Manchester United owners the Glazers are the root of all problems at the club.
Everything wrong with Manchester United can be tracked back to the owners. It is no coincidence.
The takeover situation has become farcical. Since the club announced plans to explore strategic investment options last November, would-be buyers have been put through three rounds of bidding, and even submitted extra offers to try and close the deal.
With the 2023/24 season now kicked off, we are no closer to a resolution. Protests continue, and the Glazers sit back in Florida counting their money, while United threaten to lurch from one crisis to another.
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Sheikh Jassim fears no sale
Qatari bidder Sheikh Jassim was considered the favourite to buy the club. However, with the deal seemingly stalled, there are rising doubts over the Glazers’ intentions.
The MEN report Sheikh Jassim now fears the Glazers will not sell at all. The Raine Group are overseeing the sale, like they did the Chelsea sale. That took less than half a year. United’s is now nine months in, with no sign of progress.
The Glazers have not offered any public communication, have changed the goalposts with regards to extra bids, and left fans in the dark. As they have for their whole tenure.
The process has shown how indecisive the Glazers are, failing to commit to a way forward. If the club is not for sale at present, stop wasting everybody’s time. The lack of clarity more than anything is damaging Manchester United’s reputation, and the Glazers are showing they are not serious business people.
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Mason Greenwood situation shows weak ownership
The lack of direction over the takeover is neatly mirrored by Manchester United’s poor handling of the Mason Greenwood situation.
This is a point where strong leadership is needed. And that’s the problem, there is no strong leadership at Manchester United. They say ‘the fish rots from the head’ and that is the case here.
The Glazers have stepped back, and left the decision to chief executive Richard Arnold. The same Richard Arnold who was working as commercial director securing noodle sponsorship deals before being promoted.
According to The Athletic, Arnold planned to record a video announcing Greenwood’s return. This has now been shelved. The club are reconsidering.
Most want United to show leadership and sack Greenwood. Be a model club. Conversely, if they are going to bring him back, have some conviction about it, present the evidence why. Don’t let it play out like they have been. We are as in the dark about the whole situation as we were in January 2022.
Greenwood’s situation is a controversial matter, but it should not have been left this long. It is now overshadowing the start to United’s season. This could have been addressed in June or early July.
Arnold seems distinctly underqualified for such a media storm which he may be willing to take on. Just like Ed Woodward was totally underqualified to handle Manchester United’s transfer business for the best part of a decade.
The fault for that rests with the Glazers, and nobody else.
Squad strengthening hits the wall
While the takeover and Greenwood situations are left to twist in the wind, strengthening the squad also seems to have hit a wall.
The Glazers poor running of the club has left United having to rely on sales in order to buy further players, and the strategy to offer lucrative wages to players like Harry Maguire and Eric Bailly means they are proving impossible to shift.
United needed to sign two strikers and only have signed one, who is not fit. The club only have one defensive midfielder in the squad. More needs to be done, and Erik ten Hag once again comes into the season under-prepared.
If the takeover situation was being dealt with, you could almost understand squad acquisitions taking the backseat. But it’s not. Once again it is Manchester United fans who lose out.
This could have been a positive summer under new owners. The dream was to have new leadership in place in advance of the transfer window. Now it feels like we would be fortunate to have new owners in time for the 2024 winter window.
Everything wrong with the club leads back to one place – the Glazers, and shows them up for the weak owners they are.