Unfortunately, I still disagree.
Could the Glazers have affected some change? Sure. And they have by all accounts attempted to do so. Do they share some of the blame? Of course. Making the club a publicly traded interest alone was a major mistake that they are still struggling to manage now, beyond their extractive practices.
As I said in my OP, they are bad owners, both for the Rags and for the league.
But the main drivers of the truly breathtaking level of shiteness United now embody are beyond them.
There has been politics being played throughout their tenure, including at the executive level within the club, with dealing and rivalries, many of which they have not been able stop.
And the structure of the club itself is dysfunctional and, in some areas, outright toxic. That was the case before they arrived, and to fix that requires a complete restructuring (and rebuilding). Much of the persistence of those situations has been down the supporter pressures not allowing them to actually take steps toward that.
All of that in mind, I have to reiterate my overarching point: new owners are not going to get United back to anywhere near their level when Ferguson was in charge, not in the near term, anyway.
The club needs to be razed to the foundations and rebuilt. And the fans will never allow that.
And Ferguson should carry much of the blame for all of this, as well, as his caring more about his legacy than succession planning planted the seed for the immense dysfunction to come (and his management style had already created a morass in his final years).
To your point of them being clueless, I also disagree. I think they have always known exactly what they were doing. They saw this dysfunction in pre-acquisition discovery. But they also saw the massive opportunity for value extraction. And they executed on a plan for maximum extraction via leveraged buyout and continual debt financing. Eventually, they’ll sell the club once the well runs dry for tidy profit and move on to their next entertainment venture, bank-rolled largely by another bank.
They aren’t clueless, they are just bad football owners based on what football fans want for their clubs.
TL;DR
New owners will not save United.
They would have been better off sticking with MoyesIt’s a sign of how far they’ve fallen that their game-plan away from home is a smash-and-grab. To be fair, they executed it to perfection, until VAR and extra-time kicked them in the nuts.
Completely agree.Our new owners didn’t just come in & spend money, they chose the best executive team, created a culture, set the vision & have delivered. We started n a far lower base than what they did, a base so low that noone believed it was possible achieve.
Completely agree.
And much of that was not possible at United when the Glazers took over, as I have explained in a few posts. And that wasn’t their aim, anyway.
As I have said, our owners had very different aims to the ones the Glazers had when they took over United.
Yep. I edited my post to expand my original response. Though, not fast enough to beat your reply!It was possible but how they viewed future success was different. The Glazers saw the best club in the world & nothing could challenge them & if they do they’ll lobby behind the scenes & weaken them.
Khaldoon et al viewed that football hasn’t explored a fraction of its opportunities & compared to business is run like an amateur organisation.
Yep. I edited my post to expand my original response. Though, not fast enough to beat your reply!
I reckon we generally agree.
I just think people attribute far more power (and intent) to the Glazers to change things then was actually the case when they took over. They saw the club as a cash cow—everything else was run to maintain comercial revenue. They only wanted United to be as successful as necessary to maintain the value extraction, which included appreciation in overall valuation. That was the plan from beginning.
And many let Ferguson off the hook for absolutely fucking the club with his hubris, selfishness, and ineptitude away from the pitch (literally: apart from short term player management and tactics, he was actually very problematic, even when it came to normal duties of a football manager, much less his extra role in influencing management of the club itself). He only ever cared about his control and his legacy, and he made decision after decision to protect that, rather than the club.
And we are seeing the fruits of that labour now.
Plus they had a clean sheet with no baggage. There was no "the City Way" there is no "istory" no knights of the realm stinking the place out. The owners could, and did, start from afresh and create what there is today, and will continue to evolve. This is due to having a management team that has vision and are not hamstrung by "istory". Long may it last.Our new owners didn’t just come in & spend money, they chose the best executive team, created a culture, set the vision & have delivered. We started n a far lower base than what they did, a base so low that noone believed it was possible achieve.
This is beyond hilarious.I'm honestly surprised by how quickly the circus has come to town this year.
"Ten hag is a fucking clown" indeed.