Posts Tagged → Love United Hate Glazer
Mark Of A Mile Stone – One Free Green And Gold Scarf
I’d like to reward at least one person from my followers on twitter for their support towards the cause. The cause is the promotion of what’s wrong in football, not just removing Glazer. I’ve done this in the past but I believe this is a mile stone to do it. People say its dead but when someone sees just one Green and Gold scarf, they start thinking about the issue. That for me, means a psychological solution to the problem. Am going to send out one free Green and Gold scarf to the 2,000th follower of the @wewantglazerout twitter account. Worth £5 and it will be from The Manchester United Supporters Trust. I’d love to send everyone something but I don’t have a money tree. I’ve done these in the past and I’ll consider doing another one in the future for the next big mile stone.
The Rules -
These are my rules, I’ll tell you if your the 2,000th by twitter. Don’t tweet at me moaning you were it, I’ll ignore you. I decide.
No fake accounts. No repeat accounts. Example, unfollowing, then following back.
Must hate Glazer and I will post anywhere in the world depending on location, access(Libya might be hard to post to but I’d try) and postage price. The person notified should contact me within 24 hours otherwise it moves to the next person. If you contact me saying you already have one, I can pick someone else, instead.
The Aim Is To Promote The Cause Against Glazer and The Issues Within Football Ownership and Governance. Spread it and don’t forget it.
#LUHG
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.
Glazers Drop Tampa Bay Buccaneers Tickets Prices By 20% to 30%
I do as many blogs on Tampa Bay as I do Manchester United these days because they are also in a pickle. The poor performances of the team during 2009 and 2010 saw attendances at their publicly owned stadium drop. From selling out every home game since 1996 when the American council house was built, they failed to sell out a single home NFL game. Not only that but all their home games were blacked out from tv as stated in the NFL rules. So far they’ve had poor performances, failed to get on TV and seen attendances drop by significant numbers. Now if United started coming 10-15th in the league for two seasons on the run after poor performances, saw attendances drop by 20,000-30,000 over night and then didn’t see a single home game on TV, it would be big world wide news. People would want answers and heads would roll. In the NFL they seem to take a lighter view as its only 4 teams in each league and its a different sport. After all that I’d say this is a victory for all those wanting the debt ridden owners to give some back. They have reduced ticket prices and not just by a couple of % some have dropped by 30%. 10,000s have mostly dropped by 20%. A 31% drop is a ticket in the East Upper In Old Trafford Dropping from £36 to just £24. That’s the sort of price drop in some areas of the stadium. Heres a list of the price drops.
- Adult Tickets
Lower row West sideline:
Last season – $85
Next season – $79
Upper West corner
Last season – $65
Next season – $52
East side upper level sideline
Last season – $85
Next season – $72
East upper level
Last season – $75
Next season – $52
East corner end zone
Last season – $99
Next season – $89
- Youth Tickets now cost $17.50 instead of $35
- Stadium Parking Is 40% Cheaper.
- Season Ticket Holders now receive 10% off all food, drinks and merchandise purchases.
- They have introduced a 10-month payment plan for season tickets.
The Glazers have also had the cheek to say ‘we’ve listened to our fans and made changes’ well they should listen up in England because we’ve been telling them from day one. You made a big mistake.
LUHG
Now Till Late Summer
Alot of people say the Green & Gold is dead and nothing is happening. For me, that’s very far from the real story. This is a waiting game but there are a number of things going on in the back ground. This ranges from now until summer and we should hear news on them. First there is the case of where the missing £249m came from, to pay Glazers debt off. Andersred as ever always has he eye cast out and there is always the likely hood that could pop up again. There are also rumours of a takeover by Qatar but that’s nothing more than rumours. Until it happens we won’t know a thing. If nothing more comes by the summer months there is still hope.
This next piece is in black and white. This will happen. As I type the Government are reviewing football. Its not rumoured or made up. It is happening. They don’t like Manchester United’s debt or the culture of the Premier League. They want to sort it out. By May this year the Government will have completed its review of how to deal with football ownership and football governance. The proposals will be published during May on Football Governance and hopefully through the FA, they will start putting through the changes needed so we and many others can take a stake in their club. They know the problems and hopefully they’ll be robust.
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.
This Festive Period
In this blog am going to cover a Qatar takeover and United in general. First up is the team and squad its self. I commented before Villa how United might be running into abit of form. Now against Villa it was lacking but since then apart from that battering against West Ham United, we have been unbeatable. There are kinks in the armour, so we shouldn’t forget that. Talksport were having a Thursday night discussion about Fergies comments on the future of our best goal keeper for along time. Edwin Van Der Sar. We’d all love for a young keeper from within the club to come in and take the number one shirt. That sadly isn’t going to happen. In such an important position we need to pick a keeper who has been solid for another side for a good number of seasons. He needs to be 6 foot plus, calm and have experience. Ferguson has to go shopping and hopefully he will do.
In the League United have done very well 20 games played 44 points. It was only the weather holding us back, or Chelsea’s lack of form. The Chelsea game was something that annoyed many fans as other games went ahead. Despite all the snow/ice we had in Manchester, City of all teams had no problems getting their games on. I’d call it a conspiracy, playing bad, lots of games one after the other, lets use the weather. You could say the same about one or two other games that weekend. With two games in hand on City and a game on Arsenal we could have been on 50 points and 8 points clear of City and 15 clear of Chelsea only at the midseason point. Theres no reason to say we wouldn’t have beaten both Blackpool and Chelsea to achieve that.
With a win over Liverpool in the cup, United are in a prime position. Arsenal and City both have midweek games in the FA Cup 3rd round which means when we come to play Spurs on Sunday, in-terms of that weekend it could be an advantage. We only play Southampton in the cup, so I won’t mind see those two games go against them. An Everton win and we could see a clean sweep of early PL exits before the end of the 4th round.
Manchester City are again splashing out and this leads to the Qatar. I come up with a quiet simple way that for starters I’d be happy for them or anyone else to take over. The Club has a problem of the Glazers. They put, take, lie and generally act like retards. If they cared about the club, they’d talk to the fans instead of treating us like idiots. We pay for tickets and are therefore as they say ‘we are the customers.’ First rule of customer service. The customer is always right no matter how daft it sounds. They don’t treat it like that. Even after protests and even the government telling them theres a problem. Still nothing. So what’s this I’d be happy for someone else to take over? Firstly its not just letting someone take over the club. For me to be happy a number of things have to happen. I don’t want the new ‘owners’ to carry everything out. They should leave the footballing side to the footballing people as they have done with Fergie. I’d accept new owners and a takeover, if it was done in conjunction with the fans. The biggest problem we have is lack of communication between us and the owners. The only thing the pointless ‘fans forum’ created was a note from Fergie asking not to call Wenger names. We have bigger problems than that. A deal done in conjunction with the fans would look like this. It doesn’t matter if its the red knights or Qatar. The new owners take over the club, get rid of the debt, allow certain fan groups back into the club. This can straight away allow IMUSA’s work and past deals on tickets to be put back in place. Possibly put in a process to insert not just one but a number of fans forward as directors on the board. One thing which could be very important is a deal for the fans to buy part of the club from the new owners. One it fully seals the fans into the club and two if Qatar ever want to pull out, we as fans have a say who comes in. We could even buy the club if after 20-30 years it came to selling. All of these are important issues to me and all can be put in place during a takeover. It benefits the fans and the new owners. MUST have said a similar sort of thing. Any new owner would be daft not to listen.
You can follow me on twitter @wewantglazerout
Welcome To My City! Number One!
The Aim Is Quite Simple. Two Weeks Get This To Number One. The Manchester United Supporters Trust are promoting this as they are getting the Profits from the sales but more importantly I am promoting this too. My Reason is it makes a huge political statement and music is always an excellent PR story. Also one of the people in the song is very local to myself, that local and that smaller world I might be asking for a little blog interview. Watch This Space. Video is below, one lad is a Red and the other a Blue both from Manchester, with a tune aimed around Manchester. Buy it here £0.79! GET IT TO NUMBER ONE! I’ll send you a cheque for the £0.79 if hate it or if your pocket is empty. No Excuses. Click Like On Facebook
Buy It Here From Itunes http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/welcome-to-my-city-ep/id398151056
F.O.A.K - Welcome To My City
You can also follow them on twitter @foak
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.