smudgedj
Well-Known Member
They don't need or want the trophies they just want the money. There will be some sad united fans when that dawns on them.
United thread 2013/14
- Thread starter Bewar3them00n
- Start date
- Status
They don't need or want the trophies they just want the money. There will be some sad united fans when that dawns on them.
aguero93:20
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 21 Oct 2013
- Messages
- 90,256
- Location
- Hunting Cats.
- Team supported
- Some gobshites in day-glo green and black.
think I'll get "malcolm glazer, no. 1" on the back of my jersey.
oakiecokie
Well-Known Member
Manchester United: profits before goals
By Simon Kuper and Roger Blitz
Recent setbacks for one of the world’s most famous football clubs reflect the owners’ approach
With a warning that his results “have not lived up to our standards”, the Glazer family lost patience and fired their club’s coach.
The man they sacked on December 30 was Greg Schiano of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, their American gridiron football team. Yet some fans of the Glazers’ other club, Manchester United, want the same fate for their manager too. David Moyes – who succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson last May – has overseen three United losses in seven days, an exit from the FA Cup, and the club has all but forfeited the league title it won 12 times in 21 years.
United’s long English hegemony may well have ended. Moyes has a modest reputation, having never managed a giant club or won a trophy, but the club’s problems go deeper. Sir Alex also bears some blame. But the chief culprits for United’s slide are probably the Glazers themselves. Almost uniquely in football, they run their club as a profit-seeking business. With Sir Alex gone, the family’s pursuit of profits is now likely to impede United’s pursuit of trophies. Private equity-style management has squeezed investment in the UK’s most famous sports club.
The Glazers represent a new kind of football club owner to have emerged in recent years: the profit-driven investor, usually American. There are now six US majority owners of Premier League clubs, including John Henry at Liverpool and Stan Kroenke at Arsenal. They seek to earn money from their clubs rather than winning at all costs. That makes them different from the “sugar daddies” – the sheikhs and oligarchs who treat their clubs as playthings and throw money at them. A conflict between the two kinds of owner now looms.
When Sir Alex retired after a nearly 27-year reign, decline was almost inevitable given his reputation as one of the most admired managers in British business. He proved his worth particularly after 2003. Before then, United’s dominance had been the logical consequence of money. It had the highest revenues in global football from 1997 to 2004. High revenues usually translate into high salaries for players, and the team with the highest wages typically wins the title.
Yet after 2003, rival plutocrats emerged. In that year, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea and began outspending United. Internationally, Real Madrid has topped Deloitte’s “Football Money League” every season since 2005. In 2008 Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi bought Manchester City and began outspending everybody.
By contrast, the new owners of Manchester United completed their £790m leveraged buyout in 2005 intending to earn money. Scarcely anyone in Britain had heard of Malcolm Glazer or his six children before they began buying United shares in 2003. Malcolm, the son of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants to the US, took over the family watchmaking business as a teenager during the second world war. He later expanded into junk bonds, nursing homes and sausage skins. In 1995 he paid $192m for the Buccaneers. His interest in United was driven by his soccer-loving sons: Joel, Bryan and Avram had been season-ticket holders of the Rochester Lancers, a team in upstate New York. By the time Malcolm suffered two strokes in 2006, the sons were running the company. Avram and Joel are now United’s co-chairmen.
They seem always to have envisaged United as a long-term investment. Aware that British football clubs had traditionally kept ticket prices down, and seeing that foreign interest in the Premier League was rising, they bet correctly that revenues would grow – United is now worth at least double what they paid for it. They kept a lid on costs and have since extracted more than £500m in interest, management fees, bank charges and debt repayments to service loans of £525m borrowed to fund the takeover.
In recent seasons, United has had only the third-highest wage bill in England. Still the team kept winning: from 2007 to 2013 they clinched five English titles and reached three Champions League finals, winning one. It was statistically perhaps the club’s best period in history.
If it were possible to copy Sir Alex’s methods, other managers would have done so long ago. Commentators have struggled to identify specific reasons for his success, which is why his new career as a management guru will probably disappoint and why no successor could expect to match him.
Last May he said: “The quality of this league-winning squad, and the balance of ages within it, bodes well for continued success.” It does not look that way now.
Sir Alex constructed a team that peaked in his last season. He sweated United’s assets to the maximum. The £24m he spent on Arsenal’s injury-prone striker Robin van Persie in 2012 had a short-term pay-off: the Dutchman’s brilliant first six months at United sealed Sir Alex’s last title. But now Van Persie is 30 and injured again. Several other players are older.
By Simon Kuper and Roger Blitz
Recent setbacks for one of the world’s most famous football clubs reflect the owners’ approach
With a warning that his results “have not lived up to our standards”, the Glazer family lost patience and fired their club’s coach.
The man they sacked on December 30 was Greg Schiano of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, their American gridiron football team. Yet some fans of the Glazers’ other club, Manchester United, want the same fate for their manager too. David Moyes – who succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson last May – has overseen three United losses in seven days, an exit from the FA Cup, and the club has all but forfeited the league title it won 12 times in 21 years.
United’s long English hegemony may well have ended. Moyes has a modest reputation, having never managed a giant club or won a trophy, but the club’s problems go deeper. Sir Alex also bears some blame. But the chief culprits for United’s slide are probably the Glazers themselves. Almost uniquely in football, they run their club as a profit-seeking business. With Sir Alex gone, the family’s pursuit of profits is now likely to impede United’s pursuit of trophies. Private equity-style management has squeezed investment in the UK’s most famous sports club.
The Glazers represent a new kind of football club owner to have emerged in recent years: the profit-driven investor, usually American. There are now six US majority owners of Premier League clubs, including John Henry at Liverpool and Stan Kroenke at Arsenal. They seek to earn money from their clubs rather than winning at all costs. That makes them different from the “sugar daddies” – the sheikhs and oligarchs who treat their clubs as playthings and throw money at them. A conflict between the two kinds of owner now looms.
When Sir Alex retired after a nearly 27-year reign, decline was almost inevitable given his reputation as one of the most admired managers in British business. He proved his worth particularly after 2003. Before then, United’s dominance had been the logical consequence of money. It had the highest revenues in global football from 1997 to 2004. High revenues usually translate into high salaries for players, and the team with the highest wages typically wins the title.
Yet after 2003, rival plutocrats emerged. In that year, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea and began outspending United. Internationally, Real Madrid has topped Deloitte’s “Football Money League” every season since 2005. In 2008 Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi bought Manchester City and began outspending everybody.
By contrast, the new owners of Manchester United completed their £790m leveraged buyout in 2005 intending to earn money. Scarcely anyone in Britain had heard of Malcolm Glazer or his six children before they began buying United shares in 2003. Malcolm, the son of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants to the US, took over the family watchmaking business as a teenager during the second world war. He later expanded into junk bonds, nursing homes and sausage skins. In 1995 he paid $192m for the Buccaneers. His interest in United was driven by his soccer-loving sons: Joel, Bryan and Avram had been season-ticket holders of the Rochester Lancers, a team in upstate New York. By the time Malcolm suffered two strokes in 2006, the sons were running the company. Avram and Joel are now United’s co-chairmen.
They seem always to have envisaged United as a long-term investment. Aware that British football clubs had traditionally kept ticket prices down, and seeing that foreign interest in the Premier League was rising, they bet correctly that revenues would grow – United is now worth at least double what they paid for it. They kept a lid on costs and have since extracted more than £500m in interest, management fees, bank charges and debt repayments to service loans of £525m borrowed to fund the takeover.
In recent seasons, United has had only the third-highest wage bill in England. Still the team kept winning: from 2007 to 2013 they clinched five English titles and reached three Champions League finals, winning one. It was statistically perhaps the club’s best period in history.
If it were possible to copy Sir Alex’s methods, other managers would have done so long ago. Commentators have struggled to identify specific reasons for his success, which is why his new career as a management guru will probably disappoint and why no successor could expect to match him.
Last May he said: “The quality of this league-winning squad, and the balance of ages within it, bodes well for continued success.” It does not look that way now.
Sir Alex constructed a team that peaked in his last season. He sweated United’s assets to the maximum. The £24m he spent on Arsenal’s injury-prone striker Robin van Persie in 2012 had a short-term pay-off: the Dutchman’s brilliant first six months at United sealed Sir Alex’s last title. But now Van Persie is 30 and injured again. Several other players are older.
kippaxblue76
Well-Known Member
By Stuart Mathieson
Comments
No Pogba deal in January...but United could swoop in summer
14 Jan 2014 22:30
Juventus are not prepared to sell Paul Pogba in January despite listening to United's offer.
Comments
No Pogba deal in January...but United could swoop in summer
14 Jan 2014 22:30
Juventus are not prepared to sell Paul Pogba in January despite listening to United's offer.
oakiecokie
Well-Known Member
kippaxblue76 said:
I can hear a Queen song coming on ... "Another One Bites The Dust"
aguero93:20
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 21 Oct 2013
- Messages
- 90,256
- Location
- Hunting Cats.
- Team supported
- Some gobshites in day-glo green and black.
the offer was probably Anderson and a 50 quid voucher for the megastore, we'll be in for pogba in the summer I reckon, let's see what happens then.kippaxblue76 said:
kippaxblue76
Well-Known Member
aguero93:20 said:
If we are in for Pogba this summer the wheels will be in motion very soon.
manimanc
Well-Known Member
you don`t say..kippaxblue76 said:
well knock me down with a fuckin feather...
- Status