Of course it's mostly about money. Why else do you think Glazers bought the club? Or do you imagine the near universal contempt of the super league was as an ostensive vehicle the fans used to get the owners to put an extra hundred million in the transfer kitty?
Oh they give a shit about it. No self respecting businessman or woman wouldn't give a shit about it. That's evident by Joel Glazers squirming apology, the public damnation of the club ownership by Nick Train, a major stakeholder, and the news of the collapse of a £200m sponsorship deal. If they didn't give a shit then they're pretty lousy businessmen indeed.
The very nature of protesting requires some degree of self-sacrifice. Mumbling quietly to yourself that you'd like things to be better, but the rearranging of a football match is too much of am inconvenience, does absolutely nothing to stop the continued decay of well over of a century of cultural significance.
OK some well argued points.
I am not too keen on the kind of protest that some feel is necessary to get what they want.
The reason I say it is about money is that people tend to dress it up as being about the tradition and spirit of the club as if it isn’t as simple as wanting more money spent on the team and the stadium etc.
Incidentally, the clubs assets are part of its value and if the Glazers care about anything, it is the value of their assets, much more so than whether a mob of discontented can stop a bus, get games postponed or lose us a few games (some of which matter to some of the fans).
Protest will quite possibly do more harm than good and the less peaceful the protest the less efffective.
There was an article in the MEN saying that the media were spreading myths about the level of transfer spending under the Glazers but when you read the article, it doesn’t dispute the facts at all, it merely says what the protesters probably think:“United should spend more than anyone on transfers” whilst it freely admitted that we are second only to City on that. I don’t disagree with the notion that we could and should outspend the rest but I don’t consider it a right, any more than I think we should join a league that will guarantee we are never relegated. It is a privilege to support a club in such a greatly advantaged position and I personally find the entitled attitude of many of our fans tiring.
I may be the only one but I just can’t get enthused about a protest that complains about us not being as rich as we used to be.
If we are hoping for a benefactor to come along who will cough up all the money from somewhere else and cycle all profits back into the club we will be waiting a long time. But more than that, if it ever happens, it will be just as dirty and empty as anything in sport.
