Soldato
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Well it's certainly not because they in financial difficulty.
The Manchester United Club Thread **Sponsored by Comedy Central**
- Thread starter Robbo
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It won't make a blind bit of difference because the failure is the performance on the pitch and the senior management/owners.
Saving pennies whilst wasting millions
To reiterate, this is my stance. I'm not against cost cutting as a concept.
Elon Manc.
Caporegime
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I wonder how these compare to other clubs, somehow these articles never mention what other clubs do.
Got to golfclap the Glazers for outsourcing all the crap to INEOS and having the nerve to have the club put out statements stating it’s because we’ve ’lost money for the last five years.’
No, it’s because we’ve been sucked dry by you and we continuously lose money because you take it all, you absolute ****ers.
No, it’s because we’ve been sucked dry by you and we continuously lose money because you take it all, you absolute ****ers.
Caporegime
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I believe part of the terms of purchase was they weren't allowed to badmouth the Glazers sadly.
Sadly.
No, you lose money because you **** it up the wall on transfers. Even after paying the interest on the debt related to the Glazers purchase, Utd are still making well in excess of £100m in cash profits per year. The bottom line losses are due to wasting hundreds of millions on transfers.
Sorry, I’d taken that part as a given. We go over it enough on here.
But the point is, you've not been sucked dry. I'm in no way defending the Glazers and I agree with the first part of your post, selling a minority stake in the club and allowing Ratcliffe to run the club was a masterstroke by them however there is a limit to what you can blame on them. The Glazers have owned the club for years and haven't carried out cuts like this nor have they been particularly aggressive with ticket prices (in fact they froze them for years on end iinm). They're not the reason for these redundancies, cuts and ticket price rises. These decisions are on Ratcliffe and it shouldn't be a surprise if you know anything about him. I commented on it before, I upset a few of your fans when I compared his business practices to Mike Ashley when he first took over. He's doing at Utd what he's always done and he's trying to fool you by claiming it's due to financial mismanagement of the business.
The business of Man Utd, before transfers, is still hugely profitable even accounting for the interest on the Glazers debt. Any financial issues Utd face (and I say that loosely as these issues are exaggerated) is almost entirely down to the football side of the business, not the Glazers sucking you dry. If Ratcliffe wanted to improve Utd's financial state then how about not extending a managers contract, allowing him to spend £200m and then firing him within a few months. Not paying compensation to bring in Ashworth and then firing him within a few months. These are the reasons why Utd have gone from having £300m cash in the bank and little to no transfer debt to now having burned through almost all that cash, owing other clubs hundreds of millions and using £200m odd of their overdraft within 5 years or so.
Soldato
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Most of these cost cutting measures are an absolute joke which ever way you look at it.
It’s saving very little in the grand scheme of things.
The Glazers used £30m to pay for a consultant for the sale of a bit of the club.
Paid a reported £14m sacking Ashworth.
Took 3 or 4 private jets to ETH holiday home to let him know they’ve decided to keep him employed in the summer.
The credit limit of the club is stretched beyond as well.
Monaco Jim is making the Glazers look good, as at least they gave a **** about people working for them and the club.
Moral around the place must be about as low as it can get.
It’s saving very little in the grand scheme of things.
The Glazers used £30m to pay for a consultant for the sale of a bit of the club.
Paid a reported £14m sacking Ashworth.
Took 3 or 4 private jets to ETH holiday home to let him know they’ve decided to keep him employed in the summer.
The credit limit of the club is stretched beyond as well.
Monaco Jim is making the Glazers look good, as at least they gave a **** about people working for them and the club.
Moral around the place must be about as low as it can get.
I’d say they’re a very large part of the reason we are where we are though. They’ve never invested a penny. I’m not sure of definitions for sucking dry and what constitutes that, but £1+ billion is a fair old chunk. Even ol’ Jim invested something. Though I’m in no way defending INEOS - as you’ve rightly pointed out, they appear to be handling things rather badly.
I’m just hoping it starts to settle down somewhat in the summer, but it’s United, so I doubt it.
Good on him for taking a scythe to the club if it's deemed they have just wasted money on staff for little reason over the years. They have to start getting the money under control and I think it's great to see someone doing a proper review. I mean for year fans on here kept saying, stop dithering with Sancho pay 80-90-100 million whatever it takes because you could afford it. They kept on chucking money at the side to please the fans and now someone has to start cleaning up shop. Even with the money the Glaziers took there's been more than enough money in the side.
Footballers get paid so much money, transfers are out of control they have to start trying to run an actual business now. Fans demand signings and better facilities, somehow you have to pay for that. You can try and cut the wage bill and reduce transfer fees but that isn't getting you up the table. The finances are obviously in a complete mess and you are looking at years to turn this around.
Footballers get paid so much money, transfers are out of control they have to start trying to run an actual business now. Fans demand signings and better facilities, somehow you have to pay for that. You can try and cut the wage bill and reduce transfer fees but that isn't getting you up the table. The finances are obviously in a complete mess and you are looking at years to turn this around.
As I said I'm not defending the Glazers, they've been terrible owners and are ultimately responsible for the way the football side of the club has ****ed all that money up the wall but Ratcliffe sacking 400 staff, cutting disabled fan budgets and putting ticket prices up doesn't change that. That is ultimately the issue Utd have and he's continued from where the Glazers have left off in that regard, with huge waste but then wants you and what are likely the lowest paid employees to pay for it.
edit: Ultimately Ratcliffe is treating Utd like he would any other business and an incredibly ruthless businessman, even more so than the Glazers. I fundamentally disagree with football clubs being treated like any old business. I have no doubt there are some perfectly justifiable cuts that Ratcliffe is making (I commented on Fergie's salary myself) however young supporters shouldn't be priced out of going to watch their side because a club in one of the richest areas of the world charge more than Utd (not that Fulham should be charging those prices either) and a club the size of Utd with the turnover they have shouldn't be making cuts of such insignificant amounts to them to foundations and disabled fans. Ratcliffe clearly disagrees and I'm sure will go harder if he could.
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I’m sure there will be some justification for these cuts, but as Baz mentioned earlier, Ratcliffe is definitely giving off strong 'Victorian factory owner' vibes. Some of this is probably due to the intense scrutiny on the club and the attention these negative stories attract, but still.
No wonder the staff and players were reluctant to criticize the Glazers - seems like everyone was having a great time!
We have to give them a chance to implement these changes, however harsh they may seem, and see if they can fix the football side of things. That said, it’s fair to say this has been a pretty bleak start.
On another note, I’m a bit concerned about Amorim - he looks absolutely tormented at times. Feels like the players are driving him insane.
No wonder the staff and players were reluctant to criticize the Glazers - seems like everyone was having a great time!
We have to give them a chance to implement these changes, however harsh they may seem, and see if they can fix the football side of things. That said, it’s fair to say this has been a pretty bleak start.
On another note, I’m a bit concerned about Amorim - he looks absolutely tormented at times. Feels like the players are driving him insane.
Caporegime
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Don't think they actually did that in the end
I'm not sure if you're referring to further or different cuts however I'm sure I read or listened to a disabled Utd fan talking about the changes that have been made this season in regards to stewarding in disabled areas of OT. IIRC he specifically mentioned cuts to stewards and elevators for disabled supporters no longer being manned, in what he believed was a big safety issue.