Get ya soccer hands off my football!

It will be really interesting to see how this fires up my fellow northerners…will they let it ride smoothly? very doubtful…i’m predicting a civil war!

Glazer wins control of Man United

Mr Glazer had until 17 May to make his intentions known
US sports tycoon Malcolm Glazer has won control of Manchester United in a

Bye bye mancs :smiley:.

It’s a bit of a puzzle. He claims that he bought it because it is so well run. If so then he would surely have been better off staying as a shareholder and not paying a premium to take control. If it is so well run, where does he expect to genertae the cash to justify the premium?

on a side note, it is good to see both Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand keeping up the driving standards at Old Trafford. Rooney has been charged with driving without due care and attention (imagine the grid lock in the court system if that was a law here!). The bit I love most about Rooney is the car and place - a BMW X5 at a shopping centre. One wanders how he manages to be such an individual and show such taste. :laughing:

Rio drove past a police car doing 106 mph in a Chrysler C300. He already had 9 points and had been banned for 12 months for dd before.

Good work fellas. Nice to see them working so hard to keep the hard won reputation of top english footballers firmly in the basement.

In the US.

When he says it’s “so well run,” he likely means that ManU does a great job of exploiting extensions of its brand (surely he’s not on about its playing record of late). I would guess that he thinks he can apply some unknown-as-of-yet adaptation of this model to the US. That would be a first, and if he succeeds he’ll be first in establishing a market for a soccer (sorry) Super Brand in the US, outside the west and southwest (where Hispanic soccer - sorry - teams already rule). That could make him something akin to the George Steinbrenner of American soccer (sorry). And that could easily justify paying a premium to garner control over operations.

Believe me, Americans can be brought to love, even to worship, the madness behind Manc fanatics, especially if they can be brought to love the beauty of the game. Crazy as it sounds, I believe there even exists a certain segment of the American male population who could be brought to buying Manc crap even if they couldn’t ever be brought to bear actually watching a match (American males between the ages of, say, 8 and 18). Young men like that might well load up on Manc crap if it’s pitched in a certain fashion, and maybe Glazer thinks he can use such fans to lever a way into mainstream American sport. For example, look at Vann’s shoes, bucket hats, or any number of other apparel items first aimed at young males and subsequently dragged into mainstream fashion. (idle speculation, all of that)

Good luck, Mr. Glazer, you’ll need it. Still, big risk, big reward. Very interesting, imo.

It’s a business. Mr G wants to make Man U a household name in the US and sell Man U products there. He could make even more $$$ for the club. I think the Brits just hate the Idea of an American owning Man U.

After all nobody complained when a Russian bought Cheasea did they?

You’re wrong. I wanted to write something stronger but remembered the ‘rules’. Making more money for ‘the club’ is nonsense, by the way. You mean, making more money for Malcolm Glazer.

There’s no point trying to educate you guys about what this means to United fans - Qraps post sums up the attitudes of the bitter Anyone But United brigade.

This is seriously depressing. I hope Qrap and the rest of you ABUs have a good laugh at our expense.

Football is sick and dying. Fortunately, you people hate United more than you love football, and much more than you love your own teams.

[quote=“Shuaiguoren”]You’re wrong. I wanted to write something stronger but remembered the ‘rules’. Making more money for ‘the club’ is nonsense, by the way. You mean, making more money for Malcolm Glazer.

There’s no point trying to educate you guys about what this means to United fans - Qraps post sums up the attitudes of the bitter Anyone But United brigade.

This is seriously depressing. I hope Qrap and the rest of you ABUs have a good laugh at our expense.

Football is sick and dying. Fortunately, you people hate United more than you love football, and much more than you love your own teams.[/quote]

Man U doesn’t not equal football, just because you guys got shafted by Glazer doesn’t mean that football is dying. United removed the “Football Club” part from their name because it didn’t suit their global brand image now the mancs are going around saying “football is dying”?

The money the mancs got from being a PLC afforded them cash to improve the stadium, get the best players and dominate the English football league for the better part of a decade, I didn’t hear anyone complain back then.

[quote=“Qrap”][quote=“Shuaiguoren”]You’re wrong. I wanted to write something stronger but remembered the ‘rules’. Making more money for ‘the club’ is nonsense, by the way. You mean, making more money for Malcolm Glazer.

There’s no point trying to educate you guys about what this means to United fans - Qraps post sums up the attitudes of the bitter Anyone But United brigade.

This is seriously depressing. I hope Qrap and the rest of you ABUs have a good laugh at our expense.

Football is sick and dying. Fortunately, you people hate United more than you love football, and much more than you love your own teams.[/quote]

Man U doesn’t not equal football, just because you guys got shafted by Glazer doesn’t mean that football is dying. United removed the “Football Club” part from their name because it didn’t suit their global brand image now the mancs are going around saying “football is dying”?

The money the mancs got from being a PLC afforded them cash to improve the stadium, get the best players and dominate the English football league for the better part of a decade, I didn’t hear anyone complain back then.[/quote]

Yep… it’s business as usual.

im not interested in having a flame war with an ABU.
you just go on hating United.

Such bitterness, worn so openly and right out on the sleeve, is at the very heart of American sport, too. I say that with all respect. :notworthy:

For example, NASCAR’s business model relies fundamentally on it. And NASCAR is an enormous sports phenomenon in the US. [I realize you may find offensive my relation of NASCAR - and not F1 - to football, but I think you could rather find it encouraging]

You’re right: the success of the Glazer “theory” I outlined above does not depend on the success of Man U in the short run (but remember, the sports marketing is a lever only). However, you should know that, in the words of Scott’s George Patton, “Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed.” Truer words were never spoken, believe me.

What I’m laboring on about is this: there’s a good chance Glazer’s purchase is a win-win in the long run. Yes, Glazer does this to make himself richer first, but if he plans to use Man U to increase his wealth, then in the US he’ll never be the Steinbrenner of Soccer unless Man U are the Yankees of football. Man U’s success must come sooner rather than later to keep the attention of Americans [but not of true Mancs, of course].

Glazer wins, yes, but I think the success of his purchase relies fundamentally on reviving Man U as a winner.

And that would make you Mancs as happy as it would drive the ABU’s mad, no?

No, we won’t be happy until United is owned by the fans along the model of european teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona. Success is irrelevant to real United fans in this situation. We’d rather lose every game next season so that Glazer will lose his money and we can try to buy the club back. The club would be ruined but it would be ours and we would rebuild it.

Comparing football to NASCAR isn’t offensive. I’m only offended by people who hate because that’s all they know.

I actually like American sports. I like what they do in the NFL with the drafting and salary cap, and they’ve tried to get some kind of fairness in baseball as well.

The interesting thing about Glazer is that he’s spent a billion dollars to buy the club but can never set foot inside the stadium. Passions are running very high. We’ll see what happens - it will indeed be interesting - but I won’t be supporting the team while it is owned by Glazer.

Go Dolphins!

the depth of feeling runs so high that United fans are setting up an entire new team - to be called FC United - which will play at the very bottom of the bottom of the league structure.

some stirring excerpts from the proposal - a bit long but good stuff - i doubt not that Qrap and his ilk are so rabidly anti-united that they will deride this, but if you read it you will understand something of what goes on in the hearts of true reds.

"Some have said they simply couldn

It’s a curious situation, my friend. Thing is, Mr. Glazer is an old man; in fact, he’s a charter member of what we in the US call the Greatest Generation.

[Those are the men and women who helped Russia defeat Germany and kicked Japan’s arse in WWII, and because George H.W. Bush - another charter member - happens to be George W. Bush’s father, they’re also the people upon whom America’s current political elite have declared a kind of War upon. In other words, he may be a great source of common (business) sense.–rather irrelevant to Glazer’s purchase of Man U - perhaps - sorry in any case that unnecessarily drags in the incessant American politics]

In fact, Mr. Glazer may actually hold a memory of Man U that’s longer than most Mancs, although that may well be a too-bold statement. On the other hand, it may well be correct that he hopes to retain/regain Man U’s 90’s success, and he thinks he knows a way to convince Americans to love Mancs in a way such to make him simultaneously rich while building Man U up.

Never, ever underestimate old successful financiers, my friend, of any nationality. Their wisdom is something more than merely time-tested, and it’s constrained only by the need to win (and isn’t that what Mancs covet?). Americans like Glazer could be Manc’s very best friends, I think.

Time - and Mancs - will tell.

$0.02, and

That generation of americans is indeed filled with great men, no question. Glazer isn’t one of them. His financial background is extremely distasteful. Two incidents in particular - 1) suing his own family to stop them getting money when their father died (the lawsuit is ongoing after 20 years or something crazy, i dont have the details to hand but will dig up exact figures, dates etc if anyone wants). 2) squeezing extra cash out of some of america’s poorest families living on his trailer parks by illegally charging for pets and extra children (!)

nor does he know anything about manchester united or football - his sons do, it seems, but he is only interested in the brand. which is fair enough, except without the fans there is no brand.

further, the level of debt is crazy. he can only make it work by squeezing the fans the way he squeezed his trailer park tenants. that means the real united fans, who despite what ABUs say DO live in manchester, and i should know - there may be some upside in america and china but not enough to pay the debt he has taken on

dont think fans are against him BECAUSE he is an american. he is basically the complete package of all things hateful, and happens to be a nationality it is easy for many people to dislike these days and has the physical appearance of someone it is easy for people to dislike.

Well and like it has not been enough already for the Mancs, their Team will get beaten by Arsenal tomorrow Night! :smiley:

We hope Arsenal win and take home the F.A. CUP.

[quote]Good old Arsenal,
We’re proud to say that name,
And while we sing this song,
We’ll win the game.[/quote]

[quote]One-nil to the Arsenal!
One-nil to the Arsenal!
One-nil to the Arsenal![/quote]

Ah… the good old days at Highbury…

so United’s decades long transformation from a football club to a corporation to a brand image has backfired… like another poster already said, didn’t hear much complaining from the mancs when their mega budget had them on a winning streak most of the 90’s… now it’s all “club integrity” “football first” and “we won’t stand for that”…

:raspberry: good riddance…

I’m a self confessed ABU. Nothing better than seeing the Mancs suffering IMO. Face it, you’ve had an easy ride for the past decade. It’s about time you lot realised what it’s like for 99% of football fans - pain.

For years Man Utd fans were accused of being glory hunters. Now they go two years without lifting the title, all those “fans” suddenly find a reason to switch teams. Has anybody else spotted this remarkable coincidence?

If the worse case scenario does happen, and Man Utd “do a Leeds”, so what? Football is bigger than one club, as Leeds fans discovered when they slid into oblivion. If Man U follow suit, I will be cheering all the way.

i guess it’s time to turn the thread a little and get your predictions out -

reckon it’ll be a good game, nice and feisty on and off the pitch!

the arse 4 v 2 manu

:bravo:

No, Jeff, the ABUs have ten years of bitterness to get off their chests first.

I hope Arsenal win - it will be a good laugh for the humourless ABUs on this thread. God I hope I’m not sitting next to you on my plane home.

If anyone is even remotely interested in - gosh! - thinking about anything related to United, I can assure you that united fans hate the glory hunters more than you. They take our seats in the stadium with their grating southern accents, they call in to radio shows in posh voices talking crap, they don’t sing and ruin the atmosphere in the ground.

If United do a Leeds, which will be a good thing for United, you might be surprised to find that the stadium sells out in whichever division we end up. You’ll still hate United though, don’t worry, but at that time you’ll hate us because we show your club up for being small-time, bitter and passionless.