Club ownership | Senior management team talk

[clarkydaz]

Gary Neville wasting an interview questioning the manager and never questioning the debt and his relationship with the rat Glazers. And worrying that Jim things the protests were because of the results and Gary didn’t correct him or mention the debt and the state of the clubs finances.

He knows what its about but sidestepped a difficult question hiding behind the league position

 

[Dan_F]

You know Ratcliffe being co-owners with the Glazers is probably contractually bound to not criticize them publicly?

Yep. He also can’t properly answer questions about the debt because it depends entirely on what the Glazers decide to do. He’s not going to sit there and say he has a plan to pay off the debt himself while only owning 29% of the club.

 

[Møllemanden]

Fair play to Sir Jim for doing the interview. Recognizing that the club is in the shitter and not hiding across the pond.

 

[DevilsOwn]

This video is a lot longer.

People need to see this longer version of the interview, Neville asks nearly all the tough questions.

The statement about United running out of money in Nov, though a tad alarming, does explain why we are penny pinching. Sad and scary.

We will have a couple of years of this 'frugality' before we - hopefully- get on track on a the field and then on the finances bit.

Long road ahead.

 

[Ezkay]

Neville asked about Ten Hag, Amorim's difficult results, the debt, pressured heavily about the glazers and also the job cuts. I don't understand the criticism he gets from United fans

 

[Roboc7]

Yep. He also can’t properly answer questions about the debt because it depends entirely on what the Glazers decide to do. He’s not going to sit there and say he has a plan to pay off the debt himself while only owning 29% of the club.

Yeah he can’t really say anything of any real substance about the Glazers. But when you read between the lines about his comments on the club being nearly out of cash, spending loads of money it didn’t have, wasting fortunes in the transfer market and how the club should be profitable and paying off debt I think can assume he doesn’t hold them in high regard.

Overall I think the interviews are positive as someone other than the manager had to speak up.

 

[Rasmus_9]

Gary Neville wasting an interview questioning the manager and never questioning the debt and his relationship with the rat Glazers. And worrying that Jim things the protests were because of the results and Gary didn’t correct him or mention the debt and the state of the clubs finances.


Edit: my bad, didn’t realise there was more to the interview than this clip showed. Not my brightest moment. Apologies. Glad Neville brought up the Glazers and the debt and asked him some tough questions. Worrying that neither Jim or anyone else thought of fundraising for former players fund.

Did you watch the interview? Neville goes in on the Glazers big time. Great to see

 

[Who's Kissing Cameras?]

Fair play Jim. Fronting up. feck the Glazers. They have hid from us for 20 years.

 

[DarkLord1984]

Why would any minority owner clear someone else's debt ? With no reward?

If your mate had a mortgage of £1m and said.. I will give you 20% of the house at 200k and you buy the %.. would you then clear the remainder mortgage with no return?

Did he not make a payment of 120 million or something towards the debt?

 

[Woodzy]

He’s defending the Glazers pretty big.

 

[Santoryo]

He says Amorim is doing a good job but i disagree with him.
This Team finished 8th and won the FA cup so I really don’t understand what he means there.
The whole world can see that this team has underachieved under Amorim this season.
This season has been a right off but hopefully they get it right next season.

He clearly explained why Amorim is doing a great job given the context. One example he pointed out to was that half of our highest waged players aren't even playing for us and if we look at the wage bills of players Amorim currently has had to work with given who has been available for him, it's in the bottom half of the league.

 

[Real Madras]

Halfway though. Gary asking some time questions and i think Jim is answering fairly.

Feels like his is backing Ruben 100%.

Gary seems to have a bee in the bonnet about free lunches and the ex-players dinner.

And rightly so. The free lunches and ex players dinners is minuscule in terms of what we pay Casemiro. United have always treated their people like family and that is no longer the case.

 

[Macern]

He’s defending the Glazers pretty big.

No, not at all. He’s being as critical towards them as he realistically can be.

 

[Santoryo]

Gary Neville wasting an interview questioning the manager and never questioning the debt and his relationship with the rat Glazers. And worrying that Jim things the protests were because of the results and Gary didn’t correct him or mention the debt and the state of the clubs finances.


Edit: my bad, didn’t realise there was more to the interview than this clip showed. Not my brightest moment. Apologies. Glad Neville brought up the Glazers and the debt and asked him some tough questions. Worrying that neither Jim or anyone else thought of fundraising for former players fund.

Glad you added the bolded because I was rolling my eyes reading that first part of you post given all the answers you were looking for were in the interview.

 

[parkthebuslads]

The only reason he's done the interview is to manipulate fans. He's shown who he is with his past conduct in business, he's shown what he thinks of us.

If you think that he's done a "good job" or that neville was anything other than the puppet he clearly is, that was by design. It was a carefully crafted by people who are paid a lot of money to achieve that very result.

Nothing has changed. The club will continue to achieve nothing outside of making him and them richer.

 

[Remember the geese]

I'm clearly in the minority, but I've got a lot of time for Ratcliffe. Literally the only guy on the planet who made an acceptable offer to buy the club. Without him, this club would be seriously fecked. Far worse than the situation currently. He's put in his own money, unlike the Glazers and he's genuinely attempting to correct the mistakes of the past. Yet, he gets criticised. Of course he does.

 

[rooney2009]

To be fair I’ve just seen the full interview and Gary asked all the difficult questions and credit to stingy Sir Jim for fronting up and answering the questions.
It’s more than we’ve got from the parasites that are the Glazers

 

[tomaldinho1]

The only reason he's done the interview is to manipulate fans. He's shown who he is with his past conduct in business, he's shown what he thinks of us.

If you think that he's done a "good job" or that neville was anything other than the puppet he clearly is, that was by design. It was a carefully crafted by people who are paid a lot of money to achieve that very result.

Nothing has changed. The club will continue to achieve nothing outside of making him and them richer.

Agree and disagree. Agree it is all scripted, Sir Jim will not be going in blind and G Nev will ask questions that have been deemed 'ok'. That said, it is nice to actually see the 'owner' and for them to at least put some time into speaking about the club and give their answers, so it's better than not hearing anything.

Disagree re making them richer, Ineos have put money in, are trying to change things from what we see. There's every chance they lose money with us.

 

[Drz]

Fair play for being accountable but it was a yikes decision at the time and still is

He goes into more detail on the ETH decision in the Neville interview.

 

[Santoryo]

And rightly so. The free lunches and ex players dinners is minuscule in terms of what we pay Casemiro. United have always treated their people like family and that is no longer the case.

Jim's point is that you can't blur the line when it comes to cutting cost, especially when you're trying to tear everything down and start from a new solid foundation. Eventually when things settled and the club's financials' situation is a bit more stable, things such as free lunches and what have you will be restored. But as of right now, some tough decisions have to be made and you can't pick and chose as to what need to be retrenched in order to curtail the financial bleeding the club is currently going through.

 

[Møllemanden]

He said the club paid £89m last summer on players bought before Ineos joined the club. This summer we'll pay £17m to Dortmund for Sancho. Every decision pre Ineos was taken as if CL qualification was a given. No wonder it's problematic at the moment.

 

[laughtersassassin]

He said the club paid £89m last summer on players bought before Ineos joined the club. This summer we'll pay £17m to Dortmund for Sancho. Every decision pre Ineos was taken as if CL qualification was a given. No wonder it's problematic at the moment.

He actually said we have to pay 80 million this summer in current players even if we buy no one

 

[lilcurt]

I'm not going to hate on an owner for fronting up in a 40 minute interview when we haven't had anyone will to do that in 20 years.

I did find some of his answers concerning, such as saying "no one suggested that one", when being quizzed on the charity donation cut. More so that someone in his position would make that admission than the fact it hadn't been suggested.

I'm one of the few on here who hasn't made too much comment on the job cuts. I'm involved in business decisions and sometimes it isn't viable to keep people if they aren't needed.

I wish Neville had asked if there was a longterm plan to buy out the Glazer's, felt like the elephant in the room. I'm hoping that the vacuum of that question points towards it being something already known by those closer to the situation.

Overall, satisfied that we got to hear from him. Happy with the backing of the manager.

 

[WeePat]

Neville interviews Sir Jim

Haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, but thought I’d share

I’m about halfway through this. Fair play to GNev. He asked some pretty important questions. I wish someone would bring Boehly or Clearlake in front of a camera and questioned like that. I don’t think Ratcliffe came across well at all to be honest, though I acknowledge there’s a lot of things he can’t just be open and frank about, life the Glazers dividends question.

 

[Møllemanden]

He actually said we have to pay 80 million this summer in current players even if we buy no one

Either way. It's simply mind-boggling how poorly run this club is/has been.

 

[RedCoffee]

He reckons we'd have gone bust by Christmas this year if certain costs weren't cut. I don't believe that.

 

[Remember the geese]

He reckons we'd have gone bust by Christmas this year if certain costs weren't cut. I don't believe that.

I do.

 

[big_jeffstar]

I’m about halfway through this. Fair play to GNev. He asked some pretty important questions. I wish someone would bring Boehly or Clearlake in front of a camera and questioned like that. I don’t think Ratcliffe came across well at all to be honest, though I acknowledge there’s a lot of things he can just be open and frank about, like the Glazers dividends question.

I think you’ve just got to hold your hands up and say fair dos.. it’s easy for us as fans to sit and say what they SHOULD be doing.. but I imagine the actual reality of trying to stop a football club going into liquidation is a much bigger problem than we actually know.. the big tell in this entire interview was how surprised he looked when Neville suggested having a whip round, I genuinely think he’s surrounded himself with business men, and they don’t really have any nostalgia for the club.. which solves one problem but almost creates another..

 

[Leg-End]

You get the impression that they can’t quite believe the scale of mismanagement before they got involved, some sensibility is exactly what this club needed and unfortunately that does come with some pain.

I think he stumbled on some key points which worries me, the whole community aspect and £40k (“nobody suggested that”), it’s clear the priority is to balance the books and mop up the fallout later, perhaps that’s what it needs but I’d hope they consider the impact of such decisions next time.

He’s bullish about the future at least and its obvious he isn’t going to throw the glazers under the bus in an interview with Gary Neville, but he gave enough away in so many words, he’s probably baffled by them.

 

[RedCoffee]

I do.

He's talking about free lunches, community payments, and so on. That will not save us if that statement is correct.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

The only reason he's done the interview is to manipulate fans. He's shown who he is with his past conduct in business, he's shown what he thinks of us.

If you think that he's done a "good job" or that neville was anything other than the puppet he clearly is, that was by design. It was a carefully crafted by people who are paid a lot of money to achieve that very result.

Nothing has changed. The club will continue to achieve nothing outside of making him and them richer.

I highly doubt that. With the stadium costs, the money he's already put into the club and his long term goal of owning the club out right, there's not a chance he will see a return on his investment. United is going to cost him billions in the long run, if his goal is to just make money then he's made an horrendous investment.

 

[MikeUpNorth]

He reckons we'd have gone bust by Christmas this year if certain costs weren't cut. I don't believe that.

He actually says the club would have "run out of cash" by November, which is true when you look at the accounts. They wouldn't have gone bankrupt but would have had to issue more debt or raise more equity.

 

[clarkydaz]

I think you’ve just got to hold your hands up and say fair dos.. it’s easy for us as fans to sit and say what they SHOULD be doing.. but I imagine the actual reality of trying to stop a football club going into liquidation is a much bigger problem than we actually know.. the big tell in this entire interview was how surprised he looked when Neville suggested having a whip round, I genuinely think he’s surrounded himself with business men, and they don’t really have any nostalgia for the club.. which solves one problem but almost creates another..

didnt Bruno offer to pay for staff expenses and Ineos refused? Maybe he was just caught out with no answer for it

 

[Cole9]

Fair play to him for doing the interview, and to Neville for asking some tough questions.

If we do go for a new stadium though, where is the money coming from? It’ll probably cost £2-3 billion, maybe more. How will we pay for this? More debt presumably.

 

[Raoul]

Great interview.

The bit about Ashworth’s sacking was pretty telling. Reading between the lines, it sounded like he didn’t get along with Berrada.

 

[Woodzy]

He reckons we'd have gone bust by Christmas this year if certain costs weren't cut. I don't believe that.

Neville said he was also aware of that. I don’t know think it’s a secret really especially with finances being widely published.

 

[Macern]

I'm clearly in the minority, but I've got a lot of time for Ratcliffe. Literally the only guy on the planet who made an acceptable offer to buy the club. Without him, this club would be seriously fecked. Far worse than the situation currently. He's put in his own money, unlike the Glazers and he's genuinely attempting to correct the mistakes of the past. Yet, he gets criticised. Of course he does.

Agreed. Some people have their minds made up about the club a long time ago and will just criticize everyone and everything regardless of what they do. Ratcliffe could get every decision right for a year and still he’d get flamed by a lot of the fans, unfortunately.

It’s particularly important in a time like this to be supportive and give credit where it’s due, because given the hate he receives it’s not a given he’d find it worth it to go through it all and we’d be infinitely more screwed if it wasn’t for him.

I think his overall strategy is just what the club needs, and obviously he won’t get every decision right. He has the balls to admit their mistakes though and act accordingly as was the case with Dan Ashworth.

 

[DeludedOptimism]

Say what you will (and I appreciate that he has become public enemy No2 - behind the Glazers), but he has already been more transparent with the fans (via the media) and put his hands up on their mistakes than they ever have.

He is absolutely right to back the manager and he at least claims to have a method to the madness that has seemingly prevailed this past year.

 

[bosnian_red]

He reckons we'd have gone bust by Christmas this year if certain costs weren't cut. I don't believe that.

Surprised we didn't get bigger issues sooner tbh

 

[saivet]

I’m about halfway through this. Fair play to GNev. He asked some pretty important questions. I wish someone would bring Boehly or Clearlake in front of a camera and questioned like that. I don’t think Ratcliffe came across well at all to be honest, though I acknowledge there’s a lot of things he can’t just be open and frank about, life the Glazers dividends question.

This is where I'm at as well. It's a credit that Radcliffe is publicly facing the music but I don't come out of this thinking Ratcliffe comes across well. My perception of him hasn't really changed.

I still think it's concerning how he is so involved in the footballing decisions, I expect him to rightfully have his opinion but I get the feeling that he's heavily influential in footballing matters which I don't see as a good thing.