Mancunian Blues
Created | Updated May 26, 2005
A Welcome To Those From Across The Pond
A few issues ago I moaned about the fans of a certain local football club and their rather xenophobic views of others, such as those who hail from Liverpool.
When the newly crowned champions, Chelsea, visited Old Trafford, the fans taunted the visitors' followers about their club being in the hands of a Russian. So it amused me, along with I'm sure quite a number of
other people to see Man U under American ownership.
Apparently, though, according to the signs, United isn't for sale. Well some guy called Malcolm proved otherwise. More than any other sporting club in the world as far as I know, Manchester Untied were
financially secure. They always made a profit, never went into debt. There was one reason for this, it was a PLC.
Its main responsibility was to its shareholders, like all companies on the stock market, as long as it made a profit, the shareholders were fine, so that's what it did. Its success, its name, its fan base that
stretched from Basingstoke to Bangkok, all those its fans have boasted about for the past decade are because it is a PLC.
And ladies and gentlemen, the one thing about PLCs is that they are always for sale. Its capitalism folks!
The previous summer, one of the red's old boys came out on the radio saying how much Wayne Rooney would benefit from a move to Man U. A nice bit of unsettling for his old club, or for the sports agency that has
his statue outside and took over representing young Wayne in rather controversial circumstances.
So fans should have noticed if you wave money and chances of European trophies in the nose of people, they may well join you. It does amuse me that Mr Malcolm Glazer had the same idea.
Aside from Glazer, the other two major shareholders were a Scottish Minor and a company run by two Irish horseracing guys who bought most of their shares seemingly as way to make Sir Alex drop his court case
with them. These men were not fans.
The fans of Man U own around 17% of the club, which lets face it, is not a lot. So it can hardly be called a club of the people.
The reasons they are protesting to me seem rather, well, petty and misguided.
The first one is that he doesn't know much about football. So what? The guy who owns my company does not know too much about patents, the boss of Asda (Associated Dairies) has probably not milked a cow.
The next one is that he will run the team into the ground. Glazer has made a vast amount of money. I do not think he did this by buying big companies and then dismantling them and ruining them. Man U makes its
money by winning stuff. Most of its fans caught onto the Man U thing because they won so much. Sponsors and TV companies pay them loads of money because they win lots of stuff. So it is hardly in Glazer's interest to buy a winning (well, this season excepted) team and
turn them bad. It seriously worries me that the persecution complex that has arisen around Man U fans allows them to actually believe this will happen.
The third reason is obvious; he is American. Well frankly that is offensive. Then again I suppose if they can hate residents of the nearest city to their west with such a passion, then I suppose if you go a bit further west then, the hatred grows?
Well, the first big match of the Glazer era, the FA cup final, must have been a treat for him to watch!
Well, well done to the BBC for its coverage. It amused me greatly when, for the celebrity fans, they chose Rory McGrath for Arsenal and that well known Mancunion, Shane Richey, extolling the virtues of his beloved Man U.
After watching 120 mins of that match, I'm glad that we don't do replays. Another 90 mins of that would have killed me!
The main excitement for me came with our annual competition to guess who ends up with the cup's lid on their head. It was Reyes if you didn't notice.
So that was the start of Malcolm's regime. Not the best start!
Till next time
Love, peace and blues
tjm
