As a football club Manchester United makes serious amounts of money and no wonder the owners are not bothered by the lack of success. The people in charge have let the owners down and there needs to be a total rebuild not only with the squad, but how they do business in the boardroom. Yes they could make far more money, but they are happy with what is being generated and the only ones who aren't happy are the fans.
When the Glazier family purchased Manchester United back in May 2005 little did anyone realise what was going to unfold. The Glazier family never actually invested in the club as they used leverage/loans to get the deal done. A club that had no debt suddenly had over £800 million in debt on their books. The loans were taken out against the assets of the club which would not be a legal practice today. They have no personal connection to the club as they pulled off a heist.
One just has to look at the impact the loans/debt has actually cost the club and to realise why the family wanted Manchester United. Back in 2009 the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were ranked 32/32 with regard to spend in the NFL. Today they are over the salary cap imposed by the NFL to the tune of $51 million.
Manchester United is seen as a business like it should be as that is exactly what football clubs are. Very few clubs make profit and if one looks across Europe there are only 10 clubs who made more than $1 million profit between 2019-2021. There are more than 100 clubs in the top leagues so this is less than 1% which is a shocking stat.
The Glaziers have cost United an average of 16% every year besides the loan repayments. The owners have taken more out than they have spent on players which is kind of expected and still haven't paid off the loans.
United are one club that make profit and loads of it which is why it is the perfect cash cow that can fund their other "investments" like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Looking at the figures spent on players over the last 10 years Manchester United have spent the most and yet have nothing to show for this. What this is telling us is they have spent but haven't spent wisely. When fans demand new blood they panic buy and end up with a mish mash squad. Take note Liverpool doesn't even make this list yet look what they have achieved by buying correctly.
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Fans are desperate but the Glaziers have been the biggest spenders amongst all the football clubs so what more do they want? Winning trophies is not on the cards for the next few years as to do that you would have to attract the top players and that will require on field successes meaning a new team.
The worry is now is that money is not going to fix this problem as players don't want to come to United as they have no faith in the club management. A footballer wants to win trophies so where is the lure as there is nothing going for United today. This is the hard truth fans are starting to realise that this is going to take years to fix.
Rebuilding the squad from scratch keeping a few players is going to cost a fortune so this has to happen over the next 3 or 4 years. The Glaziers are happy as they are making money and kind of reminds us of what Arsenal were dealing with when Arsene Wenger was doing his magic. That is not so easy to pull off today as clubs are spending wisely making every buck count which is the opposite of United. Look at how many players they have let go at a loss with Pogba being a prime example.
Manchester United has tripled their revenue since the Glaziers have been in charge but Manchester City and Liverpool are still outpacing them. The biggest impact is the television revenue as United are well down the list which is due to their performances on the field and not qualifying for Europe. Match day revenue which is up by £18m (£90m) they are trailing City +£26m, Liverpool +£38m, Chelsea +£35M and Tottenham +£77m. United are trailing on so many areas where they used to be leading.
There is apparently a take over bid happening from a former United director who tried to purchase the club back in 1989 for a record fee of £20 million. Crazy numbers now as the club is valued at £4.6 billion which may sound high but it genuinely is a good business. Will the Glaziers sell their cash cow as I wouldn't knowing how much it generates.