The view in Old Trafford on Wednesday afternoon was far more subdued than expected after the Glazer family quietly announced plans to sell Manchester United after 17 years of ownership late on Tuesday.
The disparaging banners and burning effigies of Malcolm Glazer of past protests were nowhere to be seen. In fact, the grounds were almost empty. Those who did speak to the Guardian, however, were scathing about the outgoing owners.
“Good riddance, I think every Manchester United fan will say,” says Babak Tabrizi, 64, the manager of United Cafe. “They’ve never really invested any money into United but they’ve taken lots of money out of the club.”
The Glazers bought the club for £790m in 2005 through a leveraged buyout, meaning borrowed money is used to finance the acquisition of a company. Prior to its purchase, Manchester United had no debt. By September 2022, the club had a net debt of £514.9m. In the same year, £33.6m of shareholder dividends were paid out.
Daniel Gooch, 30, said the Glazers had “ruined the club”. “They take the dividends. They’ve done nothing else.” Tabriri added: “In recent years, the stadium has been neglected. To be fair they’ve always spent money on players but really the investment that’s needed hasn’t been there.”
Hours before the Glazers’ announcement, Cristiano Ronaldo left the club after an incendiary interview with Piers Morgan in which he criticised the lack of investment by the club’s owners.
“Nothing changed since I left [in 2009]”, he said. “The pool, the Jacuzzi, even the gym, even some technology,” he said. “I thought I would see new technology, infrastructure. I saw things I saw when I was 20.”
It has been 17 years since the Glazers’ takeover prompted a breakaway group of Manchester United fans to set up a new supporter-owned club, FC United of Manchester, prompting scorn from Sir Alex Ferguson and others.
There was little sense of glee from FC United figures on Wednesday about the potentially imminent departure of the American multimillionaires, despite being largely vindicated for abandoning Old Trafford in 2005.
Natalie Atkinson, FC United’s chief executive, said the Glazers’ ownership had been an “unmitigated disaster” for Manchester United and their exit would be “cautiously celebrated” by some. However, she said many would be worried about being taken over by a state autocrat such as Qatar.
Any sale would not change the “deep-rooted issues in modern football, where supporters are regularly treated with disdain”, she added.
Nick Duckett, an FC United co-founder and chair of its London branch, said he had completely lost interest in professional football since he severed his family’s 100-year ties to Old Trafford back in 2005. “I can’t go back there and worse than that, I don’t want to go back.”
Duckett, 67, said he would not be celebrating any selling of the club: “Man United now is about making money and whoever takes it over will probably make more money than the Glazers did.”
Matt Farnworth, an FC United member and former chair of its youth branch, said the Glazers had “taken the club back 10 years” and their failure was “in one sense” a vindication of the fans who had set up the rebel club. Farnworth, 30, said “it still hurts” to think “what if” the Glazers had not taken over United and it had remained one of Europe’s premier clubs.
As for who could take over, the success of the city’s other team has not gone unnoticed. “Oil money. Someone who would go: ‘I want this player, here you go, go on and buy him,’” said Graham Murdoch, 29, a fan visiting from Glasgow.
Tabrizi said: “If a Gulf country with loads of money – [as happened at] City, PSG or Newcastle – buys the club, they might invest more money. The area around City has been completely regenerated. It would be good if something like this happened here.
“Ultimately, it all depends on if they actually believe in Manchester United.”
