Dear Sirs and Scoundrels:
Let me first start by thanking you for making this summer the mother of all Hells. You along with your friends at Arsenal have made the “Silly Season” (aka summer transfer window) the “Stupid Season” and a period of history that will go down in defining your lack of competence, sincerity, honesty and integrity. You have gone and taken this club, once the beacon and shining light of football in Britain and around the world and turned it into to the standing joke of the year. And all this while you can still claim the title of defending Premier League Champions.
Impressive, most impressive.
So what the Hell am I whining about then if we are defending champions of the Barclays Premiers League? Well first of all, lets put the credit for those victories right where it belongs, with the legend himself, your former manager and unfortunate ally the great Sir Alex Ferguson. Without him the charade you, as well as your corporate lackey (I’m talking about you Edward Woodward) continue to perpetrate on the loyal but mostly naïve followers of Manchester United would surely have been exposed long ago and your decline and fall to grace would also have come much sooner than it is going to.
The lies, extortion of money and all the other disgusting and counter productive practices that have defined your so-called ownership would have been exposed long ago? The fact that the good people of Manchester (the red side of town) have willingly allowed your ownership to slowly strip away the club’s finances, prestige and ability to compete at the highest level is nothing short of criminal.
I realize for those followers of yours who still believe in your crooked regime or who just do not see what I am on about, that what I am saying is just nonsensical and based on bitterness and misinformation. Sorry but not everyone is an easy mark in your elaborate but thinly disguised confidence game. Many continue to turn a blind eye and believe in your warped and deceitful ownership. They buy into all of your machinations and manoeuvres but and they continue to ignore the most obvious and glaring omission that best defines your ownership tenure and record. The fact that you have allowed and in fact have sanctioned the slow decay of the actual football club on the pitch to proceed without spending the necessary cash that is needed to improve the team as well as stop the aging process and rot.
You all should be ashamed of yourselves. You forced a hostile takeover of this great club through a sleazy and what should be considered an illegal leverage buyout by borrowing against the club you really didn’t personally own, yet you got away with this while building an astronomical debt that has tied the hands of the club and made it impossible for them to carry on doing it’s usual business the way it has been used to for decades. You literally tied the manager’s hands behind his back and severely limited his ability to spend money for team building while also limiting the ability to keep many of his existing players happy by placing a below standard salary cap that would from that point on limit our purchasing power amongst the growing breed of money hungry mercenaries that today call themselves players.
You took over a highly successful club and a marquis organization that was the envy of Britain and Europe. Then you went ahead with your own marketing and promotional genius to help it grow into even stronger and meaner money making worldwide machine. You improved our brand name and enhanced our marketing and appeal by opening up the global avenues for commercialization and in that area you deserve respect and credit. But what is it all for if the club on the pitch does not benefit from this cash influx your marketing machine has created?
In all you marketing and promotional wisdom you forgot about the most important aspect in running a business, the quality control and freshness of your product. Somewhere down the line you got so caught up in extorting the record profits that were coming in from your branding and promotion of the club that you forgot the reason why you were able to promote this club in the first place. You forgot the reputation and legacy this club has built comes from decades of unparalleled success under two managers, Ferguson and Sir Matt Busby. This club’s success under these two men built the name and reputation of Manchester United in the United Kingdom and around the world. But then again you already knew this and that is why you crossed the Atlantic to take this club over. 2008 was rough year for Family Glazer as your empire took a big hit from the economic crash and your shopping mall empire was creating many ghost towns throughout America. You needed a moneymaker to help keep you in those beach side Floridian mansions you are so comfortable living in and what better dupe was there to ensure that continued than Manchester United, the gift that keeps on giving.
You already knew just how reassuring a sports franchise could be as well as how gullible an entire community could be if they were football crazy. The Tamp Bay Buccaneers you own have thanks to you, the lowest team salary scale in all of the National Football League. And unless they draft a star right out of college, have not had a star player with a high salary on the club in over a decade. Yet the club continues to sell out game after game, the community provided you with a new stadium and the fans still turn out despite the fact that the club sucks and their mediocrity is second to none. Tell me, is that the model you are using for Manchester United, especially now that Sir Alex no longer can work his mirror tricks as well as challenge you with your lack of player spending? Is that why David Moyes was a must sign manager for you? Was he your man because he could make a small club with no spending budget tread above water and even occasionally beat the better teams? A man who would know his roll and not challenge the owners and not ask questions about transfer budgets? Yes men are hard to find I know, but boy they are valuable when it comes to maintaining the status quo. Spend very little on the club and take the money made by the organization, put it towards yourselves and also improving corporate boxes and appeasing clients who will keep the money stream flowing for years to come. Sounds good in theory but you missed one key element in ensuring your long-term success.
Malcolm and sons, you seem to be missing the major point. To ensure your club’s long-term success and ability to maximize it’s money making potential worldwide, you need to ensure the club’s continued success on the pitch in all competitions. That requires an investment of profits that go back into team building by way of purchasing better and more expensive players. All restaurants have food costs and all retail businesses purchase merchandise to sell, yet you lame brained numb nuts seem to think that the revenue stream that United has created from decades of dominance on the pitch, will continue and never slow down. That the present squad that is under your employment will continue to win trophies without the need of new players injecting much need skill and new blood into a team that has long gone stale. Football clubs need constant recycling and tweaking for their continued improvement and success. Yet you have damaged the club’s reputation within the industry by making it impossible for the manager to buy players to improve the club. Not only do you not give him the necessary cash needed for a rebuild, but also you lie, deceive and manipulate the public with your deceitful intentions. You have no intention of taking money out of your own pockets to fund player purchases and so you have hired a manager who will tow the company line but who also hasn’t got the pedigree to attract the very best players to United. All part of your cunning plan along with making bids and showing interest in players who have no interest in playing for your club or especially under David Moyes.
Your methods are so disgusting and obvious to the trained eye yet you are able to keep millions of us loyal to the club hopeful and wishful. Every morning we wake up and go to our pc’s to see what transfer news has transpired that day. Has United finally signed a player? Well of course the answer to that is no. Instead what we read on a day to day basis is a continuation of the same old soap opera that you and your boardroom employees have so carefully crafted. A flimflam scam designed to keep hopes high with the wish that the positive beginning of a season will soon shut us all up and eventually another dreaded transfer window has closed and you can go on with your business of promotion and extortion until the next dreaded transfer window opens and you once again have to concoct another elaborate ruse and confidence game to keep us entertained and hopeful. Well I for one am on to you and your silly parlour games and I am fed up with the lot of you.
How long do you honestly expect this club to be on top in England if you continue to ignore the need to purchase better players for positions of need? Although I would love a Ronaldo or Bale, I am not asking or demanding either. Still, players like that would go a long way in strengthening your club on the pitch, your world brand and the sale of merchandise surrounding the chosen player would be a revenue stream you shouldn’t ignore but then again your adage for making money is by never spending any. All I am asking for is quality players to fill our holes in midfield and at left back. Players of quality who can step in and give Manchester United the injection of class and quality it will need for David Moyes to succeed as manager and to allow us the realistic chance of defending our championship for years to come as well as make us a legitimate threat in Europe again.
Why can you not see that ignoring the club’s needs on the pitch, you risk damaging the club’s prestige and standing that inevitably will hurt the brand and it’s selling appeal around the world? Why are you so intent on following your American rival John Henry by lowering expectations and destroying United in the way he has turned the once proud giant Liverpool FC into a modern day also ran and mediocrity? You are all so naïve in believing the money stream will never stop flowing and that the club will always be on top despite your ignorance and unwillingness for squad improvements. You are cashing in on the club and you are basing your projections on past accomplishments, with little regard and concern for the immediate or long term future and success of the club. For supposedly elite thinking and savvy businessmen, your narrow vision and focus on this issue is rather staggering to say the least.
Your irresponsibility is becoming legend and you ignorance to needs and interests of the club and its legions of supporters is tantamount to criminal. Shame on all of you for your criminal actions and lack of scruples regarding the running of this club. Shame on you for the endless lies and deceit that you perpetrate on all the club’s supporters. Shame on you for the astronomical ticket prices and for your future plans for pay tv, as well as for your unwillingness to buy quality players yet never sell those players on the club who are worthless or disloyal. Shame on you for making our club a laughing stock in the eyes of the media, players and agents who no longer see United as a go to destination. The game is over. There is no more Sir Alex to hide behind. He no longer can cover over the cracks in the foundation that you have created.
Finally, to all your so called supporters and there are scumbags out there that do support your evil cause or are blinded by our short term successes, I have no sympathy or time for their excuses, fabrications and canards that try to mask over your horrific running of this great club. Nothing would make me happier than for you to sell this club to a person or persons who above all respect the institution that is Manchester United, and who want to see this franchise continue to dominate the British game with winning, attacking and attractive football. Something that takes money to ensure and something you clearly haven’t got the class or moral fibre to ensure and provide. You have kidnapped and held hostage a grand football institution and through this unpunished criminal act you benefited greatly by padding your wallets with incredible wealth. Now it’s time to give back to the club. Either sell the club or give this manager a fighting chance to survive by offering him the real, and not imagined bankroll he will require in order to buy the players needed to guarantee our future success. Do this or go to Hell.
It’s time Manchester United fans got mad and got even with your lot. You have gotten away with murder for far too long and it’s high time most supporters got mad as Hell and no longer will take the bull shit you serve us on a continual basis. It’s time for us to rebel against you and demand satisfaction and hold you accountable for your mismanagement. I for one am incredibly unhappy with the direction this club is taking and despite our opening day win vs Swansea, I demand that you honestly and sincerely sanction the purchase of two world class midfielders. Stop lying and show us the money. Stop insulting us and stop insulting clubs like Everton by offering insulting amounts of money for players worth twice the amount. Stop playing games because frankly, you suck at it. Grow a pair and appease the millions who pay their hard earned money to support the second richest club in the world. You may be claiming the status of second richest, but with the buying power and allure of the 200th richest, no thanks to your neglect and narrow vision. You should be embarrassed and ashamed, but then again your legacy in America is already a massive embarrassment and shameful example of capitalism gone wrong, so I guess what you are doing to United just falls perfectly into your well documented modus operandi. Disgust and contempt do not fully describe the emotions I feel toward you for what you have done and are doing to my beloved United.
Yet again, SHAME ON YOU ALL.
