Manchester United’s chief executive Richard Arnold met with a group of fans at a pub in a bid to avoid a ‘peaceful and legal’ protest outside his house, leading to a candid discussion on a wide range of topics about the state of the club.
A small group of United fans had claimed to be arranging to hold the protest at the gates of Arnold’s home in Cheshire on Saturday over issues at the club. But the Man United supremo managed to avert such an event by meeting the group face-to-face at a local pub.
And after meeting with the group and speaking with them directly, the planned protest was subsequently called off, with Arnold leaving no stone unturned in addressing their concerns. Footage of the meeting emerged on Saturday after Arnold was secretly recorded by one of the attendees. Here, Mirror Football takes you through every word that the United chief said.
Relationship between club and fans
“I respect your passion but I need some help from you. This sounds self-serving, right, we’ve not bottled you protesting, I love the passion of the fans.
“The other thing we did, and I’m gonna tell you this is, we said any team who’s in the country who doesn’t give our away fans our 3,000, we’re gonna reciprocate, you can put that up on your [inaudible], and we’ve got full allocations at every stadium.
“You know our away fans are lively, my kids go to away games, they’re lively. [But] this has been horrible. A lot of our players are young and they have had a torrid time. The abuse they got after the Euros, no wonder confidence was shot.
"A lot of our players are young, they’re young lads, they came back after a torrid time at the Euros, [Marcus] Rashford, [Jadon] Sancho, the abuse they got after the Euros, they’ve come back for the new season, the crowd were on them.
“I’m not surprised their confidence has gone. For me, I want to put us back together as a club, so we’re all solid, to be successful. I’m going to do my bit to make sure the money’s there, that’s all I can do.
"I’ll talk to any fan. I’ll answer every email. I can’t make you do anything, carry on letting people protest, but we’re going to have to stop the flares [in case] someone gets hurt.”
The Glazers
Have Your Say! Man Utd fans, do Richard Arnold's comments make you feel hopeful for the future? Comment below.
“You might not like our current owners — I can’t help that. But if you want someone else to come in they will see that the fans love the team and that is positive.
“But last year was a f***ing nightmare. There was hate at every game.
"There were a couple of things. For one, the protests, protest to me. It's my job and I should take it. Protest to the owners, but the sponsors have put money into the club.
"They shouldn't get punished, what have they done wrong? They've put money in to help the club. Does it really [pressure on sponsors hurt the Glazers]?
"You know what it was like in 2005, the pressure put on the owners not to buy the club.
"They bought the club anyway. If you want to think about them that way, they're hard rock hard. [To say they] don't care is the wrong word... they're not frightened of people."
Wasting money
“We spent a billion pounds on players. We have spent more than anyone in Europe. I’m not thrilled where we are. It doesn’t sit easy with me and I worry how we get this sorted for the future. What’s happened is we have f***ing burned through cash," he said.
“You can’t go to our training ground and say ‘show me where the £1billion is because we haven’t spent money well historically. I’m not here to defend [chairman] Joel [Glazer]. He must speak for himself.
“But you have taken the time to come here and make your views known - and I respect that. We’ve blown through an enormous amount of money.”
Transfer funds/new stadium
“For the future, for investing in a new stadium and a latest-and-greatest training ground we’ve got to do something. We’ve got to get investors in.
"I need that to do what I want for the club. I’ve got to have more cash now because no club in the world has the money to build a new stadium.
"You either borrow it or invest it. The money has got to come from somewhere.”
Frenkie de Jong
“For this summer, the money the manager [Erik ten Hag] and director of football [John Murtough] wants is there […] and this is the bit where, what’s my job as CEO, I make sure John does his job on football. Get some f***ing players in. Money’s there, OK? Get on with it John.
"Money is not a consideration on who we want. The manager wants him [De Jong] and they have actually done the work. He's a great player.
"Is it 100 or 200 [million]? I don't know. Get who you f***ing want. Do you want me buying the players? Does that not ring a bell?"
