I love how being an owner and operator of Manchester United has somehow been reduced to a popularity contest. “He’s a knob!”. Okay…..do I care? Not really. I assume pretty much everyone with the wealth to buy into a club of United’s size will be considered a knob by the average fan. There’s no such thing as a purely altruistic, warm hearted, morally pure billionaire who is willing to buy the club and run it in a way that meets the approval of all the fans, while simultaneously echoing all their diverse social and political views.
So, aside from clearing the bar of whether the owner in question is not some front for a murderous, human rights abusing regime, all that matters is the job they do as a steward of the club. So far Ratcliffe has invested his own money, something the Glazers have never done in 20 years, made progress on the stadium, started a massive infrastructure improvement project, and overhauled the executive football side of the club with best in class personnel throughout. And it’s not even been six months. Instead, every time some little headline comes out about the new regime not fixing every issue yet, people trot out silly, petty examples like “well at least the IT department is clean” in some reductive effort to justify their own petty jealousy or agenda.
It’s all so stupid. To get United back to the top is a multi-year project, and yet I have seen more positive restructuring and change in the last four months, than I’ve seen in the last 12 years. And for the first time since Fergie retired, been given the feeling that lasting and meaningful change might not just be possible, but is in fact probable. I never wanted a club owned by some bottomless pocketed nation state, I only ever wanted a club that was self sustainable, intelligently and decisively run, and one that was a positive agent for change in both the local community as well as on a wider level through its foundation. Ineos is clearly putting us on a path for the first two, and time will judge on the third. If they are able to collaborate with local and national government to push ahead with the Trafford Park regeneration project, and deliver a Stadium for the North - as envisaged - then they will have done much to deliver on that goal too. The fact that the Manchester United Foundation has been exempted from planned redundancies also shows that they are not completely the cold, cynical bastards that some would have you believe. Although, let’s all be realists here and acknowledge that to run a massive company efficiently, you are going to have to make unpopular decisions along the way, and objective appraisals rather than emotionally subjective reactions will always be the order of the day. Last time I checked United was a publicly listed company, not a non-profit,
In a limited pool of potential new owners, one full of Oligarchs and human rights abusing national wealth funds, for us to get a self made local billionaire, born minutes from the ground, and a lifelong United fan, I’d say we’ve done pretty well for ourselves. I know some of you make an emotional living off hating on everything United, despite your supposed support of the club, and suck on the lifeblood of your hatred for wealthy successful people to sustain yourselves; but it might shock you to know that someone whose scale of wealth you are opposed to on ideological grounds, can actually be right about some things you care about, and might actually be good for your club.
I heavily opposed Brexit, and think it is one of the all time worst self inflicted economic wounds in history. I heavily disagree with anyone who supported it, on either social or economic grounds. I also think Jim Ratcliffe has already done a great job in taking over the running of the club, and have a lot of belief and optimism in his competency and vision for the future. None of these are mutually exclusive concepts. To not be able to see past one issue (“he’s a billionaire, lynch him!”, “he supported Brexit, he’s a cancer on society”) to objectively analyse an unrelated other issue, is just myopic, exhausting, and self defeating.