By name, yes.
I'm a romantic. I like the way football used to be. If we're going to be a tool to some sportswashing state, then I think that's it for me.
Would you be okay with state or state-backed ownership?
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By name, yes.
I'm a romantic. I like the way football used to be. If we're going to be a tool to some sportswashing state, then I think that's it for me.
Man City in the current guise are who they are because of Abu Dhabi, before that they were the equivalent of a Wigan Bolton or at best West Ham(West Ham still had a greater history and relevance).
Football was never exactly fair but thats a different discussion. Its nothing to do with name, owners and success changes, we just happen to potentially have the (now potentially) 3rd worst in the history of the game but football's never been clean sadly.
I'll admire you if you can walk away from United if they get bought out by a regime/state or pos but likewise if you can't and many will not, because their attachment to the club is too strong. Man United will always be Man United.
Which ones?
It wouldn't be if people stop treating it with contempt.
We at least vote for our government. Those people living in Monarchies have no such choice. Look at the leaders we have selected - Boris Johnson, Lizz Truss, Rishi Sunak...all exemplary people.
I shouldn't have posted because I had a feeling this rubbish would start and I didn't want the thread to turn into this but theirs always one who knows nothing about football but spouts off like they do.
Man City won their first major trophy in 1904 (thats before United btw.. not that it matters) and their first league title in 1937. Before the takeover City had more league titles than WestHam, Bolton and Wigan put together (given those 3 all had a combined total of 0.) All 3 of those clubs are clubs with great history even if its not as decorated as some and the arrogance of your post is why many of their fans love your recent struggles. Also Wigans only FA Cup win came vs a state funded City in 2013.
The funny thing is if you had said West Brom, Sheffield Wednesday, Preston or Sunderland you'd have a point but again in trying to be smart you showed your ignorance. I made a post about what its like to be owned by a piece of shit not measuring clubs dick size and I'll only be engaging in that from here on out.
We at least vote for our government. Those people living in Monarchies have no such choice. Look at the leaders we have selected - Boris Johnson, Lizz Truss, Rishi Sunak...all exemplary people.
I didn't vote for any of those. In fact I've voted in every election since 1997 and the candidate I've voted for has never won, not once.
I'll take no blame whatsoever for the actions of the UK government, thank you very much!
People go to Dortmund as it’s a stepping stone to a big team and they generally haven’t stood in the way of players leaving at the right time.
We have a higher wage bill than the “official” wage bill of Manchester City. Pretty sure they got caught doubling mancinis wage into a secret offshore bank account. I doubt we are even remotely close to the official figure of Man City’s wage bill.
Just hope we don’t get loaded with 8b of debt to find repayments for every year, would ruin us
I never voted for a single one of those people, so why am I not allowed to complain?We at least vote for our government. Those people living in Monarchies have no such choice. Look at the leaders we have selected - Boris Johnson, Lizz Truss, Rishi Sunak...all exemplary people.
Yeah, I think you're largely right about that.
It won't simply pass without any controversy, mind you. It will be more controversy than it was when you were purchased - because United have (many) more fans, both locally and in general.
But, ultimately, it won't matter.
It will be, let's say, normalized very quickly.
The number of United fans who will - in one way or another - actually abandon the club is likely bound to be insignificant in the grand scheme of things (the perspective of any new owner).
I'd abandon the club personally. As in - I wouldn't give a feck anymore in any shape or form. But I'm a former season ticket holder who no longer resides in Manchester, and who hasn't spent a penny on anything United related for years directly.
How many current season ticket holders would not renew if we were bought by Dubai (or whatever)? I personally know United fans who wouldn't - but realistically, they won't be in the majority. And in any case, they don't represent the real money in the first place. Match revenue is insignificant compared to other sources of income. A new owner of the sort we're talking about won't give a feck about local, match-going fans.
(They won't give a feck about legitimate sources of income at all - so, yeah.)
How many of United's global fan base would jump ship if we end up being owned by Dubai (or whatever)?
Not nearly enough.
So, yeah - again, you're right.
We at least vote for our government. Those people living in Monarchies have no such choice. Look at the leaders we have selected - Boris Johnson, Lizz Truss, Rishi Sunak...all exemplary people.
Literally all 3 of those were initially not voted in by the public…
2 of them have never been voted in by the public.
P.S how I miss the Truss ‘era’, if they must be inept repulsive shitheads at least make them genuinely comedic.
I don't know. I reckon I'd be largely done with the club in any meaningful way, though probably couldn't remove myself completely. I've no doubt they'll wage an amazing PR campaign and do a great job of keeping their dirty laundry hidden, which I'll be suckered in by to some degree. But I’m already borderline done with the sport so it would be a pretty final nail in the coffin. Not watching the world cup has been a lot easier than I thought it would be.
It’s inevitable though. Soon the PL will just be nations setting their play things against one another. I just hope I can find something else to feed the void in my life before football becomes completely unbearable.
It’s inevitable though. Soon the PL will just be nations setting their play things against one another. I just hope I can find something else to feed the void in my life before football becomes completely unbearable.
The Championship / League 1?
The footy is getting better and ownership is basically like it was in the 90s PL for the most part.
We at least vote for our government. Those people living in Monarchies have no such choice. Look at the leaders we have selected - Boris Johnson, Lizz Truss, Rishi Sunak...all exemplary people.
This post is so far off topic it's hilarious.
Honestly no, not even remotely, but what does it matter? There is a lot of things going on in this world I am not OK with.
Sorry I should have said Sunderland or Preston but West Ham have definitely been more relevant than City for the last 40 years before the takeover, given the Bobby Moore era and their famed academy, good post though sorry if I offended you
Yeah I've considered that. I do loosely follow Plymouth Argyle and go to a game or two each season, but it's hard for me to really work up any true passion for them. Maybe that will change though!
Again, I didn't vote for any of them, you have no point, no argument, it's empty whataboutism.We at least vote for our government. Those people living in Monarchies have no such choice. Look at the leaders we have selected - Boris Johnson, Lizz Truss, Rishi Sunak...all exemplary people.
Tell me you're a Lib Dem without telling me you're a Lib Dem
Tell me you're a Lib Dem without telling me you're a Lib Dem
Green for the last few, lib Dems and Labour as well (once, in 97).
My constituency has literally always been Tory so my votes have never counted for anything due to the nonsense electoral system we have.
My dwindling emotional attachment would be gone.
Modern football is so shite as an experience. Where is the joy or achievement in winning by just outspending everyone, no-one cares about City winning titles, all so worthless.
Modern football is so shite as an experience. Where is the joy or achievement in winning by just outspending everyone, no-one cares about City winning titles, all so worthless.
United will be sold to a state and used for sport washing. Who is going to outbid a sovereign wealth fund backed by oil? Anyone think a Glaser will turn down an extra billion or 2 based on moral grounds? Or maybe the FA will get involved? I'll be done at that point. I don't like the current owners but at least they're just a******s.
It's a big difference though. We had been on top for decades winning everything without oil money so winning with oil money won't take the shine from it.
City pretty much won the lottery
They could do all that along with putting the right people in place but still won't be enough for some fans
All the human rights abuses and stuff.
No. That is not who this club are, nor who we should aspire to be.
The west has been telling the middle east how to think for centuries. That's the truth here. This is no different. Their values are behind us in terms of development. It's going to take them time to get there. So ironically enough launching an electronic crusade against them is going to be about as effective as the crusades were. They'll get there at some point, as the nations who are buying teams are the westernized allies among them. We can help get them there faster by being good examples of why our system and beliefs are better, instead of condemning them like a new-age catholic church.
So yes. I am fine with state-sponsored ownership. It may even be best for both parties in many ways.
So yes. I am fine with state-sponsored ownership. It may even be best for both parties in many ways.
Indeed, but typically the point of sport (for me at least) is to offer an escape from all the things in the world I'm not okay with. And it will be difficult to escape that stuff if the club is rightly receiving constant criticism for being associated with and profiting from some particularly unpleasant forms of it.
In other words even leaving aside all the bigger moral arguments, just from a pure football POV the experience will be worse. Watching football will be less fun if I don't support United, supporting United will be less fun if it's surrounded by all that noise, all that noise will be made worse by the braindead reactions of idiot football fans to it and as is I'm interested enough in football that I'd be exposed to quite a lot of that in one way or another. None of that is fun.
So the likely outcome is just being less and less engaged and more casual a football fan. Even as is there have been increasing periods over the last few years where I've thought football was taking up too many hours of my week relative to the amount of actual joy it brings and I've watched fewer actual games.
It doesn't really matter in the end, none of the fans will have much influence on who buys the club.
So a lot of people on here will go support some other club which suit their romantic rainbow unicorn outlook if we are bought by a state?
Yeah, if the state is Bhutan or something.
We at least vote for our government. Those people living in Monarchies have no such choice. Look at the leaders we have selected - Boris Johnson, Lizz Truss, Rishi Sunak...all exemplary people.
Boris won a (landslide) general election with 43% of the total vote.
Liz Truss was elected by 0.1% of eligible UK voters (only Tory members could vote).
Rishi Sunak was appointed by Tory MPs so they didn't even bother with any sort of election.
SAF was blessed with a magnificent backroom especially during his early and mid reign. Harrison for example deserve a frigging statue at OT as the academy he lead kept producing top talent such as Hughes, Giggs, Beckham right to his final talent Wes Brown. At one point he was one of the very few to believe in a small red haired boy who couldn't last more then 15 minutes on the pitch because of Asthma. Needless to say who was the one who ended up with the final laugh. Meanwhile the scouts pre Martin Ferguson kept unearthing talent such as Ole, Sharpe, Kanchelskis, Schmeichel and Johnsen.
However let's not kid ourselves here, SAF broke many national and world transfer records. We wouldn't have won the treble without him strengthening the entire spine of the team and the defence post Stam was in a pretty mess. SAF also built a reputation of spending huge on kids. Nowadays everyone claim that they were an inch away from signing Ronaldo before we signed him up but I remember very well the outrage behind us signing an 18 year old kid who would dribble himself to the corner flag for 17m. These days that look peanuts but at the time you could easily get a top talent in his prime for that fee. Its so easy to remember the great successes but mistakes were made as well. SAF's early signings weren't great, we spent a huge sum of money for Veron and Bebe's signing for 7m (who was a decent fee at the time) still stinks till this very day.
If United didn't had deep pockets then our progress would probably have halted and that despite the fact that the EPL was nowhere near as rich and as competitive as it is today
never in a million years. Sadly it'll be either that or watching other teams get such owners and eventually competing with the ones who already have such owners. This is where football is heading, and I believe many of us here have already fallen out of love with the game and are just so addicted to United (or better put- United is so ingrained in ourselves and our lives) that it's virtually impossible not to be a football fan.
If some country buys us- and I agree with those who said that it doesn't matter which country- that'll be the end of the road for me.
I don't trust myself to fully be able not to follow United's results and not to watch some highlights here and there,
But I'll definitely try to be the most uninterested fan I could manage to become.
If some country buys us- and I agree with those who said that it doesn't matter which country- that'll be the end of the road for me.
I don't trust myself to fully be able not to follow United's results and not to watch some highlights here and there,
But I'll definitely try to be the most uninterested fan I could manage to become.
I don't see how any of this disproves the point that money doesn't solve all problems Structure and managerial/coaching appointments are more important.
Also you seem to be misremembering a lot of our recent history...
He broke the British transfer record twice (Rio and Veron). Never came close to the world transfer record.
He bought Yorke and Stam. Absolutely made a difference but two players is hardly a new spine.
Did he? Which kids did he buy apart from Ronaldo and Rooney?
It was £12m if I remember correctly. Also, there was pretty much universal consensus he was something special from day 1 amongst all the united fans I knew at the time.
Name me one manager that hasn't made mistakes? At least we managed to claw back more than half of the fee we paid for Veron by flogging him to Chelsea. No idea why you brought Bebe up or what that's got to do with anything.
Yeah. I think most of us will come round to the idea although obviously it's not the preferred solution. We've just got to hope it's not one of the truly awful regimes.
(And btw I totally empathise with fans who walk away).
Forget about a state. A lot will go now because Ronaldo has gone.
I’ll make do with it, I guess. From the iPhones in our pockets, to the clothes that we wear, there’s a hypocrisy somewhere in our lives.
From a purely footballing perspective, I’m a lot more worried about some arsehole Yank coming in than I am a consortium from the Middle East. With the latter, at least you know that they’ll bring in the best in class. The worst case scenario would be the Glazers mk II.
From a purely footballing perspective, I’m a lot more worried about some arsehole Yank coming in than I am a consortium from the Middle East. With the latter, at least you know that they’ll bring in the best in class. The worst case scenario would be the Glazers mk II.
This is where I'm at honestly. Initially (like whenever the Saudi rumors came up) I was vehemently against it. I even went so far as to say I would consider not watching United anymore, which I have come to realize I simply cannot do. Now that we're faced with the reality of it, I have made my peace with it being a situation that I have no control over, and that it will likely happen. As you said, it will be quite the pill to swallow, but one a lot of us may unfortunately have to. I would not blame anyone for walking away, and fair play to those strong enough to do so. I don't have it in me.
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