Will it ever change? Will I ever feel joy and satisfaction for my club again(?) the way I used to before the Glazer menace blackened my heart and destroyed my dreams of an awesome Manchester United.
Let me first say that my feelings for the way United is run and over its transfer policies has left me cold, bitter and in a rage. I thank and appreciate the fine work and dedication put in by the living legend Sir Alex Ferguson. If it were not for him I shudder to think where we would have been these past years in which the Glazers took our club hostage. I may not have agreed with many of his dealings and his menacingly frustrating support of the ownership but I also realize that the man was a gifted manager and leader and he got more out of his squad than most any other man alive.
With that said let me continue now and proclaim to everyone that the King is gone. He has retired. Any past glory we had is just that, past glory. To the many, the blind, the uncompromisingly faithful it’s business as usual with a stiff upper lip. Well to all those whose hearts have not skipped a beat and who continue to live in the world of denial or eternal optimism, I just have to say good for you. No seriously, I can admire your lack of insight, lack of paranoia, lack of fear for the future. It amazes me how many of you can get up in the morning, go about your business and not worry an ounce about what is happening to your beloved Manchester United. How do you do it?
Many of you may feel I am being cuttingly sarcastic and even condescending in my manner but I seriously ask myself what it is about many of you that makes the present situation at United seem normal and acceptable? What is it about following a club with such blind devotion that regardless of the effort the owners put forth, that the love and devotion stays the same and nothing, but nothing can deter you all from your heart felt allegiance? Not even the machinations of a corrupt, evil and greedy ownership who seem Hell bent on crippling this club at the very end and running away with the gold will deter most of you from your daily love session with the Red Devils? And heaven help any of us who rock the boat
I realize that I am not one of those elite United supporters. You know the ones born in Manchester, brought up in Salford etc. I realize that I was not one of those who inherited the club from their father or uncle etc. And I do believe that fans who are that close to the club and who even have season tickets to the matches probably have a greater right to call themselves a die-hard United supporter than I have living here in the west coast of Canada. I concede that point to the many of you that fall into that category even though I know many out there like me who are among the millions of supporters worldwide might disagree. I still feel that heritage and roots mean a lot and so home grown United supporters are the elite in my humble opinion. But my problem is that it seems to me anyway, that it is this elite group mostly, that takes issue with many of my criticisms of how this club is being run. These supporters seem so stuck on the status quo that they do not appreciate some foreigner writing anything derogatory or negative about their beloved club. My question to them is why do they tolerate the current ownership and take such a defensive stance against those who do not like the way this club does business?
It’s no secret that I am infamous for my stance on the Glazers and on Manchester United’s smoke and mirrors transfer strategy. What gets me is that it doesn’t take a degree in rocket science or comprehension in string theory to comprehend what’s going on at Old Trafford these days. Glazerville has taken root and is raping and pillaging our proud and beloved club and on top of that, they have shown the finger to all of us supporters with their bad attitude, secrecy, evasiveness and blatant dishonesty. And lets not forget their incomparable ability in the use of the old confidence game.
Manchester United may be coming off another Premier League triumph and I really believe that the brilliance of Fergie placed a cover and masked the realities of the situation. In fact I do not believe there are more than three or four managers in all of world football who could have done more with the squad Fergie was saddled with last season, or for the past three to four seasons really. The man was a miracle worker. Only a miracle man and a master motivator could get so much out of a team with as poor a midfield as United’s. This was a club with two aging central defenders who spent most of their time on the trainer’s table. A striker who was too fat, too distracted and too occupied with his own selfish desires to contribute like he was capable of, another striker who had a lesser goal haul than Patrice Evra, a club that had to play it’s matches with the likes of a defensive liability in Patrice Evra, an always injured Ashley Young, a woefully unmotivated and out of form Nani and Antonio Valencia, and a club that so lacked quality in midfield, that two men nearing 40 were the focal point of their creativity in midfield.
On paper this club may look deep to some but for me it is littered with mediocrity of the highest order. And yet this very same club won the Premier League title in a runaway by eleven points. As far as I am concerned that just points a finger at the other supposedly top clubs in England who as far as I am concerned all had their heads up their collective behinds. But that looks certain to change this season. Manchester City was busy cleaning house and hiring Manuel Pelligrini while adding top talent in Jesus Navas, Alvaro Negredo and Fernandinho. And who says they are finished there. Chelsea has the “Special One” Jose Mourinho back in charge and he plans on mounting a serious challenge. Already they have bought Andre Schurrle and Marko van Ginkel amongst others with more signings to come I’m sure. And of course his main target is our own maladjusted bad boy Wayne Rooney.
If Spurs manage to keep Gareth Bale look for them to mount a serious threat for the title. The addition of Paulinho really lifts the quality of their midfield considerably and if they are successful in adding a striker, then look out. Arsenal have yet to really make a dent in the transfer market other than signing the supposed “new Henry”, Yaya Sanogo. But they have been prowling around looking for players who are interested in Arsenal. And I guess that is similar to the problem we face as a club. Finding affordable quality players that want to play for Manchester United. Liverpool and Arsenal have failed terribly of late in attracting big name talent to the club. Top tier players look at what those clubs have done lately and they feel that the two parties do not share the same lofty ambitions. And in the case of those two, it’s not hard to argue with a Gonzalo Higuain when all of a sudden he is more serious about Chelsea after being courted for over a month by Arsenal. Add to their troubles is the added stress of trying to hold on to the few truly great stars they have. Ask Brendan Rodgers about how hard it has been to keep the biter Luis Suarez happy and willing to stay at Liverpool?
It’s got very difficult for those clubs due to their restrictive financial policies. Are we that much better? Like I said before, we got away with a lot due to Fergie’s genius. How many of you honestly have that same kind of faith in David Moyes to ignore the limitations dealt to him by the Glazers and expect him to wave mirrors around and produce magic in the manner that the great man once did? This is no knock on Moyes. A quality manager and a quality man but lets face it, he’s no Sir Alex. Who is?
I feel the club is sliding down a slippery slope and many of our fans just cannot see it or comprehend the predicament that the Glazers have put our beloved Red Devils in. We have become a club run by duplicity, secrecy, corporate skulduggery and insincerity. The bottom line is to milk the club’s potential by marketing and licensing the brand worldwide, sell millions of shirts, make promotional tours to regions craving our brand and slowly paying down a massive debt that looks to never go away. Above all, under no circumstances will the ownership take a fair amount of the profits from what is deemed the second richest club in sports and put those profits on the field so that the club exceeds expectations and above all, so that the loyal fan base can enjoy with satisfaction what their club is doing in much the way that Bayern Munich supporters are doing right now and the way supporters of both Barcelona and Real Madrid have been doing for years. At Manchester United the old adage that you must spend money to make money simply does not apply. Not when the millions of fans are such dupes who continue to support the club no matter what. Spending millions per year on tickets merchandise, tv packages etc. Who needs to spend on the club when the mob seems content and happy while we swim in mediocrity? OOPS! I forgot, we are Premier League champions.
It’s all very frustrating and the most frustrating element in all of this is the American corporate style confidence game that has been played for years now when it comes to our transfer business. Many of you die-hards blame this on the tabloid media. Your argument is that United were never really in for these players. Well who’s naïve now, really? Enough already, it’s all BS and I don’t buy any of it anymore. I’m tired of these long dragged out and sordid affairs regarding supposed targets like Ronaldinho, Ballack, Ozil, Sneijder, Moura and most recently Thiago and Fabregas. Every one of them was an unrealistic target. Players who never had any intention of coming to United but whose agents were either smartly leveraging their clients for a bigger payday elsewhere or even more probable were nothing more than decoys used by United to signify intent and thus keep fans interested and in the belief that the club was sincere in their intentions to secure world class talent. This has been nothing more than a colossal confidence game where most of us loyal supporters have been duped on more than one occasion. Believe it, United leaks the information that they are interested in so and so just so that the perception is out there that United are still a major player, when they clearly are not.
Newsflash, United under the Glazers lacks the ambition and the resolve to secure world- class talent. Why spend millions on a player when the money can go into the coffers of the owners? Why spend millions when the profit will continue to roll in regardless? Why spend millions when Sir Alex will keep the club competitive regardless? Well the Glazers will one day soon realize that there comes a tipping point. A tipping point where the path treaded reverses itself. At some point this club’s good fortune will reverse itself. Like much of life things are cyclical and our dominance much like the dominance of the Roman Empire and lesser dynasties like the New York Yankees, Boston Celtics and Dallas Cowboys eventually enter a rough patch or decline. Sometimes this decline doesn’t last long, other times it may take a lifetime or longer for them to return to their former hierarchical status.
United cannot rule forever. In the 70’s and 80’s it looked like the Liverpool reign would never end, but it did. I do not want this party to end but as I said before, factors and dark forces are conspiring to end our dynasty due to greed, corruption and lack of football foresight. The Glazers run Manchester United like the many assets they have bought and sold or just shut down in the past. Once an asset has reached its market peak and it no longer bears fruit, trust me they will dump the club and it’s massive debt on someone else more willing to take it on. That’s just the way of the world and the way capitalism works.
Who is the victim who gets caught in the middle with their shorts down while Malcolm and his boys conclude this elaborate shell game? Well us of course, the fans, the die-hard supporters. And when that day comes, it really doesn’t matter whether you were born and raised in Manchester, Salford, Dubai or Beijing. We all take the hit equally for the business schemes and ambitions of a family from Florida that doesn’t give a damn about nothing but their own greedy place in the Wall Street hierarchy. So I guess they allow all of us supporters, both home grown and foreign to swim in the cesspool they have created out of what was once the greatest and proudest club in all of football. Yes, maybe I am being overly dramatic and many will accuse me of being full of crap, but what if………I’m not.
Grognard

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