Rescheduled to suit the transgressors: Pre Match PL. Man Utd vs Liverpool. Old Trafford. Thurs 13th May. 20.15hrs

I fully agree Sky were a disgrace not pulling away from Neville who was pushing the most insane reasoning. Then to top of they then let Carragher have his 5 minute soapbox where he came across as a numpty drunkered.

4 Likes

I had a thought today. What if the Government did the unthinkable (and probably illegal) and legislated to force owners to relinquish 51% of their shares to fans.

Whatā€™s to stop the Chinese Government (who have been rumoured to be interested in buying into Liverpool in the past) rocking up and saying ā€˜yeah, weā€™re fans. Look weā€™ve set up a fans group and everything. Hereā€™s the 2 billion quid for our controlling stakeā€™.

4 Likes

Man Utd have spent more money than everyone bar City in the last few years. The Glazers issue isnā€™t spending money, itā€™s being shit at running a football club.

3 Likes

Neville is such a hypocrite as he is the Man City of league 2 with Salford.
He moans when managers are sacked yet has sacked 2 this season. Salford on their 4th manger if you include Scholes temporary stint for a few games.
They even could offer more money to a player (Adam Rooney) to persuade him to leave Europa league football with Aberdeen to drop down to league 2.

9 Likes

Nail on the head. Controlling the media means you can control the narrative. There is a reason why coup attempts target broadcasting centres as well. The same principle applies when you want to ram home a certain point of view and if you control the broadcasting of an event you can absolutely drive public opinion into the direction you want it to go and that is exactly why Neville has been given his platform. Unbiased reporting simply isnā€™t what coverage of the PL is all about and enough people hang on Skyā€™s coverage to make a difference in public opinion there and around the world.

7 Likes

The mainstream media today reporting the storming of OT with some kind of credible debate with headlines describing govt minister acknowledging fansā€™ frustrations.
The truth is that the hardcore NewtownHeath crowd have been against the Glazers for years and this was a glorious opportunity to make a show. The Glazers made manU a global brand, bringing in massive sponnsorship deals and revenue, they are just creaming the benefits of it and have spent on the team when they had to. Most of the manU fans that i know are relatively well to do people who donā€™t really follow the detail, just the results, and were extremely happy up until Fergie retiired to bask in the uppity glory, hardly watching a single minute of football.

Can you imagine the headlines and the narrative if this had been Liverpool fans at Anfield.

4 Likes

One of many potential nightmare scenarios. Pretty sure I posted something very similar a few weeks ago. Somebody has to stump up a LOT of money for change. That person or persons might not be a reasonably OK bunch of American Investors who sometimes fuck it up for purely financial reasons.

Given the choice between being run by FSG or SOS, itā€™s Mickey Mouse, hotdogs and maple syrup with everything for me.

1 Like

I donā€™t know about anybody else, but given Unitedā€™s potential, Iā€™m very happy with their current owners. Run well they would be frightening.

5 Likes

These thugs knew that the ā€˜Munichā€™ gate was easy to open, or get thruā€™ā€¦but MUFC knew about this demo, so why didnā€™t they have security on all entrance areas.

3 Likes

Not sure I agree with this. Just like g+h, they bought the club by loaning itā€™s value against itself. Then, they profited from the clubā€™s exceptional financial position, and whiskynose still winning serial trophies for the club. Iā€™m not sure that they ever invested their own money, like fsg have done for the new main stand and the new Kirkby facility (although they loaned the money to the club without interest). The club earns so much money that they donā€™t need to do that.

By the way, one of the main gripes the fans seem to have with them is not investing a dime into OT, or new training facilities. Iā€™ve never been there, but according to several reports, some parts of OT are apparently falling apart.

They are shite at running a football club, Iā€™ll give you that.

2 Likes

I know 50+1 is lauded as some kind of fix all but perhaps someone with more knowledge of German football can tell me how it works and really how well it works.

From my naive position it looks like the German league is still dominated by the most wealthy clubs. And with one club being head and shoulders above the rest the league is stacked in their favour.

50+1 doesnā€™t seem to have stopped things like Dortmund nearly going to the wall or clubs like Hamburg and Schalke being pretty terribly run and being relegated. It hasnā€™t stopped Bayern dressing up a section of fans as a T-Mobile logo for a bit of extra sponsorship.

What actual influence do the 50+1 have in this arrangement? How integral are they in terms of the positives we hear about German football with things like ticket prices?

Yes the stadiumā€™s in a bad condition and their training facilities look years behind other top clubs. Itā€™s all essentially exactly the same as Ferguson left it - except now itā€™s been rotting away for 15 years.

6 Likes

Report in the Guardianā€¦a quote from one of the protestersā€¦belonged to some kind of supporters groupā€¦said it was a great day yesterday and they got what they wantedā€¦delay or postponement of the gameā€¦one cell short of an ameoba me thinks.

3 Likes

I think your being a bit harsh on ameobasā€™ there mate.

They are clearly several brain cells ahead.

3 Likes

Just a little edit for accuracy.

1 Like

Sorry to all amoebasā€¦ :joy:

7 Likes

Thatā€™s a different issue though.

There are loads of reasons to be annoyed at the Glazers.

  • The leveraged buy out
  • The dividends
  • The ticketing policies
  • The state of Old Trafford

But the amount of money spent on the squad is absolutely not one of them. They have spent a fortune.

A lot of fans have a lot of gripes, some entirely legitimate, but when you see complaints that they havenā€™t invested in the squad itā€™s simply laughable.

Case in point yesterday Sky coverage turned to what Utd need to do to overhaul City and Liverpool. The panelā€™s conclusion, in the context of a couple of weeks in which a spotlight has been shone on the corrosive impact money has had on the game? Buy Kane, Grealish and Sancho. Spend whatever it takes.

Itā€™s absolutely fucking absurd.

12 Likes

Maybe I am wrong but I would have thought it was not at all in Sky Sports interests to drive the ā€œbillionaireā€ owners out of the Premier League. How exactly does that work in their favour?

Surely Billionaires in charge of every club is their ideal scenario with all the best players sucked into the Premier Leagueā€¦I suspect they would not have been happy with Neville and Carragher spouting off.

I think it was just lazy reporting from The Guardian to be honest. The idea that Man Utd fans anger is that they donā€™t spend hundreds of millions on transfers every year is just a misunderstanding of their gripes against the exact issues you highlight above (and the fact that fans are completely left out of decision making processes such as the establishment of the ESL).

1 Like