Sorry mate, it’s not often I disagree with you, and I’m somewhat swimming against the tide on here, but of course it’s all ultimately the Glazers‘ fault.
They have executive control of the direction and strategy of the club, including the hiring of senior personnel. The buck has to stop with them because they ultimately have the power to do something about it. Yes, they’ve supported the Club in terms of transfers, but the associated poor recruitment ultimately has to rest with them. If they’d recruited the right people (especially in terms of recruitment) had the right structure in place, and had a workable vision for the club, then United wouldn’t be the shambles they are today. All these things were within their gift to address if they’d had the wherewithal.
The money the club has spent since they last won the PL plainly supports the argument that they are terrible owners, not the other way round as others are suggesting, as much as spending £100k on a twenty year old Mondeo with 250,000 miles on the clock does not make you a great used car dealer. It’s actually a preposterous argument to equate profligacy with worthwhile support.
united we’re imperious when they bought the club and now, twenty years later, they are a laughing stock. Who else could or should ultimately carry the can for that reduction during that period?
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.
