With calls from a small minority of United fans for Sir Alex Ferguson to resign, it is becoming apparent that maybe the guilt of sitting back and saying nothing about our ridiculous debt situation under the Glazers has got to our manager.
After already showing sympathy to our green and gold movement, Sir Alex Ferguson has given an interview with The Observer where he claims he is not against our protests, but that his priority has to be the well being of the team.
“I’m never against protest,” says Ferguson. “It’s everyone’s right, there’s no doubt about that. So the stance at the moment with the fans is: I completely understand it. When they were waving these green and gold flags, and scarves, it caught your attention. But it still doesn’t change the fact that I have to be manager of my club, and manager of my team, and I’ve got too many priorities. I cannot let it interfere with my direct route to winning the title or the European Cup. That’s the only thing that concerns me.”
The full interview is in tomorrow’s Observer.
Man Utd News 24/7
SAF certainly seems to be warming to our Green and Gold stance (well, as much as he can do so in public). * LUHG *
Deep deep down in his heart he feels the same way we do. He is burning with anger and hates the leeches as much as we do, but is helpless; he cannot do anything about it. And that is fine, there is no reason as to why he should get involved in this. I do feel sorry for him because he wishes he has some power over this issue. LUHG.
Great way to gloss over the Everton result – pretend it never happened and re-publish the Fergie/green & gold article again.
These are the exact same quotes from the Daily Mail article.
I’ll follow your lead and c&p my comments from first time round:
I must admit I’m surprised Fergie didn’t get all defensive and say “I’m not gettin’ intae that.” He was actually complimentary. The Glazer gimps would probably rather he had slammed the green & gold movement. Fair play to Fergie. Do you think he likes having to scrounge around for “value” signings like Owen instead of outbidding Real Madrid for his beloved Benzema? Of course not.
@AlphaRS “He is right though the atmosphere at OT isn’t as good as it should be because of the amount of day trippers there. Atleast the LUHG campaign is creating a bit of noise in the ground now though!”
That’s a good point. The green & gold phenomenon has clearly rejuvinated and galvanised United’s support – the atmosphere at OT hasn’t been this good for years. Which just goes to show how out of touch with real United fans the pro-Glazer carpetbaggers who criticise the green & gold movement on here truly are.
He knows how we feel & I’m sure that if he could publically back the campaign he would but his hands are tied on the Glazer situation.
Well said Fred, I could not agree more…
One word: deluded.
Oh..ok then, three more for you that are perhaps more apt: clutching at straws.
Fergie isn’t warming to anything. He’s patronising you. He is appeasing you, because this is the new club policy for the manager and his players. Appeasement. Anyone with half a brain can see that. He’s already told you that “we” i.e. him, the board, the owners, KNOW what they are doing. And let’s face it, they do.
Why can you not see or accept that. It’s gone beyond a joke. It’s boring. And frankly it is getting embarrassing.
So let me tell you again, for the last time what is going to happen here. 1. The campaign will sell a few more scarves. Nice.
2. Make a few more “martyrs” out of stewards. Brings a tear to my eye that does.
3. Generate a few more scaremongering articles in the press. Because funnily enough, backpage headlines with United in them sells papers.
AND. THEN. THAT. WILL. BE. IT.
Yep, nothing will change. Zip. Nada. United will still be successful. The owners will still be in situ, supporting the manager and the players as they do today. And in a few years you will ask yourselves, just what the **** was all that about? Just as I ask myself today, what the **** IS this all about?
I guess I’m just a few years ahead of you on that curve. Lucky me. In the meantime I guess I’ll just have to put up with it.
Let me know when you rediscover what it takes to produce balanced, stimulating and intelligent articles. About football.
Over and out
Fred – No these comments are from The Observer’s exclusive interview which will out tomorrow (well today now, being past midnight), not the Daily Mail, but nice one for coming across like a pompous dick lol.
He talks about the conversation he had with Ron before he left too. Pretty good read.
Do you recon any player would dare wear green/gold boots…… would love rooney to.
@Paul H – then don’t post on this articles? Better still, don’t read them.
” I guess I’m just a few years ahead of you on that curve. Lucky me. In the meantime I guess I’ll just have to put up with it.” This is just a very arrogant comment…Poor you how do you put up with us deluded Northerners…
“But he added: “My problem with it, being manager of Manchester United, is that I’ve got owners who have never caused me any bother. Any time I’ve asked for money they’ve given it to us … The debt has concerned a lot of people. David Gill [the club's chief executive] has had a lot of chats with the staff to settle them down, to assure them everything’s fine. As far as I’m concerned, I bought [Chris] Smalling for big money [£10m for the Fulham centre-back]. So for me, life goes on. As I say, the Glazers have been fine with me, I’ve never had any problem.”"
Haven’t read the observer yet, but the guardian claims that the above is also a part of the interview.
How than can we claim that Fergie is “warming” to the LUHG campaign??
I recently learnt that the Dirty GLAZERS are currently employing some dickheads over the internet just to monitor MANCHESTER UNITED fans blog sites, especially the likes of Must, Republic Of Mancunia… They get paid by playing their part in those blogs… They pretend that they’re also manutd fans but in all truth most of them are not even utd fans… HOW MUCH THE GLAZERS PAID YOU **PAUL H**???
@Scott the Red – My mistake. I thought the Mail had lifted the quotes from the forthcoming Observer interview and paraphrased them, as newspapers often do these days.
LUHG.
Since the explosion of the Green-and-Gold campaign – and the fact that, in the absence of the loathsome Glazers, some fans were initially looking for available hate figures (like Gill or Fergie) – I have subsequently found myself wondering whether Fergie himself had been trying to alert us all along, with coded messages, about the parlous state of affairs at Old Trafford.
Naturally, he would be expected to toe the party line and not say anything that might be critical of his employers. But I think back to all his anti-Real Madrid statements, most of them quite inflammatory, then to the embarrassing fact that he had to go back on all his words over Ronaldo. Such a volte face is NOT the Alex Ferguson we have known over the years.
He and Gill will have set the ridiculous Ronaldo transfer fee – in light of subsequent events it is easy to see why it had to be a cash up-front payment – only for the manager then to come out and say, repeatedly, that there was “no value” in a market he himself had helped push to new limits. Fergie then publicly jibbed at the asking price for his long-time target Benzema (again “no value”), and it was “no value” whenever the names of David Silva, David Villa, Kun Aguero, et al were mentioned. Instead, we got a clapped-out Michael Owen. And that was good value?
Anyway, when has the fact that we’re expected to pay over-the-top fees ever stopped United? Carrick, Berbatov, Saha, Veron, Ferdinand, Hargreaves, Yorke, Cole and even Rooney and Ronaldo were all players we were determined to get no matter what the cost.
Consider also the Valencia transfer from Wigan. It had been set up months before it ever happened, with the money earmarked from a pre-set transfer budget. Then, several months after the deal was done, we’re suddenly told it was funded by the Ronaldo move. Someone, somewhere, is not being straight with the fans.
Run the clock on a bit, and we come to the cancellation of the Adem Ljajic deal, and the botched attempt to provide a plausible explanation. Fergie said nothing, some back-office minion leaked that the player wasn’t good enough (that was later semi-retracted), then Micky Phelan mumbled something about a work permit while the boy’s club, Partizan Belgrade, said we pulled out because we were skint (the boy Dodo’s club in Brazil are saying the same thing, by the way). I think Fergie’s silence amid all the shambles spoke volumes. And the work permit excuse doesn’t bear scrutiny: Ljajic’s situation was identical to that of Anderson, or the Da Silva twins, yet we got work permits through there. And we did it also with Diouf, who cost far less than what Ljajic was going to cost us.
Perhaps also there was a hidden message in Fergie’s infamous programme notes attacking the Green-and-Gold campaign. He, of all people, knows that a club is nothing without its fans. So for him to say that United are bigger than the fans suggests he was repeating some mantra laid out by the Glazer spin-doctors. If anyone is going to side with the ordinary working man against the evils of capitalism it is Alex Ferguson. In this Machiavellian way, he knew his inflammatory remarks would incite the fans.
Now, Fergie seems to be cleverly positioning himself where he could be regarded as being with the fans while not speaking out against his employers. No one manages the press better in football than Fergie, and often it’s not what he says that counts but what he doesn’t say. As I said before, could it be that he is trying to get his message of support across with his silence and the coded messages hidden within his most recent transfer dealings?
Fergie’s silence over the Ljajic farce did indeed speak volumes. You can bet he was absolutely seething about it, that’s why he sent Phelan to face the media. My bet: Fergie already felt humiliated enough by the Glazers suddenly informing him that they were pulling out of the deal, there was no way he was going to take the flak for it from the press, when (a) he was blamesless in the debacle and (b) he would be forced to lie publically to protect the same cunts who are refusing him transfer funds.
@ Paul H
Away and get a clue about the history and values of Manchester United Football Club.
Over and out
Lets keep stepping up this green and gold campaign people and don’t listen to the bullshit that is coming across in the Glazers defence, it needs to go onto a new level and there have been some good ideas that just need put into practise. The Glazers have no defence whatsoever, fact. They’re sucking the soul out of Manchester United Football Club and every true supporter knows that and see’s it daily. It’s not enough that us loyal fans know this, we need to hammer home the message to every fan that pays any sort of money to club, even the day trippers if it’s possible. The 15 minute boycot against Milan is a must, we also need to stop paying any sort of merchandising money. It’ll hurt the club in the short term but in my opinion the soul can’t be hurting anymore than it already is.
LUHG
i went to the game today, and have heard about wembeley tickets. the glazer twats have created a executive package for £700 offering all remaining home games including milan and q/f and s/f if we get there, AND they are offering wembely as a sweetener for FUCK ALL. they have said loyalty pot members aren’t involved as it isn’t away and distributed to united fans who rarely go and will spend cash on merchandise, now am ticketless and i’ve missed 3 aways all year due to work, and spent thousands just like other big reds have, and am now relying on a second ballot to see my beloved club fight for another trophy
they takin the piss.
also…
if united hadn’t taken on this debt they could have froze ticket prices in 2004-2005 and still been 100 million pound better off, glazer out
LUHG
@ Paul H
A few of weeks back we had a couple of little debates about the whole anti glazer campaign etc, and you were making valid points which made me think, and i hope my points were doing the same to you.
I think its very healthy to have different sides to an argument, it helps keep things in perpective for both sides and makes you think deeper about the issues.
But the last few days epescially your posts have changed in tone quite a lot, and now seem more like you are just insulting the G&G supporters. Pretty much saying ‘im right, your wrong, end of’ and calling us stupid (‘Anyone with half a brain can see that’ and ‘i guess im just a few years ahead of you on that curve’)
You also say
‘Let me know when you rediscover what it takes to produce balanced, stimulating and intelligent articles’
Well im starting to think you have forgotten how to produce balanced, stimulating and intelligent posts like you were a few weeks ago!!
I can understand your frustration at the G&G campaign because you dont agree with it, but dont instantly dismiss all the supporters of the campaign as intellectually inferior to you, as i’ve said before, none of us know what the future holds or what the best path is for the club, we have our opinions, but we cant be certain. We are all doing what we think is right, whether that be pro/anti/neutral/whatever stance on the glazers.
I just cant believe some of the negativity towards Sir Alex in here!
The fans who doubt him or call for him to step down are absolutely ridiculous and know fuck all about the club! I mean just how can you believe Fergie has anything but the best for the club at his heart? He has been at the club before some of us were even born! He too is a United fan at heart, and is in a more difficult situation than us because he cant do or say anything! He cant go out wearing Green and Gold to show that he doesnt side with the Glazers! And apart from that he has to manage the club and ensure success every year, and manage the team to keep them together during such a time!
That some of the fans even doubt him is just unacceptable. Its understandable for the fans to get angry at Gill coz of the dual nature of his comments.
Its a disgrace that some of us call for Fergie to step down! No other manager, and I mean NO ONE would stay at a club with financial problems, with some fans to call for his head, AND deliver trophies at such an astonishing ratio!
and at the same time he also take care of everything he says so that the Glazers dont sack him, AND the media dont make fun of us!
Also its just ridiculous how some of the fans just start slagging the team after each and every loss! you cant expect them to win the title each and every year! its one thing being positive and a completely different thing to be ABSOLUTELY IRRATIONAL!! if you want to be just a glory hunter than better support Citeh or Chelski! but even they wont ensure you success coz sooner or later its going to be teams like us who come out as the real winners! just learn to be real supporter rather than plastics! none of the other teams would even dream of going on a run of 3 consecutive EPLs with circumstances as ours! and this season is not over yet! we can still win it and then you’ll look darn stupid to doubt your own team! and you’d better fuck off to support the Citeh scum if you cant stand by your team through thick and thin!
End Of Rant.
pondave, i assume paul h doesn’t go regularly, if he did surely he would see the a near on 50% increase on season tickets is a bad thing, 6 years on from04-05 we would be 100 million quid better off if we froze prices, lets look at an average ticket in say n stand t2, 2004-05 was £23 now its £34 next season will be £36. the g&g campaign is our way of sayin its not right, as well as not buyin offcial merchandise, maybe, just maybe they might look again before hiking prices up, if we stand together and stop buying beers and pies at half time and shirts for offical outlets they will have to listen. why? coz money talks.
i gotta mate who is buying 100 scarfs, he will be selling them for cheap , will post on here from where if anyone just wants to support the campaign with out spending alot, will be a match day!
last point g&g scarfs on sale at everton today for £9 scamming scouse cunts i relly hope no one paid it as it would probably fund some scousers match ticket
MKred – Coded messages? Seriously? Got to admire your imagination.
Can any one put the key points of the observer interview here…
as I need to sing in to read the full interview…
sign in*
@Paul H
No need to put up with anything. You can go to manutd.com where apparently everything is rosey. Where you can find other condescending fellows like yourself.
Sorry if it comes across as condescending, but some of you guys are looking for gaps and disunity between the manager and owners that just aren’t there.
Then there’s the ‘spooks’ brigade who thInk fergie is sending coded messages to the supporters and think that I am monitoring the forums on behalf of the owners. Pure fantasy from childlike imaginations (no offence intended)
One thing I will agree with is that the atmosphere is as good as it’s been in a long time. Fergie will have noticed that and will look to use it to the team’s advantage as we dig in for a close finish.
And before anyone chucks anymore random insults at me, it isn’t easy to be one of few people with an opposing viewpoint to many others. When the debate was fact based, yes, I probably was more measures in my posts. But when I see nothing but the products of wishful thinking stuff like this, I get exasperated.
And @costas, yes the easy thing to do would be not to bother reading/contributing, but u don’t do easy. Besides, you need someone to flame don’t you?
Hope you can appreciate that.
That was I don’t do easy. Bloody iPhone.
@Paul H
Yeah, because I flame people all the time right? If you come here often, you know the answer to that. And no one else here looks to flame people either. Flaming is what your post at 1:06 was mostly about. Even if you back what you say with facts, the manner in which you do it ruins everything.
Besides, saying that the manager is trying to appease and patronise protesters can also be considered as wishful thinking…
The G&G is making the team in a way play better, bar the Everton game. The atmosphere hasn’t been better at Old Trafford for a long time since the arrival of the G&G and anti glazer songs, still singing the united songs about players etc.. it seems the players are liking it, Evra is my best bet.
LUHG
P.s any one know where I can buy some Green and Gold balloons for Wembley, I heard MUST might be handing them out?
Paul h – coded message? Yes. I think fergie wants to line up with us but daren’t. Because if he did openly, he knows what impact it would have. King eric: coded message? Yes … I’d like to think fergie wants to side with us but daren’t for he knows what impact any definitive statement would have.
There would be massive splits between fans and club, and even among the fans themselves. Is like to think that while saying nothing but leaving subtle clues he is offering an insight into his true feelings.
Just think about it: do you honestly believe that such an overt life-long socialist as sir alex has had a damascene conversion and now believes in the kind of obscene capitalism as practised by the loathsome glazers?
We the fans can let our luhg feelings be known on Tuesday and at wembley. I’ve a fear a 10-minute boycott v Milan might backfire. I still maintain a powerful weapon will be a boycott – but a boycott by ALL fans worldwide of club sponsors’ products, together with an explanation that such a boycott is due entirely to our anger over the greed and management of our club by the glazers. And what better boycott would there be than of the new season’s shirts. It won’t hurt united per se because of their deal with Nike. But it would hurt Nike through lack of sales and it would hurt the shirt sponsors aon, who have also had to pay a good whack of their cash up front.
Apologies for bad grammar, repetitions, garbled, mis-spellings, etc in my previous MSG. I too am having iPhone problems!
@Fred
“Do you think he likes having to scrounge around for “value” signings like Owen instead of outbidding Real Madrid for his beloved Benzema? Of course not.”
So you wanted to pay over £45million for Benzema? To get his signiture we had to outbid Real as he had already stated he wanted to go to Real. If he had wanted to join us then he had his chance, Lyon confirmed that they had accepted a bid from us 2 days before Reals bid came in, Lyon even stated that the player was having discussions with the club who had made the offer. So he could have signed for us before Real came in, but he was clearly holding out for Real and stalling us. So to get him we would have had to enter a bidding war and Real had already shown their top limit was £45million as thats the higestest they were willing to goto with Villa.
“My bet: Fergie already felt humiliated enough by the Glazers suddenly informing him that they were pulling out of the deal”
So now the Home Office are issuing false statements as well to support the Glazers? Talk about Clutching at straws.
@Minhaj
I recenctly learnt that MUST and the Red Knights are paying supporters to make up false claims to undermine the Glazers and lower the price. How much are you being paid Minhaj?
See how easy it is to make things up. So either get a clue or get a life you idiot. And this is the problem with the whole Anti Glazer movement they don’t care about Facts they just make shit up and twist things. All while living in a dream world where the Red Knights are saviours who aren’t in it for the Money (And once again I will raise the fact that while Harris was getting all your hopes up he said everything you wanted to hear and now he has said that a) The Red Knights WONT pay off the debt b) There will be NO fan ownership c)That the buy out will be done like Lerners at Villa so the club will have FURTHER debt loaded on it in the form of a ‘loan’)
@MKRed
TBH I think the change of heart over Ronaldo had alot to do with the new president. The Virus he was refering to was the old regime who acted in a dispicable way of tapping up people in the press and never putting a formal bid in. The New regime didn’t do this and the seemed to go through the correct channels and in a show of good faith put in an offer that was Cash up front. Pérez seemed like he really wanted to repair some bridges that Calderon burnt
Fergie saw value in Benzema, just Benzema wanted to goto Real so the only way we could have signed him was to outbid Real who based on their bid for Villa had upto £45mill. On Villa both Real and Barca had £45mill bids rejected and with Silva we had a 25mill bid for him turned down in the summer of 2008 and Valencia despite their finacial situation seemed unwilling to sell either him or Villa in the summer of 2009 unless they could get well over their value.
On Adem Ljajic the insider said nothing about him not being good enough. The quote was that he hadn’t progressed as well as expected which due to the fact that his WP was denied for a 3rd and 4th time is right. We clearly weren’t skint as we spent MORE on Smalling that Ljajic would have cost. The Home Office themselves confirmed that we had reapplied and had it turned down and an appeal on the exceptional talent grounds was also turned down. The difference with the Da Silvas and Anderson is that a) The WP rules in the UK weren’t as strict when we applied for theirs b) They are Brazilian so played for a higher ranked countrt with real pedigree. In Andersons case he had also played at level higher than Ljajic had. With Diouf he has International caps which makes it easier
We also have to take into account the new Squad rules, in the Summer 2008 the squad rules for next season were ratified which means that every club in the EPL has to nominate 25 players over 21 with 7 of them being classed as Home Grown. To be classed as Home Grown Ljajic would have had to been at the club for 3 years before he was 21 and that meant joining in Jan else he wouldn’t qualify. The WP was turned down so we were then left with a situation of signing a player for around £10mill who we realistically we wouldn’t have got a WP for until Summer 2011 at the earliest and who wouldn’t have been considered HG.
@pondave
Paul H’s comments may be getting what you consider ‘offensive’ because Paul H and those who try and calm people down a bit from the Scaremongering thats going on are ourselves being attacked and are being told we are being paid by the Glazers (And we feel we are banging our heads against a brick wall because people refuse to even listen to the facts). We don’t go around accusing you of being Bitters and Dippers wanting to destroy our club yet its fine for them to accuse us of being on the Glazer pay role.
And also people are just looking to make up more and more to support the campaign. Which in itself if annoying as someone makes up something and then others take it as fact while we are dismissed even when giving undeniable facts.
@vidic will get ya 15
For fans price increases are never great BUT you have to look at the market as a whole. We were cheaper and still are than our rivals and our rises have been roughly inline to the rises over the same period. While we are in a country whoseleague sells the tv rights combined then ticket prices will rise to maximise profits. I suspect that if we were in a situation like in Spain that Ticket Prices would have risen alot less as the TV money would have been so large that they could subisdes Ticket prices and keep profits at a level where we can be competative on the world stage.
On the merchandise, United don’t make money off all official merchandise. Take Shirt sales for example as with alot of Sports teams now the Shirt Manufatuer pays a fee for the rights and then they take the profits from the shirt sales. Some of the other merchandise sales may work on a simerlar basis
And where are you getting the 100mill better off figure?
@Costas
You may not Flame but you are ‘Blinkered’ in a way. Theres a number of cases where you post something and we respond with facts and you even seem to accept the facts and the on the next posts comments you are spouting the same MUST spin that has been proven false. So with someone like you we have to go around in circles on the same point
@MKRed
Hurting the Glazers in the Pocket only hurts the club perhaps beyond repair. Infact the losses will pretty much be in united pocket alone and not the Glazers per say.It also plays into the Red Knights hands which isn’t something we want as they aren’t the ‘Good Samatitians’ they initially made out.
Since Harris initially mentioned it we have learnt that
1) They Won’t clear the debt
2) They won’t do a Fan ownership
3) The ‘Super Rich’ means multi millionaires not Billionaires so they almost certainly don’t have 33million each to throw away
4) Most of them are London Money Men
5) They will use the Aston Villa approach. (Thats the cost of buying is loaded onto the club in a form of a loan which has to be repaid)
Its why he himself is encouraging fans to boycott season tickets as it will drive the 1.5bill cost that the Red Knights think it will take down which means bigger profits for them (And no doubt a bonus for Harris)
@Wakey
Accepting facts and changing my view on things are two different things. I would appreciate it if you named one instance where I accepted something and then came back and said the same thing. But I won’t change my opinion on the Glazers and how I thing this club is better run.
Tufty shows up to rebuke every single anti-Glazer post, one by one. YCNMIU. Always amusing when enemies of United show up on this blog to post their dirge.
@wakey
why are you such a glazer apologist? Your spin on things suggests you might well be one of the ‘insiders’ we fans have been warned about. But I too am a veteran and ‘insider’ of an industry closely linked to professional football. And I know how to spot topspin. In fact, I personally know people employed as spin doctors by the glazers when they first got interested in united, so I know what to look out for. And it’s hardly subtle your trying to debunk every point made on this forum while simultaneously attempting to discredit those who are actively trying to do something about the mess we are in. A mess, incidentally, entirely of your chums’, the glazers’, making.
If your apparent inside knowledge of the machinations of united’s transfer workings is so great, why were you less than straight when you talk of the smalling deal? United haven’t paid all the fee up front, just a deposit like the ljajic business. I know a lot of fans are sceptical that that deal actually go ahead, fearing a flaw a la ljajic, might suddenly appear.
Clearly you have been closely studying this and other similar forums. So you should surely have realised by now that the united fans are anything like the fools that people like you seem to take us for. So don’t patronise us and don’t assume that we are all still the idiots who were originally willing to give the glazers the benefit of the doubt.
You know what annoys me most? Those who attempt to cause rifts among the fans. We are United, and that’s what the fans should be against the enemy within who will destroy our heritage and our future if they go unchecked.
@MKRed
The thing is you can call me a Glazier apologist because I refuse to jump on the Bandwagon that sees a ridiculous number of you latching onto MUST and ABU Media lies and ignore actual facts BUT just because I want to apply logic, common sense and understanding to a situation doesn’t make me a ‘Glazer Apologist/Plant’ and not a Fan of the Club. Infact if you were more active on the site you would know that in the past I have been critical of the Glaziers especially when it seemed like the Ljajic deal had broken down due to money.
As I have said in the past I’m not really a fan of the Glazers owning the club BUT that has more to do with the issues it brings up with a number of fans rather than their business practices. The problem is once you start living in the real world rather than some ‘dream world’ the Glazers ownership is better than pretty much every proposed alternative.
“United haven’t paid all the fee up front, just a deposit like the ljajic business”
United didn’t pay a deposit on him. The ‘Initial’ fee was due to be paid at the end of Jan 2009. And ofc United haven’t paid everything up front. Its not how football deals are generally done these days. Fees are usually paid in instalments and the total fee usually has conditional payments as part of it. Just look at Reals deal for Beckham, the transfer fee was £25mill but Real actually paid less as that fee included an initial fee, a yearly fee and then conditions some of which were never activated.
It only when a club has a reason be it to mend bridges, to look good or be sure of meeting promises that they pay everything upfront.
And what exactly am I spinning. The majority of what I have posted is backed up by fact. There is some opinion as well (For example on the Ronaldo sale, but I do suspect the Virus comment was more at Calderon and his team rather than Real as a whole. Perez did say and do the right thing to show he was better and he didn’t play about in the media and paid upfront on all the big deals) but even then there’s facts that have been used to inform an opinions
So come on if you are so sure I’m spinning things what am I saying that isn’t correct?
Paul H and Wakey need to get a room. Look, you both make some decent points but we’ve heard it all before and you’re not convincing anyone. Of anything. Most of the fans who support the green and gold campaign are not stupid, we’ve heard all the facts, done our own research and come to our own conclusions, 95% of which seem to be that these leeches are not what this club needs. Their only interest in this great club is money and that is why they are here. What would they do in order to make a profit? Answer: Anthing. Sell Old Trafford? Sell Carrington?… Sell Rooney? You can argue that they have no intention of doing this, that they WILL NOT do this and that we can’t prove it. True, but most fans suspect that they are perfectly capable of doing this and if it came to it then they would. That is the only way we can be proved right but by that time we would be too depressed to say “I told you so” and you two would no doubt have scampered off and changed your usernames by then.
Ah Scott you did not like my little joke? Fair enough, it is a bit out of order and I am not anti-semetic, but it was only a joke… and it is quite funny…
Yes, the green & gold is so nicely eye-catching that I’m sure the audacious sods at Nike will be eager to produce a Newton Heath inspired away kit soon…
luhg and g
@Wakey
As I said previously, I’ve spent my career in an industry that is fed spin several times on a daily basis, and in that time we’ve learned to disseminate what is fact, spin, topspin and downright lies.
Without trying to sound like the FSW, the facts are quite simple: pre- Glazers, United were hugely profitable. After they arrived, the club went massively into debt, unmanageable debt – if it wasn’t unmanageable, why did they have to embark on the bonds issue? Worse, the bonds issue laid bare just how they have been running the club – and, damningly, just how much they have been taking out to finance that mismanagement. For instance, I’d love to know exactly what the Glazer daughter has done to justify her salary? Equally, I’d love to know who the high-priced consultancies are (and who the owners/directors of these companies are), and what they’ve actually done to justify such high fees? If it’s to improve our financial husbandry, how then are we in such a mess? Then again, it might have been a PR consultancy to increase the profile of a football club that no one had ever heard of until the Glazers arrived on the scene.
Wakey, it strikes me that what you are arguing is that it’s better we stick with the ‘(Red) devil you know’. Ordinarily, I might be tempted to agree with you, but we’re talking about the Glazers here. It’s on record that Malcolm Glazer and his own sisters went to court over their respective shares of their father’s legacy. It’s on record that the Glazers didn’t deliver on their promises when they bought Tampa Bay Bucs. It’s also on record that the Glazers underspent hugely on the Bucs’ salary cap – to the extent that they were warned by the NFL for their parsimony (can you imagine the Premier League being forced to chastise a club for paying too little to their players?). And what was the Glazers’ explanation for underspending at Tampa? They were channelling all their money into Manchester United, they said.
These are the people you are defending.
If you are an insider or Glazer confederate (and I’m happy to accept your assertion that you are not) I have two further questions that I would like someone to answer.
Firstly, who is giving them PR advice: anyone with a basic knowledge of the football business would not advertise how much money a club has to spend on transfers as this pushes fees up. But the Glazers let it be known that Fergie will have a transfer pot of £100 million this summer. Now, that was really bright…
Secondly, are the Glazers, following their enormous success with the United franchise, the Premier League club looking to acquire an Indian Premier League cricket franchise?
Finally, you are right about the ABU media. A few years ago a piece in Red Issue revealed just which clubs our top football writers actually support, and there weren’t many United fans among them. We all know about the BBC’s anti-United bias (listen to the obnoxious Alan Green on Radio Five and you’ll see what I mean), but I gather most of the Fleet Street sports editors are all London boys, and that shows in their pages. For instance, I’ve regularly described the Daily Mail as the ‘Chelsea Fanzine’, although for balance they also obsess about West Ham. I suppose United and Liverpool should be grateful whenever they get a mention in the papers. I mean, how can a combined 36 league titles and a combined eight European Cups stack up against the enormous achievements of the beautiful south?
@ MKRed
Some fantastic facts mate….
I’ve really given up trying to answer and talk some sense with some of the ‘incumbent regime’ sympathizers…..
For a few weeks after this mess burst out, I was trying to talk facts with them, most of which never got answered or refuted. All you get is some drivel about how people are abusing/talking about murdering the glazers, about extremism hurting the club, about how Red knights is not the answer, etc etc
No direct refutations of simple logic/facts ….I dont want to know Red Knights agenda, all I know is the Glazers must change their policies and invest some of their own god-damn money to reduce the excessive leverage they have been piling on the club….rather than feeding on the club’s profits to repay all their loans.
Everything might still turn out to be fine in the long-run, but that doesn’t justify what they are doing is right..
Keep up the good fight! Coz I certainly have lost the appetite to discuss facts and logic against “know-it-all” experts who do not even have the decency to be respectful towards others