Posts Tagged → David Gill
MUST, David Gills Bullshit and International Support
We’ve all seen David Gills comments during the Football Governance Inquiry and for me they are a disgrace. According to him if you are one of the 167,000 members of MUST your view does not matter or if you are part of IMUSA you view does not matter. Anyone according to him calling for the owners to leave is someone who they will not talk with and to be honest I believe everyone wants them to go, no matter how extreme the view is. Some might want Qatar or they might want the fans to take over but everyone on the planet knows, United would be better without the Glazer. I believe that is a view shared by all, by those who protest or not. Its likely a view even shared by David Gill but due to his massive pay cheque, he refuses to believe it. To me that means its only his and a few Americans view that matters. David Gill thinks YOUR VIEW DOES NOT MATTER. The rest of the information he put out was also mostly lies and bullshit. Andersred has looked at some of the figures he gave out and those were wrong. Gill basically lied to Parliament and told a group of people voted for in a democratic system, their constitutes views don’t matter and they weren’t going to be listened too. That could back fire big time. Gill also said the International support didn’t really care about the issues or didn’t know about them. I don’t agree with that view as some of the followers on twitter hate the glazers more than many of the domestic fans.
MUST today called for International growth in their membership and many people may think, why would you want to do that? The Trust and the movement needs as much support as possible. In its current state everyone needs to step it up a gear and the Trust need to plan to promote its self on a massive scale. I can only do so much so if you haven’t joined The Manchester United Supporters trust do it now. It doesn’t matter if you from Salford or Mexico.
http://action.joinmust.org/index.php/content/splash
I’d also call not just for people to join for free but to put into the Withdrawal Share Capital fund. This is the Phoenix fund which would part fund the fans taking a stake in the club if it ever got to that stage. This goes for existing free members or existing paid members.
http://www.joinmust.org/about/wsc.php
They’ll also be calling on fans to contact their local MP in the coming weeks and push the Football Governance Inquiry to make the change. MUST might not be calling for a boycott or a protest but they’ve got the Government questioning David Gill, who then made abit of fool of himself and the rest of football. This could by May force through the bigger changes, we’ve all been waiting for. Who caused this debate? Our Supporters Trust highlighting the problems.
#LUHG you can follow and question me @wewantglazerout
The FA Doesn’t Have Any Power.
We’ve known for a long time there have been problems in football. To do with debt, ownership and on the first day of the inquest from a man who was the boss of The FA, we now know why. The Premier League works for the interests of its chairmen. It aims to keep them all happy so if David Gill says ‘the glazers own this club you keep it that way’ they’ll do there best to see The FA or anyone else can’t do anything. The FA tried once before and they got scared. Now they do as the EPL tell them. The only action they’ll take is against the odd player, to make it look like they are in charge. In reality if The FA says we want to remove all debt. The EPL will say no you won’t. The FA then goes off and crys in the corner. The FA run English Football, they are the governing body. If they put rules in place for the good of the game, all leagues should accept them. The FA is only worried about England getting banned why because that’s how its board make their cash. Shirts sales, ticket sales. Lets get one thing very very clear. The England Football Team is the last place on Earth that should be treated like Tescos. Its the national team and if takes England getting banned for the board to work this out, that will be good for football. You cannot have a governing body, which works more like a business, than a governing body. The same can be said for Fifa in areas. The FA is their to govern football. It has in the past found out many of the issues the government is discussing but has not been allowed to carry them out. UFEA and Fifa have power, The FA has none. Its why on many an issue the FA doesn’t do anything, that’s also true for matters on the pitch. They should find issues, find the solutions and put in new rules. That is The FA’s job, if it cannot do that, huge changes need to happen. Forced Changes.
The True Story Of United’s Winter Transfers
Your now thinking this is going to be about how Manchester United should have spent big money to compete with other clubs and next your going to think I am going to ramble on about how we should have. Infact this is the true story not only of past transfer windows but future ones to come. It all starts back in the Summer of 2009, when a certain club called Real Madrid decided to to splash the cash. At the very time I was on the other side of the world in San Francisco, so if anyone was unconnected and shocked by that weeks events it was myself. I went off one morning and found a Starbucks with wireless internet, put the BBC news page up and there it was Kaka had just moved to Madrid. Afew days later I woke up with a text message saying ‘Ronaldos been sold to Madrid’. I never get messages about football news stories, so for this to be sent means its big news. At that time I am thinking. ‘We’ve just built a great squad, we’ve been in two champions league finals, so why the hell are we cutting it up’ I was also thinking something else and this has always stuck in my mind. They’ve told all the season ticket holders as a ploy, just days before the renewal deadline ‘Ronaldo would not be sold’, all just to sell season tickets, then just after it our best player & the best player in the World is sold off. So I get back to Manchester afew days later and the world to me has gone totally nuts.
This is where the business side of the story comes in. All the figures given are true straight from United’s official accounts. In June 2009 United sold Ronaldo in a £80m deal. In January 2010 it was also reported United had already been paid £35.9m from AON from the new £80m sponsorship deal. This shows up on past accounts. So those two big payments of money are around £116m. In May United was to have reported £95m in cash in the bank, later on it was £162m, and the latest now is £151m in cash in the bank. At this point everything sounds brilliant £150m in the bank, happy days. The problem is of the £80m in the sponsorship deal United have already received £47m. When you add the Ronaldo money to this that’s £127m of £151m cash in the bank. If you are reading that like I am, without the two AON payments and without Ronaldo money since June 2009 the club has only been able to create extra £24m or £35.8m in cash if you take out 2010s payment. To me that’s pretty worrying. With all the prize money, TV money, extra sponsorship deals and increased ticket prices, it shows there is a very good reason why the club hasn’t seen alot of movement in the transfer market. This is not to say the market isn’t over valued, in areas it is. Some of the figures that have been paid out for certain players by City, Chelsea, Villa and Liverpool have been very silly. The reason Manchester United haven’t been out and got a £20-30m player isn’t because they can’t, its because if they do that money is then gone and to recoup that money could in theory take 12-18 months or longer just to get back £30m. One other area shows that at one stage cash reserves reached £162m but then dropped by £12m, so this shows any budget changes or increased costs within the club could have a big effect. The biggest problem I see is if United went out and spent £115m tomorrow on either the stadium or the team, there is only a £35m gap for the budget to be increased, once over that you need an overdraft or you need to find another source of income quick. Remember this is football and alot can happen in a short space of time. This to me is alot more shocking and alot more worrying than any debt and the problem in part is the debt. If United removed the interest payments that gap goes from £35m to £80m. Now I am pretty sure if that was the case, the club would have more access to the transfer market and there would be more value. The fact is until that £45m interest payment is removed and the Government recommends we get a share in our clubs, we are unlikely to see any increase in transfer spending outside of the Ronaldo money at Manchester United in years to come. When the Ronaldo Money is spent, that’s it, that’s the reason it’s not been touched and it won’t be touched.
Love United Hate Glazer
David Gill – Before 2008 Did He Even Speak?
Just before Ronaldo was sold, the only stories about signings from David Gill was ‘we won’t sell Ronaldo’. What did they do, they sold him. Now I’d say at least once a month, maybe more we have the Manchester United Chief Executive commenting on how we can still afford big names but there IS ALWAYS A TWIST. This time the excuse is ‘we are hoping the youth team produces the next big thing’. No one is saying the youth squad can’t produce great players but why is he saying we can compete but then start to make an excuse why we haven’t or won’t spend?
Manchester United have always invested in top young players who have made their mark at other clubs. Am sorry but Darren Gibson is no Roy Keane. Obertan is no Ryan Giggs. Roy Keane was destroying teams as soon as he walked into the side at the age of 21. Gibson is 23, doesn’t seem to be moving forward and still watches the game. Obertan still has a chance but he needs to take it. He’s in his second full season now and needs to impress sooner rather than later. Giggs at his age had played around 100 games and scored 28 goals in the league alone. In the past 10-15 years when a top player has been coming to the end we have always gone out and found gems. Some have been record breakers and expensive but others haven’t. Its not a pop of Gibson or Obertan its a pop at David Gill because we have two other players in the 1st team who remind me of a younger Keane and Giggs. Rafael and Hernandez. Both have been given a chance and now I’d rate them against any other players in the same positions in the league. To me Rafael while young and sometimes seen as reckless, has that never say die attitude. The same is true with Hernandez. The energy, skill, pace and attitude of both show these players are out there, David Gill just needs to pull his figure out of Glazers arse. If there is a young 19-21 year old somewhere in England or Europe who matches their attitude, go and sign him up. Am talking about a quality midfielder. He doesn’t even have to be young. He could be 24 or 25 but a player who can come in and perform. If he costs £3m or £20m, doesn’t matter. Using excuses like their is no value or we’ll use the youth team, while telling me and you, ‘we can sign megastars’ does not quiet wash with me and I don’t buy it. Don’t talk to me about paying £45m a year to insurance companies over some bonds, with £150m sat in the bank and then talk about ‘we can buy £40m players but instead we’ll use the youth team’. Making out as if your going to spend big but never do, is a horrible trick to spilt the support. Its awful tactics. If your not going to sign anyone as you’ve clearly made out, why bother telling the fans there is £100-£150m sat in the bank? If the stadium won’t be expanded and they won’t invest in the team, the only business plan on offer is to try and pay the debt off. They clearly aren’t going to drop Old Trafford ticket prices, so what he’s getting at about signing big names etc makes no sense. He doesn’t say anything important for many years, now he can’t keep it shut.
Football Ownership The Dos and Don’ts
In the last year alot has been said about football ownership but there are still afew totally clueless people who write things they have no knowledge about. Cue Louise Taylor of the Guardian I don’t often get offended but this does offend me. There are certain areas which have been discussed over the last year and most people understand what would and wouldn’t happen. Thinking ‘all clubs’ under supporter football ownership schemes would have all their fans vote online for the first 11 every time they play, means you really don’t have a clue. Ebbsfleet are the worst example of football ownership going and its not slightly comparable with the examples myself and many 100,000s of others would accept. Thinking Manchester United would be taken over by the fans and then the fans would vote online to pick the team is so off the mark you’d have to live on mars to think that’s what me, other football supporters or the Manchester United Supporters Trust would want! To show anyone who doesn’t understand what could happen heres what wouldn’t and would happen.
A takeover of Manchester United by the fans WOULD NEVER see!
- Any online voting system.
- Fans voting on the 11 players that play each game.
- Fans choosing the manager.
- A vote on future signings.
- The fans being able to sack the manager.
A take over of Manchester United by the fans WOULD SEE.
- A board of directors as any other football club.
- The only voting would be for the people who make up the members of the board.
- The members of the board would have the interest of the fans and the club at heart.
- The board of directors would make footballing and club decisions like any other club.
- The board of directors would be forced to follow certain rules after a takeover. Examples – The club cannot be put up for sale. Debt cannot be put on the club. The stadium and training grounds cannot be sold. Tickets prices are to be recommend under deals between the club and IMUSA. IMUSA, MUST and other fan groups are to have official links to the club, these cannot be broken (as Glazer did back in 2005).
- The board would give the manager a set transfer budget. Example – Any mega expensive signings would as with ANY club be considered by both parties. David Gill, the Glazers and the Manchester Board still have to consider everyone who the manager signs. Finances are important.
- The board can be asked to starting to consider other issues such as safe standing, away ticket allocations, final allocations, sponsorship ticket levels, ticket prices and future expansion of the stadium through fan groups such as IMUSA and MUST.
The fans want what is in the interests of Manchester United Football Club but the club also has the interests of the fans. Its a two way street and currently its mostly a one way street. Most fans would agree many areas of ticketing for games away from Old Trafford are poor. This is one area the club can its self campaign but currently does naff all. From the facts above its clear the Spanish, German and FC United routes of football ownership are the correct ways to go BUT every club and its fans, have different issues they want to address. Certain people thinking we as fans plan to vote on the team or have a voting system in place to sack the manager need a reality check. We want the manager to have freedom, the team to have support, the club to be free of debt, the club to be stable and have the fans interests in its mind.
The Glazers Don’t Do Public Until Now!
One thing every Manchester United fan will know is the Glazers don’t do publicity. That is until now. The problems this time aren’t coming from Manchester, this time its from on the other side of the pond in Tampa Bay. In the States they are more public than here but when I say more public, this is the first time this season (its ended already) the Glazers have spoken to the press and the fans publicly. There is the odd comment from behind closed doors or at private NFL events but hardly any direct speeches or interviews to the press or the fans. Bryan Glazer said… Many teams ”are happy we’re not in the playoffs because we could have done some damage,” but Bryan your not in the playoffs, you didn’t get any games on tv and you didn’t sell out once. On top of that your fans think your running the team and many of them are worried about it being sold to Eddie Debartalo. Many other NFL fans want the Glazers to sell up.
Bryan Glazer is treating the Bucs much like Chelsea or Manchester City. Over hyping what is slowly becoming below average. The Glazers have big enough problems, that they have to hype up the team publicly and for them to go that far it must be bad. With Manchester United they know this is off limits because they’ll get buried into the ground. David Gill is no longer seen by many people as more than a puppet, its hard to take him seriously unless you have the brain of a City fan. Only a fool says ‘wait and see’. This can apply to the Bucs plan of spending fuck all or Uniteds plan of we have £100m in the bank for players, but we’re not touching it via the managers ‘theres no value’ comments. Bryan would be seen like that before he opened his mouth. In America from the comments I’ve seen, Bryan Glazer could very well be their David Gill. A pointless PR spin machine, picked up by most who read the headline before they read the quotes.
The Glazers World and Everyone Else
You’d think after 5 years the Glazers would start to learn. Its not only at Manchester United but in their other assets where they have a strange way of doing things. They’ve only just started to treat their Tampa fans in the way they’ve treated Manchester United and they are starting to suffer big time. TV Blackouts, low attendances, the fans wanting to know what’s going on and do the Glazers say anything or does anyone in the NFL speak out out? No. From winning the Super Bowl and being one of the leagues most valuable clubs they now aren’t even in the top ten of NFL teams. You could say they’ve gone from being Arsenal or Chelsea of the NFL world to being the current Blackburn Rovers. So no wonder their fans are complaining and this mainly comes from lack of investment. Where have we heard that before? They’ve stopped investing in Tampa Bay once it was successful and the did the same thing once Manchester United won the Champions League. You could say Tampa Bay are what Manchester United could become in 3 to 4 seasons time. Being on TV less, less successful on the pitch, less fans buying tickets and less investment in the team. All 4 can be said to be happening at both teams now. That’s very worrying.
The problem I see is how can two very pubic and well known sporting teams be so quiet. The media and the fans want answers and it doesn’t matter what David Gill or anyone else says. If they keep treating the fans and the club like they are, they won’t get anywhere. They don’t talk to the fans and that’s one of their biggest problems. They have no respect for anyone. They aren’t very clever at PR either. They use CES in the ground, then try and keep any Green and Gold off the MUFC website but produce headlines like this “So how did the Glazers raise the money to pay off a £220m loan?” Then get David Gill to come out after every big story. Hes become that crap with his stories the English Media seemed to have totally ignored him. What PR they had left to anyone with a brain has gone. If you think this debt has been paid off and its a done deal, end of story, No more debt. Seriously go and see a head doctor. If they had used their own cash, they would have got it over every back page newspaper for a week.
Stories Of The Week….
So far this week I’ve nearly seen it all, apart from Glazer leaving. Abit of FC United, Manchester United, Liverpools new American owners(where I think they are going) and one or two other pieces. I think I’ll start with last nights Rochdale Vs FC United Game for starters. I think all United fans will relate to this in some way or another. Am not saying your a fan(I am not myself, MUFC for me), but alot I’ve spoken too find it very interesting. Even the die hard reds. Unless you’ve been living under a rock or live on the other side of the world, which is possible if you’ve come from twitter. FC United have made it into the second round of the FA Cup, which to me is unbelievable. They won 3-2 with a injury time goal.
Here is a quote from me…. “I know its asking for alot and most FC United fans will say it won’t happen for many years, if ever but at this moment in time there is that tiny chance. Maths says a 1st round win, then a 2nd round win into a draw with Premier League sides.” …. lets change that to, 2nd round win into a draw with Premier League sides. I’ll leave it at that.
From my last review of Manchester United I’d say its been a slow start but we’re not losing which is always important. I might be the first to say this but could United be running into a small bit of form. Since the shocking second half against West Brom, United have won 5 on the bounce. Won 3 cup games and 2 League games. The game in Turkey the other night was the most impressive so far. I only say the start of form because they need to prove in the league they can do well in the next few games. These include Wolves tomorrow, which from fans I’ve spoken to no expect less than 3 goals from the strike force. The big one is City away. With City losing 3 on the bounce, am hoping we can get a good win today, then go and put a proper show of football on midweek.
One other interesting thing which is floating around is over in Anfield. You’ll likely want to hear something else but considering that another group of Americans have took over an English club. Its relevant when looking at owners as a whole. This time the Americans seem to be increasingly open talk to the press. I get the feeling they don’t really know what they are doing and in areas they’ve admitted that. This gives me a real insight into the people in the game. They’ve just got a new manager and now new owners. Dan Roan from the BBC asked them alot of questions yesterday. The ones that stood out to me were the 39th game question and language used. The term ‘EPL’ like ‘NFL’ was used alot. Later on there were other questions asked around the club its self. All I heard was ‘we want to increase revenues’. Where have we heard that before! The Glazers? Tom Hicks? Anyone. It basically means putting ticket prices up and selling more shirts. On the new stadium, I believe there is a strong possibility of a future ground share. Liverpool fans don’t want it? Tough. You wanted more American owners. You got em and if the Everton Kirby stadium was only going to cost around £78m for a 50k stadium as part of a larger £240m development, the new Americans will bite Evertons hands off. If they can half the cost with Everton, instead of spending a risky £300m development, they can spend possibly less than 1/3 of that and get the extra 10,000-30,000 seats they wanted to milk more cows. These Americans aren’t stupid and will milk them, like they are milking United. Theres one other thing, if your a Liverpool fan reading this (I don’t know why you would be reading this) at home feeling all happy about no more debt. First thing I’d be doing is digging to find out just where that money came from to buy the club. All of that will come clear over the next year or so, apart from the ticket prices. Yep, they’ll be going up.
One week ago we had the ‘United Against Glazer’ protest, an important article involving Jeremy Hunt midweek but I’ve also had one or two other interesting things come up. I won’t make them public just yet but they’ll come out during the week, so keep an eye out. Might not be big or that exciting but there interesting nonetheless. The protest and the Jeremy Hunt comments are very important and hopefully you’ve read the past blog posts, if not just go down the page. As ever my comments repeating the pressuring of your local MP, The Government, Number 10, The Sports Minster, The FA and PL all still stand strong. Go for it.
For any questions or comments you can follow me on Twitter @wewantglazerout
The United Movement And The Glazers
This second post will touch on how, why and what. In This Fight Against Glazer I’ve seen four maybe five different groups of fans. You may class yourself as in all or in none.
First you have FC United, the 2005 group of fans which saw that Manchester United was no longer welcoming them. The Glazers banned IMUSA a big part of what alot of fans saw as the start of fans having say within the club. The deals reached with between the club and fans was ripped up. Who ever said the PLC wasn’t all good. £25 match tickets under the PLC, well not under Glazer.
Second group is Shareholders United, now known as the Manchester United Supporters Trust, another group of fans pushed aside and ignored by the Glazers. Until around January/February MUSTs main aim spend aload of cash on a club house. Now alot of fans think they are just collecting email addresses. I think MUST as a group do alot of work but some of the other things they’ve planned in the past just don’t add up. For example should MUST even have a view on Rooney signing? Clutching at straws. MUST had the Phoenix fund which is still going but if you ask anyone about it? What’s that? I’ve had a number of people asking me why don’t we set up a fund to buy the club back? I say we have one already. Do we? Yes Is Called the Capital Share Scheme. My view is MUST should be setting funding goals each year how much they plan to raise for the Capital Share Scheme. I’ve been actively tweeting for over 9 months about the Glazer issue. I have no idea how much they have currently raised. Back in 2006 it was around £2m. How Much Is In that fund now?
The Red Knights are mentioned alot next to MUST and I think its time MUST made a big decision. We were told a bid was coming. June and July came and went. Nothing happened. My view politely drop Keith Harris, keep it quiet until they can make a bid or start to lose the movement. The one good thing I can note which MUST has done in the last few weeks is to push the Government. MUST shouldn’t involve its self with Rooney. Instead it should be writing weekly letters to all different people, MPs, public departments and the PM/DPM offices pushing football ownership. It should be talking to all other supporters groups through supporters direct aiming to launch a join protest or some sort of join action which aims at promoting the issue of fan ownership. This could start in the form of letter signed by all clubs part of supporters direct calling for change. Second needs to be pressuing the Minister For Sport – Hugh Robertson for change. An another active letter for starts by all clubs to him would show we won’t accept half hearted measures. Following the responses pressure can be called on where to go next. I have contacted Hugh and I got the response back its not The Governments to tell the FA/PL what to do but they will pressure them to put certain changes into place. What about charities? Banks? and other areas? They all have their own laws should sport be allowed to do as it pleases when it clearly cannot control its self. If they cannot run themselfs correctly it is the Governments job to step in. They stepped in with the banks, if should step in when Pompey, Westham and other clubs need to be saved from certain owners. It is not acceptable to say its not the Governments job. They created laws in the stands when that was a problem, they can have laws on the ownership of clubs. If Cameron finally wants to do something right fix this, I might just vote for you at the next election. Otherwise I don’t think I’ll bother.
The next group is the Love United Hate Glazer movement. Some see this as a militant group but I’d say its more of a movement. You need the guys who cause some trouble and anger in a fight like this to keep that interest going. I can’t really fault them, doing what they can with small resources showing that in the ground even a flag can’t even be shown without CES thugs ripping it down. That’s one thing I do not like about Glazer. Inside Old Trafford they treat fans like dirt then threaten them over and over again.
When we consider the groups above they likely cover a large % of hardcore fans. I’d say the 4th and 5th groups are two groups of fans. One side knows Glazer is bad for the club but isn’t someone who will boycott or doesn’t fully understand the options either on offer. They ask the simple question, ‘how are we going to get rid of the glazers?’ and expect you to answer in less than 9 words. If you don’t they don’t really want to know. Its too hard for their minds to accept anything else other than what’s happening now. This is the group putting the most into the club interms of revenue. They’ll either go to all the games or they won’t go to any but they’ll have the latest AON shirt. I’d say this group of fans is still quiet large but I expect it too drop in size hugely if Glazer makes the wrong move. My view it drops in size every day.
The last group of fans is a smaller group of fans, this is the most worrying set. This is either the fan who thinks United made £100m last year have £160m in the bank whats the problem. The fan who either doesn’t know about the debt or knows about it in great detail but still doesn’t see a problem. This is the business model person or the new fan from India or China. The business model person may see your argument about it being a football club but the money issues will not be a problem for them. That for me is the most worrying thing for every fan you or I tell there will be 1000 more who don’t know the full facts.
In every 1000 fans most people will go into these groups and that’s where the group talk stops. If you support FC United or go to every United this season, and think the Glazers are good because we won the league three times, the point is, its time we all started a fresh, become United, see the club as a club, not a business, then push for what this should have started out as. The fans aim to own part of the club. MUST need to move on, they need pressure the government and then set funding targets. The fans need to unite. In my view it can be that simple but this is Manchester United. Nothing is ever that easy.
First Post Background, Rooney, David Gill, FC And The Enemy
Welcome to my blog. Many of you we’ll have likely come here via my twitter page @wewantglazerout and this blog will hopefully provide yourself with information and more detail about what’s going down in the world of Manchester United, Malcolm Glazer and the supporters fight of removing the cancer of our club. I am known as ‘the tweeting carrington resident in one or two places, or the big red from South Manchester for those that know me.
For those who don’t know, Manchester United Were Brought By A Man Called Malcolm Glazer in 2005 under a heavy amount of protests. Afew years before the protests worked and the Government stopped the owner of Sky called Rupert Murdoch buying the club before Glazer came along. The first time it wasn’t about debt and until 2005 no one really knew what was too come. Manchester United Are Now In Over £700m Of Debt Thanks To Malcolm Glazer. Around £520m on the club and around another £220m and rising in their personal PIK debts. Alot of people believe the PIK debts are the Glazers debts. Well in 2010 this changed. The Bank debt the club was originally brought with was converted into bonds. This is still debt and the club still owes this money. The issue is the bank rules on what the Glazers could take out has been relaxed. The Glazers plan was to use Manchester Uniteds accounts which currently have £160m in, to pay part of this debt off but this has been delayed after the protests and to avoid any more fan backlashes. The bond rules state they could take out around £70m and use this to pay down the PIK debt. This has not yet happened. A meeting was reported on the bloomberg website between the Glazers and the 10 or so holders of the PIK debt last week which showed the only reason they weren’t going to use the clubs cash was because of a fan backlash.
First post and too much to blog about, first thing is Wayne Rooney, I’ll keep this short because we’ve heard enough about him. Some of us reds hate him and some will still love him but he either got away with it or something had been set up. Fergie didn’t let Beckham, Ruud, Stam or Keane get away with it, theres no reason why he’d let Wayne and his agent the hoover man get away with it. When I say set up, Fergie and Rooney planned this to make it known to the Glazers ‘I am this club and we can hold you to ransom.’ or it was a private plan to get funding. Why else would it be public? Fergie gets a proper transfer fund, Gill gets a story to prolong his job and Rooney gets his lifes biggest pay off. Everyones happy apart from the Glazers. They now have to watch part of their fund towards debt go towards a player and if they have allowed Fergie to spend big, its gonna be big bucks not being paid on debt. I am not the only one to have come up with that conclusion. One or two scousers I’ve spoken to agree.
David Gill, what can we say about the Man. To most hes known as Judas Gill but I’ve come up with a new one The Manchester United Information Minster. Have a watch…. The Iraqi Information Minister
For those that don’t know he doesn’t think debt is a problem at Manchester United and he thinks United can challenge Manchester City interms of money power. City are owned by a billionaire oil tycoon and have spent over £400m so far just on players. They spent £22m on Lescott and deal for Tevez could be reportedly worth £41m by the end of it. Tevez might be hated now but at the time fans were singing his name and asking for Fergie to sign him up. Why didn’t he sign, money. United just could not compete and I believe they didn’t want to be held ransom next to what City could offer. If United ever go in for a top player City will be watching and waiting to do the same thing. The Debt and City Money Bags. Were not talking about winning things simply about signing players and United were held back by Chelsea and now City. Back when Roman took over, we were in for Duff, Essien and Mikel. Mikel was a clear sign of how money and agents twist todays game. We got priced out of Duff and then Essien. Its something David Gill won’t admit because the money hes paid. Funny that. Won’t admit theres a problem with money because hes paid too much money.
Am not really a fan of FC United, my team is United and only United but I do keep an eye out too see just what they are up to. I think the best things they bring to the table is to show that fan ownership of a club is perfectly viable and the stadium development they have planned is fantastic for the City and Local Area it will stand on. I was reading they have raised just over £300k of £500k needed for donations back on the 21st Of Sempetber the day their share sheme was launched which aims to raise a total of £1.5m. If you are an FC United supporter no doubt you’ll have put paid in but if you haven’t done I’d recommend you do so. This share offer closes on the 30th of November 2010 so do it now for success. Its possible that the ground could be built for the start of 2011 if all goes well but as FC United say it can only work if enough fans put in. Link below…. Copy and paste.
http://www.fc-utd.co.uk/communityshares
The other big news story is that FC United have entered the FA Cup in the first round after beating Barrow 1:0 and will now play away against Rochdale at 3pm on the 6th Of November. This is a big if but if they do beat Rochdale to enter the second round, then beat their second round opposition, it gets tasty against the really big boys with the a possible draw against Manchester United. As I say its a massive if, but what a story that could be.
Final piece of the first blog which cannot be missed is the enemy. Liverpool, City and Leeds. Leeds got beat tonight you’ll all be pleased to know. 4:0 at home against Cardiff which leaves them 16th in the Championship. I’d say its safe to say we won’t be playing them anytime soon, shame. City well they were back to their best this weekend after Arsenal put them back in their place after a 3:0 which I can say rather enjoyed after last weeks ‘Rooney is signing for City’ Couple of pictures of idiot city fans on twitter that most of you should have seen and Liverpool, yes they won but they are still down in 18th place. They play Bolton and then Chelsea next so that could be interesting. To any City fans reading this. 35 years in February.