Two Years With The Glazers …
On this day two years ago, the Glazer family sealed a hostile takeover of United and ushered in a new era of debt-laden leadership at the club.
Any audit of the club over the intervening period must have as its top line: Premiership champions 2007. The red-ribboned trophy makes for the perfect Glazer gift and an irresistible opportunity for club apparatchiks to hit back at the family’s-doubters.
“All the doomsayers who said we would be in trouble have been proved wrong,” exulted Chief Executive David Gill, after United’s title success was confirmed. “They have brought a stability to the club and stability is the key element of any football club.
“They have got involved with areas they think they can add value with and let Alex and the rest of us get on with the football side of it. They are delighted. They’re sports fans and they know what running a sports team is all about.”
Ferguson’s unexpected Premiership triumph has taken much of the heat out of the Glazer critics’ ‘no surrender’ campaign. In many ways, the protest movement required United to remain gripped by crisis to maintain its command of the debate. What can it say now and indeed, how many would listen, when the club sits proudly on top of the domestic pile?
The Glazer family deserves credit for allowing Sir Alex to survive a wobbly three years when the media and the blogosphere was baying for a blood sacrifice. Fans continue to stream through the turnstiles to see players of rare quality perform at the highest level. Reports claim the family might be able to recoup £1 billion if it sold United, a value increase of more than £200 million in just two years. United’s shirt deal with AIG was a £56 million cash bonanza and more gazillions are expected from next season’s television deal. Even the 14% ticket increase has failed to inspire a boycott. On the contrary, United are exploring yet another stadium capacity-increase.
It was never going to be easy for the ‘doomsayers’ to hold an audience with a negative message. Yet their central argument remains compelling - namely, that a gargantuan debt with annual interest alone costing some £50m, will, sooner or later, weaken the club.
Sir Alex expects his principal rivals to improve their playing staff over the summer and wants to compete on equal terms at home and abroad. Nimbly, the Glazer family has slipped out of a commitment to invest an annual £25 million in team strengthening because Sir Alex’s skills made such sums unnecessary. Patrice Evra cost £5.5m. Ji-Sung Park arrived for a modest £4.7m, whilst Serbian defender Nemanja Vidic set the club back by £7m. Michael Carrick’s £18.6 million capture represents the biggest outlay so far. In the meantime, the club sanctioned player sales worth a near £30 million. With hindsight, this looks like good housekeeping and also outrageous fortune. United might not be so lucky again.
The story of Sir Alex’s ‘£50 million summer transfer kitty,’ made for excellent headlines in a week of good news. But it is a well-worn trick, used every transfer window by United’s spin machine. It sets the manager on a mission to improve whilst the team is strong and ensures that the Glazers will be buried if debt repayment priorities tie Ferguson’s hands and cause this year’s title to be seen as a fluke.
That is for another day. For now, the Glazer family celebrates with party hats, strippers, and Viagra rations. The team is a success and the club is stable. There has been no collapse thus far but fans, the guardians of this great institution, remain forever vigilant.
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