Realistally how much longer could the Glazers go on?

Devil81

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They've drained the club as far as they can commercially. The game has change from being leaders of the pack to hunters hunting their pray.

Each year the noose seems to be getting tighter and tighter financially in the transfer market. The net spend this season will be close to 100 million, which in reality isn't much different from a midtable Premier league side.

The stadium is way behind others in terms of match day hospitality and improving that would mean a huge investment.

If the sale didn't go through and the Glazers stayed, how much longer before we faced real financial problems to the point where we were in the position of a Barcelona?
 
Devil81 said:
They've drained the club as far as they can commercially. The game has change from being leaders of the pack to hunters hunting their pray.

Each year the noose seems to be getting tighter and tighter financially in the transfer market. The net spend this season will be close to 100 million, which in reality isn't much different from a midtable Premier league side.

The stadium is way behind others in terms of match day hospitality and improving that would mean a huge investment.

If the sale didn't go through and the Glazers stayed, how much longer before we faced real financial problems to the point where we were in the position of a Barcelona?
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Barcelona won la Liga last season. Barcelona are still ahead of us.
 
Unfortunately, they can keep going for a long time. Raising money to keep the club going will be no problem for them as many investors would be happy to finance the club via an equity or debt offering. Worse case scenario is them raising just enough funds to stay while reducing transfer spending.
 
It took 24 years for the Washington football team to get rid of Daniel Snyder. Based on that I'd guess 2029 atleast.
 
I pointed this out in the sale thread a while back but they are under no pressure whatsoever to sell, they can just let the club slide down the table slowly if they wanted to by reigning in our spending more and more and giving out lesser and lesser contracts. Their only worry is paying off interest/loans which the club can basically do itself if they handicap transfer outlay.
 
And on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on just like most subjects on the Caf
 
At this point I fear they never intended to sell the club, only use the bids as a valuation baseline to borrow more money against
 
They can stay for as long as they want to. Which is what they are doing. They are not under any outside pressure to sell. Five years from now we will be discussing the same shit.
 
I think they will sell when we get relegated. Sad thing is....I'd happily accept that.
 
The stadium needs and facilities need to evolve. I do not buy this Champions league extended format to the extent it is being suggested.They would have already been aware of that and we are not guaranteed to even get in it, in spite of the fact it may be top .

We will never win another title under their governance.

If the 92 Foundation really want it then will have to increase their bid, that may make the class A shareholders kick off even more.
 
The debt situation is unsustainable - a significant amount is coming due and will have to be rolled over at much higher interest rates. They will sell.
 
As long as they want. Probably the only sure fire way of getting rid of them is either assassination or getting relegated. We get relegated the value drops and they wanna lose us
 
If we keep having transfer windows like this with underwhelming signings and constant talk of needing to sell before we buy then fan resentment will eventually grow out of control and the protests will get harder to ignore.
 
The value drops a lot faster than relegation : The whole model relies on regular UCL money to run smoothly.
The Glazers never were too arsed not competing for the title with City. The management do care if the team is not top 4.
 
I think today something changed in me.

I finally came to the realisation that we are done until there is real change. Our spending is now so curtailed that even if the Glazers had a change of heart and invested in the club, we’d still be fecked because of FFP. We can’t even bank on being Manchester United and musclling our way through with inefficient, albeit vast, spending. So much overspending over the years on the wrong players with huge wages, in an incoherent and scattergun fashion, and subsequently making huge losses on them has finally caught up with us.

We’re fecked. Getting back to the top always felt like a matter of when, now it feels like if.
 
The defaitism in here, what the hell?

If this is all we got as a fan base, we really deserve no better than the our american parasite owners.

I maintain that if we start to consistently make enough of a ruckus outside of Old Trafford on game nights to get matches canceled, they will be forced to sell.
 
My opinion is a lot different from the majority here. I think they will be gone eventually, probably sooner than most think.

As you correctly pointed out, the transfer market is becoming more and more inflated, you need to spend big money just to survive let alone compete for titles. The gap in quality between most teams is now closing even more with teams like Newcastle/Aston Villa/Brighton/Brentford etc, making the league more competitive as well as the top 4 race. We are already quite severely handicapped from our previous overspending on transfers from 2013 onwards in the Woodward Era, you know, the 'we can do things in the market no other club can' era, which has led to gross mismanage of transfer funds as well as a completely overinflated wage bill. That has now caught up with us, as we can see with the supposed FFP issues and how we can barely get any players out of the club (they all want their pay day like Maguire, otherwise they're happy to stay put and remain on the bench/reserves till their contract runs up). Add in the fact we need to overhaul the training facilities and the stadium whilst still being expected to compete in the transfer market and pay player wages each season, all the while being in a crippling amount of debt which is going to keep rising with the growing interest rates... It is just not feasible.

There has to be 3 options for the Glazers: 1) Some sort of investment has to come in. Whether that is a private equity or they sell part of their stake whilst another party takes reign (EG INEOS). 2) They accept they cannot change the situation and therefore decide to sell the club outright (at the moment, that would be to Qatar). 3) They believe the football landscape will change which will allow them to compete in the future whilst taking a loss short term. The Glazers were probably hoping that was the European Super League in 2020/21, now you can see why they were one of the driving forces behind that. That did not happen. There are reports out about how they are hoping the new UCL format will have increased prize draws as well as the club world cup, but you need to be in those competitions for a sustained period for it to have an impact on your finances. United won't be with the current model and the growing competitiveness in the PL.

I could be severely short sighted or maybe it's the hidden optimist in me but the way i see it it is only a matter of time. I think the process is accelerated further if we continue to finish outside of the UCL places for a few seasons and if no private investment comes in. Fan and media pressure will continue.
 
Proably forever. They'll just past it down to their children and so on.
 
Turn the question around, what could compel them to sell if they don't want to? Realistically nothing, they're demonstrated that fan pressure is worth essentially nothing. Answer, as long as they want to.
 
Irishman said:
I think they will sell when we get relegated. Sad thing is....I'd happily accept that.
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Relegation wasn’t all that bad and it was just what we needed to finally rebuild. I remember it well and we had a hoot in the old second division with The Doc and came back stronger and almost won the old 1st Division.
 
foolsgold said:
Turn the question around, what could compel them to sell if they don't want to? Realistically nothing, they're demonstrated that fan pressure is worth essentially nothing. Answer, as long as they want to.
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'Fan Pressure' as in sit in protests and complaining on forums sure, that won't move them an inch.

If we started getting games cancelled on a regular basis however, points deductions, big fines - things would start moving I've no doubt.

It's a big ask of people though. We're all grown ups with lives and responsibilities. All we want to do is enjoy watching some football - not purposely sabotage the club we love.
 
TMDaines said:
I think today something changed in me.

I finally came to the realisation that we are done until there is real change. Our spending is now so curtailed that even if the Glazers had a change of heart and invested in the club, we’d still be fecked because of FFP. We can’t even bank on being Manchester United and musclling our way through with inefficient, albeit vast, spending. So much overspending over the years on the wrong players with huge wages, in an incoherent and scattergun fashion, and subsequently making huge losses on them has finally caught up with us.

We’re fecked. Getting back to the top always felt like a matter of when, now it feels like if.
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Nothing is going to change until the owners feck off, absolutely. Even for a club of our stature year after year of incompetence on top of incompetence is something you can't get away from in this day and age. I'm not saying we won't win anything ever while the leeches are still owners, fortunately we still have good enough players to ensure that it won't be the case in the foreseeable future, just don't expect us to compete with the likes of City until they pack their bags.
 
TMDaines said:
Finally came to the realisation that we are done until there is real change. Our spending is now so curtailed that even if the Glazers had a change of heart and invested in the club, we’d still be fecked because of FFP.
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We just spent 400m in two seasons. How the heck is our spending curtailed??
 
At this rate I doubt they will sell anytime soon. I was thinking if we had a season like Chelsea had last season that it might be enough to convince them to sell but even I’m beginning to doubt that.
 
Meh, they just rejected (allegedly) a 6bn at least offer.

So I think they're far from desperate and can still hold on for a long time.

It's not like our Finance is in dire position, we can't spend 300M / year, but 150M / year is very doable.
 
I'm blindly optimistic that the sale will happen in the next couple of months.

This transfer window, while seemingly off to a good start has been eye opening to say the least. There were warning signs last year. I don't think we can blame it all on Arnold and Murtough this time. The money looks to have dried up.
 
If they don't sell with this attempt, it will be another 5-8 years before they can -- whether it be a distress sale or otherwise.
 
My biggest fear regarding the glazers ownership wise is them doing what Laporta did to Barcelona with his levers, where they sell off our future earnings to get money now to prop up their ownership
 
Interest on debt, stadium needing reinvestment, competitive clubs with state level backing, more average spending amongst top 4 contenders, the market for players being more inflated, their business reputation destroyed (Ronaldo interview etc).

I don't see the rhetoric that the Glazers are intending to stay here for the foreseeable future. The sale is likely triggered by a projection of future forecasts. Even with United's strong revenue foundations there's too much developments needed to the extent an owner is going to have to use their own resources to comply with progress.

The glazers owning United long term is not sustainable.

Fan unrest is only a consideration if it became radical (not inciting violence). Unfortunately many have too much sentimentality, so protesting in the form of banners etc at matches defeats the purpose to some degree because from the owners perspective tickets are being paid.
 
How long? Well as Orwell said in Nineteen Eighty-Four

‘If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever.’
 
sglowrider said:
If they don't sell with this attempt, it will be another 5-8 years before they can -- whether it be a distress sale or otherwise.
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No party will take them seriously. The bids would have cost Jassim & Ratcliffe at least $20m each in legal and administrative fees. I have a feeling the take over will be announced after the transfer window, so clubs don't rip us off on fee, similar to Saudi takeover of Newcastle.
 
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