted on a strict turnover-to-spend percentage, told Fergie to sell before he could buy on more than one occasion, and on the whole operated with nothing like a "every penny made goes back into the football club" policy.
We weren't fan owned prior to the arrival of Uncle Malc. Some people seem to have forgotten this.