Richard Arnold decision to meet Manchester United fans down at the pub is amateur hour.
I mean, come on, can you imagine Martin Edwards, David Gill or Peter Kenyon popping down to the Dog & Duck in Wilmslow to open up to supporters? Of course you can’t.
They’d never feel the need to pacify a few people from Twitter and it just shows how far United have fallen on and off the field since the glory days. Arnold’s claim that he was disappointed but not entirely surprised the chat was being recorded told me he knew what he was doing, too.
He knew the message he wanted to get out, which was essentially, ‘We burnt through boatloads of cash but don’t blame me, I’m the one who’s trying to do something about it’. At the end of the week in which United had missed out on Darwin Nunez to their biggest rivals and we’re hearing that Erik ten Hag isn’t getting everyone one he wants, that they are no longer the first port of call for the best players in the word, it was pretty much the last thing they needed.
It makes the club worse, not better, and it doesn’t make Arnold look like a good leader. If I was a player considering going to United this summer, it’d be making me think twice and let’s say I had the choice of United, Liverpool and Manchester City, I’d speak to United as a courtesy because of the size of the club.
But if I’m also seeing the CEO on a video saying, ‘We’re burning through cash and that hasn’t stopped yet, come and look at our training ground, and the players there, look where that money has been spent’, then I’m thinking, ‘Why should I go and bail them out?’
Should Richard Arnold have met with United's fans? Have your say in the comments below
United are stumbling from one disaster to another and Arnold has been there long enough to have had an impact on the administrative structure, the right hires and wrong hires, so he’s not exactly exonerated from blame when it comes to it.
Yet here he is talking on video like a man who’s wanting to be liked, to be loved without taking any responsibility. What I will say as well, is that if you’re talking about a supporter who really cares about the club, does he put it on social media, where all the Liverpool and City fans who are already laughing at you can double down on their amusement?
You might say to the CEO, ‘Got you there, pal, keep me and the supporters’ club informed, keep the lines of communication open’. But putting it on social media, if that’s a United supporters group I’d be worried about the supporters groups and the direction they’re taking, and if that’s the level of administration United have got in I’d be worried about that as well.
