Manchester United' s share prices are at an all-time low ahead of one of their most important transfer windows to date.
Erik ten Hag already has a massive job on his hands, and will look to get United back to winning ways with an overhaul of the squad. But it's not yet known what his budget will be, and he hasn't been helped by the fact that the value of United has now dropped by over £1.3billion.
Shares were at an all-time low of just $11.07USD by the close of play on June 13, meaning that prices have dropped a whopping 47 percent since October 2021. We already knew that United were desperate to reclaim success, but the brutal figures have highlighted just how far away they are from where they once were.
Just 12 months ago, United's shares were valued at $15.66USD, and they even creeped up to $20.74USD after Cristiano Ronaldo returned to Old Trafford. It may not be entirely down to their lack of success on the field though that their shares have dropped to drastically.
Financial experts have claimed that United's falling stock prices are a reflection of the wider economic fears within the market, but concede that the mass rebuild that is set to take place this summer hasn't helped. But the mass drop in price means that the Glazers have seen shares drop by 21 percent since they took charge back in 2005.
The Glazer family haven't been the most popular of owners since their arrival, but recent events have seen them lose a lot of trust, and protests are now a regular part of a United matchday. United haven't won the league in almost 10 years, and they haven't won a trophy since 2017, when Jose Mourinho was in charge.
Of course, it's not all about silverware, but it's something that has been missing from United for an abnormal amount of time. And the owners popularity was at an all-time low when they were one of the clubs that voted in favour of joining the European Super League.
Fans were disgusted, and thankfully the mass protests quickly forced all English teams that were in favour of breaking away to rescind their application to join. And following this stunt, Gary Neville even called for the Glazers to sell the club, or failing that, follow his steps to prove their worth.
Speaking on his The Overlap Youtube channel, Neville said: "In terms of the Glazer family, post the Super League they said they were going to communicate with the club, they said they were going to change things. They’ve not changed anything at this football club."
He continued: "They’ve got to pay off that debt, and they can do that by selling £500million in shares to the fans, not take it out of the club and pay off that debt. They can then rebuild that stadium with £1billion, and it does probably need knocking down to be fair. It doesn’t need renovating, it needs a new stadium.
"That money can be funded from a 20-year contract by getting a sponsor in at £60-70million a year, call it ‘Something’ Old Trafford, but we have a brand new stadium, and again it resets the culture of Manchester United having the best stadium in the world. That needs to happen.
"They then need to build a new training ground. Me and Roy were part of the squad when we moved 22 years ago. We’ve now got a training ground that’s behind Tottenham and the other training grounds. They need to put £100-150million a year into a proper sporting project, along with those four things, and then you can say the Glazer family have reset the culture from the top."
