At the age of 86, the much vilified United owner Malcolm Glazer has passed away.
The reaction from Manchester United supporters has been considerably unsavoury to say the least. Since the takeover in May 2005, reds everywhere have resented the club being owned by 3 American businessmen who were evidently more absorbed by the share prices and business side of the club as opposed to what the fans wanted. The hate towards the Glazers intensified when it was revealed that most of the capital that was used by the Glazers came in the form of loans which were generally attached to the clubs assets. These were later sold to hedge funds which ultimately put Manchester United in a vast amount of debt.
Here is a summary of how the glazers used their money from May 2005 to May 2014:
– £680m towards interest fees, bank charges and debt. Thats an average of £75.5m every year going towards stuff that doesn’t affect what happens on the pitch at all.
– £382.9m towards players, which is an average of £42.5m every calendar year. This includes two transfer windows.
– 56.31% of the money spent by the Glazer family has gone towards what happens on the pitch.
– Since 2005, only Arsenal have spent less money than Manchester United out of all the teams that competed in the champions league.
In short, the Glazers haven’t been everyones cup of tea and those figures show why. In spite of this, Manchester United’s value and popularity has risen and success on the pitch has certainly been present in the form of 5 Premier league titles and 1 Champions league during the Glazers ownership. So the vengeful and petty reception that the death of Malcolm Glazer has merited seems, to me anyway, as quite upsetting really.
2 replies on “Manchester United owner Malcolm Glazer dies aged 86”
The last sentence of your piece fails to recognise and understand the heartfelt anger of fans who see their club being used as a cash-cow by a family of carpetbaggers from Florida. The Glazers have turned United from being the richest club in the World to the one with the most amount of debt.
Old man Glazer never set foot in Old Trafford – ever. To him it was all about making money out of a successful sporting club, just like his American franchises.
United’s ceo. Woodwood is not a football person, his expertise is in finding more and more ‘commercial partners’, to develop more income streams to service the Glazer debt. As the focus has shifted to making more and more money, the football side has suffered. This suffering was not instant. United had a great manager and a top team and it took time for the Glazer effect to take hold. But now United are in danger of being a ‘top four team’ at best, maybe not even that, regardless of who the manager is. Only Arsenal of the big European clubs have spent less on transfer fees in recent times, and they are hardly a model for success.
United is simply a huge commercial enterprise with barely a heartbeat. The spirit of the club epitomised through the Busby Babes, the Trinity, the Treble winners, the Class of ’92 remains now only in the hearts and minds of the fans.
It’s the fans who keep the spirit of the club alive despite the Glazers. Shed no tear for the passing of a despicable profiteer.
[…] and financial stability remained healthy. A certain section of Manchester United’s fans were highly critical of Malcolm Glazer’s ownership and held protests amidst concerns that he was placing the club at severe financial risk, but […]