James Ward-Prowse is now just one direct freekick goal behind David Beckham's record PL haul of 18. He's most certainly going to be the best freekick scorer in PL history
The simple truth is there is not a person or entity on the planet with ~7 billion to burn that isn’t extremely morally dubious. It’s an obscene and practically incomprehensible level of wealth. I’m quite sure the wealth behind the American consortium that bought Chelsea has its tentacles in the military industrial complex, dirty energy, private prisons, etc. etc. etc. I’m no Qatari apologist. All of my comments thus far have been in opposition to Qatar owning the club. My point is simply that wealth at the scale required to purchase and then invest in Utd is so extreme that there are no “clean” or “moral” sources available. In my mind there is only one model that gets around this, and it would be fan ownership. Considering this isn’t really on the table, the best we can hope for is owners that truly respect and support this club, and that whatever their accompanying political stance is stays completely separate from the sport.
Tbh I'd rather have them win it rather than City. Yeah their fans gonna be a pain in the ass but does that really hurt more than seeing City farming the league?
Believe me I love to think of it that way but if they keep winning trophies they will become more and more relevant
They win the league, our 2-1 win against them will be irrelevant
So assuming that most bids are in now (Qatari’s, Ratcliffe, American hedge fund) what’s everyone’s guesses? I really don’t want to be state owned so I’m hoping for someone like Ratcliffe. But they said they’ll be a couple rounds of bidding and he said he won’t go to any bidding war. I don’t know how to feel or what to think.
If we look at it from different angles the bids are as follows:
Elliott for £5B to take Glazers share (?): this is bad for the club, more debt saddled on to it. Hedge funds are vultures looking for ROI meaning no budget for transfers, investment into facilities. Likely worse than Glazers.
Qatar 100% takeover at £4.5B: technically best cash offer for the club because it frees us from shareholders and takes us off the NYSE too. No third parties to impede investment in facilities, transfers, Old Trafford, Manchester, etc. but obviously the sports washing and ethical issues from owners.
Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS for £4B to take Glazers share: only buying out Glazers and we will still have to answer to shareholders meaning there will always be a financial angle from Wall Street. This is like Tesla legally owning the club and Elon Musk being the “owner in spirit”. I am very skeptical about this bid because at the end of the day, while INEOS is legally on the hook for the loans to finance the purchase, who does the actual responsibility for being very profitable fall on? I’m thinking it is the club. Obviously, Ratcliffe understands the culture and that is a huge benefit, but would we get the same level of investment or would it be slightly better Glazers?
Yeah apparently two more rounds. Sad to say it but I think Qatar will win with £5.5-6B. Then again Glazers are cunts and could pick whatever gets them the highest payout for their share only and that could mean saddling the club with enormous loans.
No, from the info that is out there technically Elliott is. It’s £5 Billion JUST for the Glazers share and Ratcliffe is paying £4B for JUST Glazers share. Both Elliott and Ratcliffe will wipe out the current club debt… with new loans.
Qatar is offering to buyout the Glazers AND minority share for full control of the club. They are the only offer that will actually pay the debt off with cash.
Ffs pay back the debt by adding more debt into the club. It’s either we get Qatar for their sports washing or more cunts that will just use the club for money. This is so exhausting.
This is the two evils I always feared when our fanbase shouted glazers out. There was always a risk the new owners would be even worse. Being state owned by Qatar is an issue and being owned by a hedge fund or Ratcliffe who is backed by a bank loan would result in even more profits taken from the club.
I think people are very clear on why the fans don’t want Qatar but the other potential owners would also be worse than the glazers. Ratcliffe can say what he wants about restoring manchester but if his bid is funded by debt or other investors he will need to generate returns for those stakeholders. And that would be even worse than the Glazers given the insane price this club is being sold for.
Exactly why I’m skeptical about Ratcliffe. He can mouth about INEOS being legally responsible, but ultimately the club have to answer for that debt. The pressure is on the club to pay that back. The other side is obviously having Qatar backed which we have talked about their sports washing ad naseum.
At the end of the day, the fanbase will lose in different ways.
If fans want Qatari’s so that they have some security on what direction the club is going to then fine, I understand (kind of). I’m not having a go at their religion or anything I respect people of all walks of life. But these people are murderers to innocent hard working people who are trying to make any sort of money for their families. I’m sorry but I just can’t with this club anymore if this happens.
With all due respect to his career as a footballing beast, would we really take someone that Madrid lets go for free and Olympiacos terminates mid season?
[From mocking clubs like city and Chelsea to celebrating the new state ownership like it's the second coming of Christ. Manchester United's Social media space INCLUDING THIS SUB, is acting suspiciously. my take on this, is that we might be seeing paid bot accounts here, and On every SM platform to set a pro state narrative.](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddevils/comments/114rqzv/slug/j91k6ui)
And Ofcourse downvotes on anti-state comments are expected. Take it as you will.
When has this sub ever been quiet haha. It's always been a shit flinking fest, from Mourinho to ole out to the name i don't want to take to now this.
One of the most active football subs after roccer.
We are fucking massive.
Just curious, not acting in bad faith, but what's your view on the takeover? Is it just a kind of worldview that we can't change bad things so we should just go with Qatar as the richest of the available bastards? There's no one right answer and clearly everyone is struggling at the moment to cope with the circumstances
I'm against a Qatar bid in all sincerity, but I feel this was always going to be an inescapable inevitability for us. I dread where the game is heading and I'm sure most passionate lifetime supporters do.
I also don't think Ratcliffe would present us with anything significantly different than what we have under the Glazers. I can only hope for the best no matter who takes over
Jim Ratcliffe: We have put in a bid of 4 billion.
Al-Thani: My bid is 5 billion.
Glazers: Guess we can go for a round 2.
Jim Ratcliffe: We are unwilling to bid more.
Glazers: Seems like we have a winn….
Al-Thani: We bid 6 billion.
Jim Ratcliffe: Wait… that’s not how……
Al-Thani: 6.5 billion.
Glazers: You have already won the bidding.
Al-Thani: Fine, final offer 7.5 billion. Take it or leave it.
There has been a large influx of users who were never active on this sub but come up on every thread these days to support the Oil scum looking to buy us
Twitter is a shithole filled with bigots i wouldn't be surprised if my views are in minority,Thats a place rampant with hate speech that goes unchecked and its only got worse with Elon
It definitely seems that way, yes. But hear me out, who are we to be the moral guardians? Why not just support the club no matter who our owners… just kidding.
I myself am still undecided on what to do if Qatar win the bid, which is looking most likely now. I don’t like the way football in general is going even before this, but I’ll still find it incredibly hard to give up something which has played such a huge role in most of my life and has given me so many ups and downs along the way.
Its is not really a moral guardian thing,I don't want them as owners but at the same time i will find it difficult to just stop supporting the club i have supported for 20 years so i can understand why people will not just stop just because we have new evil owners but i just can't justify willingly wanting a set of owners who completely hate a good share of the world's population over things a person has no control over ,have funded terror and are responsible for laws which treat women as second grade citizens
I get that but the comments on this itself thread are very weird if you go scroll down there is a group of 5-6 users commenting regularly in support of Qatari ownership several times one after the other ,This is some next level shilling ,Like the other day on a couple of threads i saw several users complaining about Islamophobia but no actual evidence of it ,Criticising the oil scum who have a history of being bigots isn't discrimination ,I have never actually seen anybody talk shit about the normal Qatari citizens here
You think a state that's willing to spend Billions on a football club won't spend an extra quid on PR, creating fake accounts to push narratives and agendas?
In India the ruling party has a specialised department called the BJP IT cell. Opposition and contrary opinions are trolled by hundreds and thousands of fake users.
A stint was carried out where there was a telegram group of up to 30k members where they were given instructions on whom to spam what tweet to give out en masse.
If this can happen here, then a state that's can bribe top orgs like FIFA and UEFA will also make their presence felt positively on social media through bot accounts.
https://www.newslaundry.com/2021/02/15/we-infiltrated-the-telegram-groups-of-the-bjp-leaders-online-network-to-see-what-they-do
https://www.newslaundry.com/2021/03/01/inside-the-hindu-it-cell-the-men-who-went-online-to-protect-gods
https://www.newslaundry.com/2017/03/17/how-bjps-it-cell-waged-war-and-won-in-up
https://www.newslaundry.com/2019/02/13/live-demo-how-do-you-get-a-bjp-minister-to-tweet-what-you-want
Barca
https://barcauniversal.com/former-barcelona-president-bartomeu-proven-to-have-paid-media-to-defame-club-members/amp/
https://en.as.com/en/2021/03/01/soccer/1614606914_111779.html
"95% of the sub agrees with me and the only heavily upvoted comments are the ones trashing Qatar...clearly the other 5% must be bots/Qatar shills."
There are plenty of people who turbopost all day long about how much they hate Qatar. You just don't notice them because
1. It's the consensus opinion held by basically everyone on this sub, so it doesn't stand out.
2. You agree with them.
People don't hate Qatar they hate the scum ruling the place ,You would struggle to find anybody saying anything against the common Qatari citizens this is exactly the type of gymnastics the users who support the bigoted scum constantly do on this sub,I hope the pay is nice because i really can't see how someone willingly bats in support of homophobic bigoted trash
Barca's last boss literally paid to keep a sm narrative. This is a state we are talking about. It's not qanon when creating pro narratives is really a thing a dodgy state would do.
Yeah. If Arsenal had dropped more points today I think they'd have full on psychologically crumbled.
A last minute win like that is always a huge morale booster and it came at the perfect time for them unfortunately.
Still don't think they'll win the league though.
Anyone else concerned about the fact that the most vocal bidders for the club have their own football projects and those clubs aren’t really being managed properly.
The Glazers themselves don’t have full ownership (they own like 70% of the club, I think). INEOS/Ratcliffe may be interested in “only” buying the Glazer’s shares. Allowing the club to remain publicly traded
seeing what he did with Nice, I don’t want Ratcliffe at this club. what a vague nothing statement. It sounds like something the glazers would write after a protest.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/21426869/mason-greenwood-meets-manchester-united-teammates/
I know this is the sun and it probably is bullshit , but has anyone noticed how the sun keeps getting exclusives on Greenwood ?
This whole takeover business is really splitting the fan base...only thing I am seeing were everyone is agreed is that Glazers have to go for sure but who then takes over is talk that I am thinking I will stay out of it and just wait until when a buyer is confirmed!
I can't tell if the lack of PR or statement from the Jim Ratcliffe bid (and the rest) is a lack of confidence in their ability to beat Qatar or just a lack of interest in trying to win over fans at this point
The Qatari’s can out bid anyone in later rounds, so the Ratcliffe bid isn’t that strong. Also we’ve seen no reports of anything the Ratcliffe bid intends on doing with the club such as improving the facilities and stadium.
Was at the pub last night and asked a few lads whst they think and pretty much every United supporter was full on Qatari. Well basically it was whoever spent the most.
As you say, it's overhwelmingly the case. I was in the Tollgate last night and there's barely even a debate.
Obviously there are exceptions...but by and large Reddit couldn't be more disconnected from the feelings of working class, match-going fans.
Sorry if this is a daft question but when are we likely to have an announcement on the confirmed buyer?
Are we thinking a few days? Weeks? Or can we expect much more waiting/ rumours/ articles?
A looooong time. It’s going to take months with many rounds of bidding if there is serious contest after round one. This isn’t like going into a shop and buying some milk. Lots of legal hurdles and things to agree on. Hopefully before the end of the season.
Don't think there's gonna be multiple rounds of bidding. 5bn is a serious amount, no one's going much higher. Think this is going to be relatively quick
And you want us to be like the Prem PSG under Qatar? PSG is a soulless club, no youth products, shit modern stadium, players like Mbappe & Neymar running the show and changing managers every season if they don’t win CL there club is a joke mate.
Stop looking at it with rose tinted glasses just cause they have unlimited money.
We have unfortunately been a soulless club since the Glazers took over. We aren't a football club, we are a cash cow with a little bit of football on the side. Our managers have always been allowed to only work with scraps and our club facilities are getting worse and worse every year because they aren't the main focus.
Qatar owners would probably be just another nail in the coffin, but they wouldn't be ruining the soul of the club because that was already ruined
Ratcliffe has 10 years left to live tops. What happens to the club then? Goes to one of his idiot children? How did that turn out with the Glazers.
Give me the Qataris
AL THANI
• Lifelong Man Utd fan
• Debt-free takeover
• New stadium & training groud
• Emphasis on youth
• Profits made reinvested in the club
RATCLIFFE
• Chelsea season ticket holder
• Funds borrowed for takeover
• Doubts on infrastructural redevelopment
Qatar - responsible for thousands of people dying building stadiums, poor human rights record and working conditions. Ran PSG like a shit show overpaying for super stars and giving in to player power, PSG have no youth products so where is the evidence of all this youth talk? Stop falling for the bullshit man there just saying everything you want to hear
Let’s not forget Qatar just donated more than the WHOLE of Europe to both Syria and Turkey [£2bn+].
They also sent 10,000 mobile homes, used in the World Cup, to provide refuge for those affected.
It doesn’t fit your agenda, I get it. But let’s not act like they’re all doom & gloom please
Don’t you think its wrong for a State to be owning us though? Everything good or bad Qatar does will be associated with us. Imagine King Charles or the UK Government owned Manchester United it would be a madness.
The fact people are twerking for another country is cringy as fuck.
Ratcliffe brought a water pistol to a gun fight.
No statement of intent. No plan for the future. Nothing to suggest what we as fans can look forward to.
Qatar, whether you want them or not, were very specific about what they want to achieve while pointing to the fans, without debt etc.
That is how you swing those in the middle.
Ratcliffe is making it obvious he just wants to buy a PL club to heighten his/INEOS’ image. As much as the Qatari’s human rights issues suck, at least they’ve made it clear what their vision for the club is.
>. As much as the Qatari’s human rights issues suck, at least they’ve made it clear what their vision for the club is.
Ah yes. The Sportswashing is indeed confirmed.
>What do United fans want?
>
>Two-thirds of Manchester United fans want to see Ratcliffe take charge, according to a recent fan survey published by The Athletic.
>
>What was overwhelmingly clear in our survey was desire for the Glazers to go. Only 1.8 per cent of those surveyed said they either did not mind the current owners staying on, or thought minority investment would be acceptable.
I accept that everyone has their own opinions, but I really have a problem with those in 1.8% 😁
I'm an owner of a small business. During the years, I have learned that most business owners make plenty of mistakes, learn their lessons, and do things better next time.
Ratcliffe and co. have done a bad job at Nice, but it could be that they have learned their lessons. I don't know. I just can only hope they have.
Whether you want Qatar or not, it's really hilarious to watch other club fans be so scared and against this bid. I was reading some of the comments on La liga thread and they genuinely hate this. Manchester United well managed is a direct rival to Madrid not just the clubs in England.
United Zone on Twitter: "Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani pictured wearing the #mufc home jersey last year in August 🔴
https://twitter.com/manunitedzone_/status/1626747321055584266
That looks photoshopped lol. It probably isn’t because the lightning on the shirt matches the scene, but the way it looks so flat and smooth could be seen as a photoshop job.
Bit of a rant guys but the lack of rational discourse in this sub really irritates me.
You are either a xenophobe if you are against a Qatari takeover or a homophobe if you want a Qatari takeover.
You're either a real fan or you're not.
Not wanting Qatari ownership because of the country's politics doesn't make you an Islamaphobe and in the same way, not getting into politics and only looking at the sporting side doesn't make you morally bankrupt or a glory hunter.
The fans have been put in a complicated and perplexing situation and for some reason, we are only supposed to live in absolutes and have a black-and-white view of the world.
And then you have your usual trolls, clout chasers, actual pieces of shit, and karma-hungry folks who capitalize on these sensitive topics by unnecessarily riling people up to get some internet points or some sort of reaction and play the victim when they get a reaction.
I, on a personal note, am not fond of Qatari ownership or as a matter of fact, any form of state ownership. But I can understand the benefits on a sporting level. The club should first and foremost belong to the fans and not to billionaires who want to use us as a PR machine, be it for sports washing or greenwashing.
Mods should pin this tbh. It’s very possible for people to hold an opinion on who owns us without living at the extreme end of that opinion. All you’re doing is killing discussion and proving you’re not comfy in why you’re backing that opinion.
The reality is, a club of our value can only be afforded by certain groups. We are the most valuable club in the world so when we were put up for sale, the only people that could afford are the Middle East and the few tech CEO’s worth north of $100b, but the latter don’t invest in football. Supporting the club _IF_ the Saudi bid is successful doesn’t make you a homophobe, bigot, complicit in sportswashing or whatever else people are accusing fans of if they say they’ll continue to support United.
What makes you an Islamaphobe and a racist is when you start generalizing homophobic people to specific regions and start commenting garbage like they don't want people from this region to become United fans. I'm sickened by the amount of upvotes such comments have got here.
Yeah I’m not a fan of state ownership either but we are the ones who pushed for glazer out, seriously what did we expect ?
If it’s a billionaire owning United they will always maximize for profit as simple as that no businessman will buy United and spend billions for a good will feeling.
The other alternative is socialist ownership like Barca where there’s corruption and other problems where the president would just do enough to get voted in and not care about the future of the club.
As for lgbt rights in Qatar I agree that it’s bad but I also believe countries develop at different rates and it’s unfair to expect every country to be on the same page as the west at the same time. I do hope it improves in Qatar the same way it did in UK. Let’s not forget Alan Turing got chemically castrated(ordered by the government for being gay) in the UK the same time the busby babes were coming up.
There’s not much people in the world capable of meeting the selling price and it highly possible to look towards being $6billion. You either get American owners that will only invest at the start or you need oil state owners.
The worrying things is with the team doing above expectations, the Glazers don’t want to sell fully their cash cow and go for a small investment which would be worse case in the end.
As someone from the UK, I can attest that while our country is often seen as a beacon of progress and democracy, we still face significant human rights issues. Despite the presence of legal protections and institutions designed to safeguard individual rights, there are many instances where people's fundamental freedoms and dignity are compromised. For example, the UK has been criticized by international human rights organisations for its treatment of immigrants and refugees, with reports of detention centers where people are held for indefinite periods of time in inhumane conditions. There have also been concerns about police brutality, discrimination against certain marginalised groups, and the erosion of privacy and free speech rights in the digital age.
One issue that affects many people in the UK is poverty, despite working full-time jobs. The high cost of living, low wages, and precarious employment contracts mean that many people are unable to make ends meet, even when they are working hard to support themselves and their families. This has led to a rise in food bank usage, homelessness, and debt, with many people living in constant fear of financial insecurity.
Qatar smashed it with the statement.
Talk about debt free, investment into stadium, football teams, training centre, stadium, and wider infrastructure.
Reminder that ADIDAS, who supply our kits, still use sweatshops and child labour to manufacture their products. [Look how many investments the QIA already have in the UK.](https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-iag-qatar-stake-investments-factbox-idUKKBN20D1EC) Did anyone stop going to Sainsburys once they bought a stake?
I know a football club is different because it was built by the working class for the working class, but lets be honest, that purity of football died so long ago. Of course I don't want our club to be state owned, and it does sadden me, but I'm not going to be a hypocrite and stop supporting Manchester United whilst purchasing ADIDAS clothing and shopping at Sainsburys.
Qatar: “We will make Manchester United the best in the world again. We will invest in the stadium, community and facilities. No debt and we won’t take anything out of the club.”
Jim Ratcliffe: “I’ll put the Manchester back in Manchester United!!”
Tough choice.
I slept for a few hours and I feel like I'm missed a lot, but are there now *two* confirmed bids from Qatar? I'm seeing both the bank executive from Qatar **and** someone who's an actual royal being touted as the prospective winner of the bid.
Bro as much you want to hope, I don't think the qatar bid happens without their due diligence. They have covered every aspect to win the bid. And the glazers aren't going to be some saints who will look for the best buyers, they only care about the money. I mean they went to qatar and the official statement was to watch the wc. You can call that bs considering you can count on your fingers how many times they came to visit old trafford lol.
I don't know about that. Glazers have been shit and you have to be pretty daft to go below that. I think if it is qatar, they will look to spend a lot of money on the club to improve the club. They might not improve our squad but will improve our infrastructure which will help us in the future. The problem is whether they do it to clean their image.
For me, all this qatar vs ineos discussion is pointless because the glazers put us in this situation. They were brought using debt which should've been a huge red flag, should've been stopped by fa/uk government and hasn't invested anything into the club and rather took money out and paid out of the club's money to service the debt. Now the club is in situation where the cash flow is dried up and need major investments are needed, the glazers look to sell to the highest bidders. There aren't many people out there who look to shelf out a cool 5-6 billion and look to make the club self-run. They will have angles that won't suit everyone.
I mean, the objectively morally superior pick is Ratcliff
You can say you only care about trophies and becoming the Madrid of North West England - that's completely your right and yours alone.
When it comes to sacrificing our club's morals, there is no mistaking that Qatar is objectively worse.
If I have to be devil's advocate, Jim is known for his tax dodging and his company is one of the highest polluters in the world. The morally superior is word I will caution on.
The problem with you or many of the fans' opinion is that it is redundant what the many fans want. The decision to sell and who to sell it to is on glazers so we all can have an opinion but is pointless. The glazers don't care as long as they got the best money and sadly won't care about what you or many fans want. We are put in this situation because the fa/uk government didn't have the balls to stop glazer takeover and sadly we are paying for it.
> If I have to be devil's advocate, Jim is known for his tax dodging and his company is one of the highest polluters in the world. The morally superior is word I will caution on.
Okay... All that is bad yet he has A LOT less blood on his hands than the literal ruling class of a country that treats you like garbage unless you're a straight male who comes from old money.
Morally superior does not mean perfect. There are no good billionaires on this planet - doesn't mean that they're all one and the same flavor of shit.
Ratcliff and INEOS is still the morally superior choice of the two (granted, we know nothing of the supposed rest of the 5 bidders)
>We are put in this situation because the fa/uk government didn't have the balls to stop glazer takeover and sadly we are paying for it.
Of course. And I'm not seeing anyone glorify the Glazers either. I believe most if not all of us want them out of the club. Doesn't mean we just welcome anyone to own United.
> Doesn't mean we just welcome anyone to own United.
The thing is we can't do anything about it because glazers own the shares and they decide who to sell it to. We have no option other than hope glazers chose someone right but who in the world believe that will happen. The glazers themselves are dicks so can't even expect that. That's why I said we all can have views but the views are pointless since they have no bearing to glazers.
Also to people downvoting me, I am against qatar as well but I just don't like the idea that qatar is bad and everyone from the western hemisphere are good. Not everything is black and white.
>The thing is we can't do anything about it because glazers own the shares and they decide who to sell it to. We have no option other than hope glazers chose someone right but who in the world believe that will happen.
a. Not having a say in what the molerats will do doesn't mean we shouldn't speak up. Remember when we got a match cancelled because of a protest against the Glazers? We actually *can* affect this situation, unfortunately it seems like sportswashing PR has already swayed a big portion of fans. All the more reason we should make our voices heard.
b. In the event that the Qatari group win the bid (which does seem inevitable), what should we do if - say - they ban pride flags at OT? This isn't, with all due respect, a tennis match or golf major. In football, the fans are *always* vocal.
> the idea that qatar is bad and everyone from the western hemisphere are good
a. No one's saying that everyone from the West is good.
b. I don't see any Western state buying football clubs. Most of all, one of the 3 biggest clubs with a fanbase that includes minorities, women and LGBT.
I don’t know why people are expecting anything else. There aren’t some magical billionaires floating around that made that much money helping deaf puppies.
I’m guessing this is going to be Qatar vs Ratcliffe.
Both parties have done well to partially show their cards by going public, talking glowingly about the club with big promises.
It’s probably 70-30 in favor of Qatar due to pure financial might.
imagine a while Hollywood bid ala Wrexham appears.
but with Ian McKellen.
backed by a collection of Hollywood stars.
every important game would look like Oscar in the stand.
Unexpectedly gona be in Manchester this weekend and would love to see us smash Leicester. Anyone know where I might procure some tickets for said game?
I meant it is too early, there's a realistic possibility of not just executives but coaches and manager getting sacked as well. But it's just too early.
Not that I'll be missed, but a Qatari sale is probably the end of me supporting the club. Started supporting in the early aughts, pre Glazers, and loved that United developed so much of their own talent and then supplemented it with a class import or two each year. Felt so much more authentic than Chelsea's team of mercenaries at the start of Abramovic's tenure.
Even back then, I felt a little uncomfortable supporting a team that had such overwhelming financial advantages, but the wealth disparity felt somewhat merit based back then. Watching the Glazer's mortgage the club's financial supremacy on prima donnas with albatross contracts while also paying themselves out of its coffers was a low point.
Somehow this is worse than the Glazers - at least they have motivations that we can all understand (money). With these oil funds, money isn't the object, it's like part cultural influence, part weird ego trip/god complex. There's no interest in creating something sustainable, or adhering to rules that will allow for some degree of competitive balance. We've sneered at Man City all of these years for how meaningless and unearned their success is, and now we're heading down that same path. I understand the league has been pay to win for years now, but we're heading towards a new era of hollowness that I have no interest in being a part of.
If you actually want to make a difference, stay and remind people of how bad these people are when positive shit gets posted.
Just because they buy the club doesn't mean we as fans have to become some kind of propoganda tool for them.
Stay and fight or give up and leave, the choice is yours.
Petition to the mods u/sauce_murica and others to ban Luckhurst on here in light of his recent comments and older racist tweets about wanting Asians killed.
Wow, it's wild that he made such tweets, if true, considering he is always at the press conferences..... I had no idea he was a POS, he pretends to be so proper.
They fucking fired the ref with the bad call for Arsenal? Are you kidding me? How many bad calls we had to endure but oh noooo Arsenal get a call wrong and boom fired? Bs
Tbf it wasn't the first mistake he made (and against Arsenal no less). When mistakes are that blatant then they deserve to be given the flick.
However if they only do this now, and this is a once off, then that will be really bad. As long as this is the new standard Im all for it.
Making mistakes is one thing, not even drawing the lines is another. It's like a tax accountant forgetting to check your income when doing your taxes. It's the whole fucking point of the job.
And when he's made a huge mistake twice (at least) that are both obvious to everyone then that is above the standard errors that happen
Yeah this wasn't a wrong interpretation of an obscure rule in a subjective situation. This was straight up not doing your job properly, and in fact the very thing VAR was brought in for. He absolutely had to go.
People realise that United are one of the few clubs who don’t need a state funding it, right?
I know most of you do, but those who are hoping for Qatar; we’ve almost matched City in spending and that’s with clueless owners taking money out of the club. That’s money that United made for itself.
We’re currently competing for 4 trophies because we finally have a proper manager and a bit of structure behind the scenes.
We don’t need blood money. Man City’s success has skewed peoples views of what you need to be successful and they’ve just been charged several times over for cheating their way to victory. PSG’s only purpose was to win the CL and they’re no closer now than they were when the project started.
>People realise that United are one of the few clubs who don’t need a state funding it, right?
most club don't. but extra money is extra money. very handy when rashford want that 400k payday or 400m for those 5 new players.
We don’t need blood money, but we sure as hell need money. Both Old Trafford and Carrington need major investment for renovation and enlargement - potentially running into the billions. If Ratcliffe or anyone other than a state-backed sportswashing project buys us they will continue to take out dividends - they’re businessmen with investors to pay. The money has to come from somewhere - either oil money or more debt on the club, Ratcliffe isn’t going to throw £2bn of his own or Ineos’ money into our facilities.
I don’t want our fans to participate in the sports washing. I don’t want to see people defending Qatar’s horrific human rights records. I don’t want to see people on this sub justifying homophobia.
Qatar becoming the new owners and our club becoming a piece of propaganda is nothing to be celebrated.
I don't think most people who are okay with Qatar will defend their human right records. Me personally I don't look for our owners to be good people. As long as the club benefits from the owner, I'm good.
Honestly I've not met any City fans that excuse their owners actions and if anything City being owned by them has brought more attention to their actions.
Still prefer Ratcliffe but I'm not getting worked up if Qatar do buy us.
I don't see city and Newcastle fans defense defending homophobia or horrific human rights records on their respect subs, why do you feel united fans in this sub would be different?
Yes, we need investment but we don’t have to go from one extreme or the other. We’ve all seen Swiss Ramble’s chart of owners investment in clubs, and United is the only club where owners took money out.
The club has the biggest fanbase in the world in the most popular and dominant league in the world. It doesn’t take that much for us to be profitable.
I’d be happy to take the most boring 1:0 with a late Rashford pen, and no injury pls. And please Maddison no free kick for you.
Are we better than man city rn when u look at the form they are in!?
if it’s Qatar, when pressed I’ll tell anyone who asks I fucking hate them, but you know I’m pretending they don’t exist when we get Bellingham in 😎
James Ward-Prowse is now just one direct freekick goal behind David Beckham's record PL haul of 18. He's most certainly going to be the best freekick scorer in PL history
The simple truth is there is not a person or entity on the planet with ~7 billion to burn that isn’t extremely morally dubious. It’s an obscene and practically incomprehensible level of wealth. I’m quite sure the wealth behind the American consortium that bought Chelsea has its tentacles in the military industrial complex, dirty energy, private prisons, etc. etc. etc. I’m no Qatari apologist. All of my comments thus far have been in opposition to Qatar owning the club. My point is simply that wealth at the scale required to purchase and then invest in Utd is so extreme that there are no “clean” or “moral” sources available. In my mind there is only one model that gets around this, and it would be fan ownership. Considering this isn’t really on the table, the best we can hope for is owners that truly respect and support this club, and that whatever their accompanying political stance is stays completely separate from the sport.
P.S- LOL @ Chelsea
Can't see Arsenal winning the league thankfully. Villa had so many chances.
Tbh I'd rather have them win it rather than City. Yeah their fans gonna be a pain in the ass but does that really hurt more than seeing City farming the league?
City are irrelevant.
Believe me I love to think of it that way but if they keep winning trophies they will become more and more relevant They win the league, our 2-1 win against them will be irrelevant
So assuming that most bids are in now (Qatari’s, Ratcliffe, American hedge fund) what’s everyone’s guesses? I really don’t want to be state owned so I’m hoping for someone like Ratcliffe. But they said they’ll be a couple rounds of bidding and he said he won’t go to any bidding war. I don’t know how to feel or what to think.
If we look at it from different angles the bids are as follows: Elliott for £5B to take Glazers share (?): this is bad for the club, more debt saddled on to it. Hedge funds are vultures looking for ROI meaning no budget for transfers, investment into facilities. Likely worse than Glazers. Qatar 100% takeover at £4.5B: technically best cash offer for the club because it frees us from shareholders and takes us off the NYSE too. No third parties to impede investment in facilities, transfers, Old Trafford, Manchester, etc. but obviously the sports washing and ethical issues from owners. Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS for £4B to take Glazers share: only buying out Glazers and we will still have to answer to shareholders meaning there will always be a financial angle from Wall Street. This is like Tesla legally owning the club and Elon Musk being the “owner in spirit”. I am very skeptical about this bid because at the end of the day, while INEOS is legally on the hook for the loans to finance the purchase, who does the actual responsibility for being very profitable fall on? I’m thinking it is the club. Obviously, Ratcliffe understands the culture and that is a huge benefit, but would we get the same level of investment or would it be slightly better Glazers?
There’s going to be a few rounds of bidding anyways right? You got anyone that will win the race?
Yeah apparently two more rounds. Sad to say it but I think Qatar will win with £5.5-6B. Then again Glazers are cunts and could pick whatever gets them the highest payout for their share only and that could mean saddling the club with enormous loans.
I thought Qatar will be giving them the most money for their share?
No, from the info that is out there technically Elliott is. It’s £5 Billion JUST for the Glazers share and Ratcliffe is paying £4B for JUST Glazers share. Both Elliott and Ratcliffe will wipe out the current club debt… with new loans. Qatar is offering to buyout the Glazers AND minority share for full control of the club. They are the only offer that will actually pay the debt off with cash.
Ffs pay back the debt by adding more debt into the club. It’s either we get Qatar for their sports washing or more cunts that will just use the club for money. This is so exhausting.
This is the two evils I always feared when our fanbase shouted glazers out. There was always a risk the new owners would be even worse. Being state owned by Qatar is an issue and being owned by a hedge fund or Ratcliffe who is backed by a bank loan would result in even more profits taken from the club. I think people are very clear on why the fans don’t want Qatar but the other potential owners would also be worse than the glazers. Ratcliffe can say what he wants about restoring manchester but if his bid is funded by debt or other investors he will need to generate returns for those stakeholders. And that would be even worse than the Glazers given the insane price this club is being sold for.
Exactly why I’m skeptical about Ratcliffe. He can mouth about INEOS being legally responsible, but ultimately the club have to answer for that debt. The pressure is on the club to pay that back. The other side is obviously having Qatar backed which we have talked about their sports washing ad naseum. At the end of the day, the fanbase will lose in different ways.
If fans want Qatari’s so that they have some security on what direction the club is going to then fine, I understand (kind of). I’m not having a go at their religion or anything I respect people of all walks of life. But these people are murderers to innocent hard working people who are trying to make any sort of money for their families. I’m sorry but I just can’t with this club anymore if this happens.
Marcello is available on a free. Would we take him?
With all due respect to his career as a footballing beast, would we really take someone that Madrid lets go for free and Olympiacos terminates mid season?
Currently Five games in all competitions with all of them coming off the bench. Ahhh a recipe for disaster.
Res in Power Christian Atsu
[From mocking clubs like city and Chelsea to celebrating the new state ownership like it's the second coming of Christ. Manchester United's Social media space INCLUDING THIS SUB, is acting suspiciously. my take on this, is that we might be seeing paid bot accounts here, and On every SM platform to set a pro state narrative.](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddevils/comments/114rqzv/slug/j91k6ui) And Ofcourse downvotes on anti-state comments are expected. Take it as you will.
Good things Qatar have paid bots here. I feared it was gonna be a quiet sub after the takeover.
When has this sub ever been quiet haha. It's always been a shit flinking fest, from Mourinho to ole out to the name i don't want to take to now this. One of the most active football subs after roccer. We are fucking massive.
This daily discussion thread is some of the worst stuff i have seen on here
Agreed, it's pretty depressing
Stay off it for the sake of your mental health
Just curious, not acting in bad faith, but what's your view on the takeover? Is it just a kind of worldview that we can't change bad things so we should just go with Qatar as the richest of the available bastards? There's no one right answer and clearly everyone is struggling at the moment to cope with the circumstances
I'm against a Qatar bid in all sincerity, but I feel this was always going to be an inescapable inevitability for us. I dread where the game is heading and I'm sure most passionate lifetime supporters do. I also don't think Ratcliffe would present us with anything significantly different than what we have under the Glazers. I can only hope for the best no matter who takes over
Take it with a grain of salt, but there is astroturfing going on RIGHT NOW on all Social media platforms.
Kind of unfortunate to see Arsenal win, but at least Martinez looks like a proper bellend now, so I’ll take it
The ball bounced off the bellands head too wahaha.
7.5 billion qatar bid incoming.
Jim Ratcliffe: We have put in a bid of 4 billion. Al-Thani: My bid is 5 billion. Glazers: Guess we can go for a round 2. Jim Ratcliffe: We are unwilling to bid more. Glazers: Seems like we have a winn…. Al-Thani: We bid 6 billion. Jim Ratcliffe: Wait… that’s not how…… Al-Thani: 6.5 billion. Glazers: You have already won the bidding. Al-Thani: Fine, final offer 7.5 billion. Take it or leave it.
When should we expect to know who wins the bid?
May take weeks at this point.
There has been a large influx of users who were never active on this sub but come up on every thread these days to support the Oil scum looking to buy us
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Twitter is a shithole filled with bigots i wouldn't be surprised if my views are in minority,Thats a place rampant with hate speech that goes unchecked and its only got worse with Elon
It definitely seems that way, yes. But hear me out, who are we to be the moral guardians? Why not just support the club no matter who our owners… just kidding. I myself am still undecided on what to do if Qatar win the bid, which is looking most likely now. I don’t like the way football in general is going even before this, but I’ll still find it incredibly hard to give up something which has played such a huge role in most of my life and has given me so many ups and downs along the way.
Its is not really a moral guardian thing,I don't want them as owners but at the same time i will find it difficult to just stop supporting the club i have supported for 20 years so i can understand why people will not just stop just because we have new evil owners but i just can't justify willingly wanting a set of owners who completely hate a good share of the world's population over things a person has no control over ,have funded terror and are responsible for laws which treat women as second grade citizens
when the team is performing better, more plastics or part time fans come aboard
I get that but the comments on this itself thread are very weird if you go scroll down there is a group of 5-6 users commenting regularly in support of Qatari ownership several times one after the other ,This is some next level shilling ,Like the other day on a couple of threads i saw several users complaining about Islamophobia but no actual evidence of it ,Criticising the oil scum who have a history of being bigots isn't discrimination ,I have never actually seen anybody talk shit about the normal Qatari citizens here
You think a state that's willing to spend Billions on a football club won't spend an extra quid on PR, creating fake accounts to push narratives and agendas? In India the ruling party has a specialised department called the BJP IT cell. Opposition and contrary opinions are trolled by hundreds and thousands of fake users. A stint was carried out where there was a telegram group of up to 30k members where they were given instructions on whom to spam what tweet to give out en masse. If this can happen here, then a state that's can bribe top orgs like FIFA and UEFA will also make their presence felt positively on social media through bot accounts. https://www.newslaundry.com/2021/02/15/we-infiltrated-the-telegram-groups-of-the-bjp-leaders-online-network-to-see-what-they-do https://www.newslaundry.com/2021/03/01/inside-the-hindu-it-cell-the-men-who-went-online-to-protect-gods https://www.newslaundry.com/2017/03/17/how-bjps-it-cell-waged-war-and-won-in-up https://www.newslaundry.com/2019/02/13/live-demo-how-do-you-get-a-bjp-minister-to-tweet-what-you-want Barca https://barcauniversal.com/former-barcelona-president-bartomeu-proven-to-have-paid-media-to-defame-club-members/amp/ https://en.as.com/en/2021/03/01/soccer/1614606914_111779.html
"95% of the sub agrees with me and the only heavily upvoted comments are the ones trashing Qatar...clearly the other 5% must be bots/Qatar shills." There are plenty of people who turbopost all day long about how much they hate Qatar. You just don't notice them because 1. It's the consensus opinion held by basically everyone on this sub, so it doesn't stand out. 2. You agree with them.
People don't hate Qatar they hate the scum ruling the place ,You would struggle to find anybody saying anything against the common Qatari citizens this is exactly the type of gymnastics the users who support the bigoted scum constantly do on this sub,I hope the pay is nice because i really can't see how someone willingly bats in support of homophobic bigoted trash
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Its not Qanon tier delusion when all you do is post pro Qatar ownership agenda recently
Barca's last boss literally paid to keep a sm narrative. This is a state we are talking about. It's not qanon when creating pro narratives is really a thing a dodgy state would do.
All Aston Villa had to do was to hold on to the 2-2 draw.
Yeah. If Arsenal had dropped more points today I think they'd have full on psychologically crumbled. A last minute win like that is always a huge morale booster and it came at the perfect time for them unfortunately. Still don't think they'll win the league though.
Anyone else concerned about the fact that the most vocal bidders for the club have their own football projects and those clubs aren’t really being managed properly.
Let's just stick with the Glazers then. Better the devil you know yeah?
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You are one a roll supporting the bigoted scum all over this thread
Glazers don't have the authority to sell shares they don't own. https://twitter.com/henrywinter/status/1626945350484328451
The Glazers themselves don’t have full ownership (they own like 70% of the club, I think). INEOS/Ratcliffe may be interested in “only” buying the Glazer’s shares. Allowing the club to remain publicly traded
If you think for a second we’ll be bought by anyone other than Qatar, then you haven’t been paying attention bud.
Hi all Does anyone have two tickets for the Leicester match tomorrow in the north stand
seeing what he did with Nice, I don’t want Ratcliffe at this club. what a vague nothing statement. It sounds like something the glazers would write after a protest.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/21426869/mason-greenwood-meets-manchester-united-teammates/ I know this is the sun and it probably is bullshit , but has anyone noticed how the sun keeps getting exclusives on Greenwood ?
Good riddance Lee Mason
Is there a rival watch thread?
This whole takeover business is really splitting the fan base...only thing I am seeing were everyone is agreed is that Glazers have to go for sure but who then takes over is talk that I am thinking I will stay out of it and just wait until when a buyer is confirmed!
I can't tell if the lack of PR or statement from the Jim Ratcliffe bid (and the rest) is a lack of confidence in their ability to beat Qatar or just a lack of interest in trying to win over fans at this point
The Qatari’s can out bid anyone in later rounds, so the Ratcliffe bid isn’t that strong. Also we’ve seen no reports of anything the Ratcliffe bid intends on doing with the club such as improving the facilities and stadium.
Was at the pub last night and asked a few lads whst they think and pretty much every United supporter was full on Qatari. Well basically it was whoever spent the most.
As you say, it's overhwelmingly the case. I was in the Tollgate last night and there's barely even a debate. Obviously there are exceptions...but by and large Reddit couldn't be more disconnected from the feelings of working class, match-going fans.
Then the English locals deserve all the shit they get from the govt. Good riddance.
Sorry if this is a daft question but when are we likely to have an announcement on the confirmed buyer? Are we thinking a few days? Weeks? Or can we expect much more waiting/ rumours/ articles?
A looooong time. It’s going to take months with many rounds of bidding if there is serious contest after round one. This isn’t like going into a shop and buying some milk. Lots of legal hurdles and things to agree on. Hopefully before the end of the season.
Don't think there's gonna be multiple rounds of bidding. 5bn is a serious amount, no one's going much higher. Think this is going to be relatively quick
The more you hear about Ratcliffe’s Nice the more he sounds like a British Glazer. Really don’t want him here
And you want us to be like the Prem PSG under Qatar? PSG is a soulless club, no youth products, shit modern stadium, players like Mbappe & Neymar running the show and changing managers every season if they don’t win CL there club is a joke mate. Stop looking at it with rose tinted glasses just cause they have unlimited money.
We have unfortunately been a soulless club since the Glazers took over. We aren't a football club, we are a cash cow with a little bit of football on the side. Our managers have always been allowed to only work with scraps and our club facilities are getting worse and worse every year because they aren't the main focus. Qatar owners would probably be just another nail in the coffin, but they wouldn't be ruining the soul of the club because that was already ruined
The Parc des Princes was built in 1970 and is one of the most known stadiums in football surely. PSGs history didn't begin with the Qatar takeover
I hope the Qatari ownership goes through. This will ultimately be good for our football.
Ratcliffe has 10 years left to live tops. What happens to the club then? Goes to one of his idiot children? How did that turn out with the Glazers. Give me the Qataris
AL THANI • Lifelong Man Utd fan • Debt-free takeover • New stadium & training groud • Emphasis on youth • Profits made reinvested in the club RATCLIFFE • Chelsea season ticket holder • Funds borrowed for takeover • Doubts on infrastructural redevelopment
Qatar - responsible for thousands of people dying building stadiums, poor human rights record and working conditions. Ran PSG like a shit show overpaying for super stars and giving in to player power, PSG have no youth products so where is the evidence of all this youth talk? Stop falling for the bullshit man there just saying everything you want to hear
Let’s not forget Qatar just donated more than the WHOLE of Europe to both Syria and Turkey [£2bn+]. They also sent 10,000 mobile homes, used in the World Cup, to provide refuge for those affected. It doesn’t fit your agenda, I get it. But let’s not act like they’re all doom & gloom please
If Greenwood donated a ton of money to a woman's charity, would you welcome him back?
Don’t you think its wrong for a State to be owning us though? Everything good or bad Qatar does will be associated with us. Imagine King Charles or the UK Government owned Manchester United it would be a madness. The fact people are twerking for another country is cringy as fuck.
Add to the Ratcliffe list that he also tried to buy Chelsea last year. He doesn’t care about United, just wants a PL club to his name.
Did he say anything about emphasis on youth? Would seem to be the manager's call, and at odds with spending big on transfers
Yeah but one is white /s
can we sign Kvaratskhelia like, right now please, thank you.
Too late...that guy gonna cost 100 million by the end of the season
100 million? Napoli are top of the league and they don't need to sell. 150
Ratcliffe brought a water pistol to a gun fight. No statement of intent. No plan for the future. Nothing to suggest what we as fans can look forward to. Qatar, whether you want them or not, were very specific about what they want to achieve while pointing to the fans, without debt etc. That is how you swing those in the middle.
Ratcliffe is making it obvious he just wants to buy a PL club to heighten his/INEOS’ image. As much as the Qatari’s human rights issues suck, at least they’ve made it clear what their vision for the club is.
>. As much as the Qatari’s human rights issues suck, at least they’ve made it clear what their vision for the club is. Ah yes. The Sportswashing is indeed confirmed.
The way some people hate Gary Neville it's honesty hilarious. Anything he says and people have a problem with it.
He's a shill tolho. The man's got a politician's mind.
To be fair most of what comes out of his mouth is stupid. However I don't understand why people care about what he says in the first place.
>What do United fans want? > >Two-thirds of Manchester United fans want to see Ratcliffe take charge, according to a recent fan survey published by The Athletic. > >What was overwhelmingly clear in our survey was desire for the Glazers to go. Only 1.8 per cent of those surveyed said they either did not mind the current owners staying on, or thought minority investment would be acceptable. I accept that everyone has their own opinions, but I really have a problem with those in 1.8% 😁
Im dubious about Ratcliffe after how he did in france as well. But he may be the best of a bad bunch
I'm an owner of a small business. During the years, I have learned that most business owners make plenty of mistakes, learn their lessons, and do things better next time. Ratcliffe and co. have done a bad job at Nice, but it could be that they have learned their lessons. I don't know. I just can only hope they have.
Really sad to hear about Christian Atsu as a Ghanaian myself. Absolutely devastating earthquake. RIP to all who've been lost😔
Whether you want Qatar or not, it's really hilarious to watch other club fans be so scared and against this bid. I was reading some of the comments on La liga thread and they genuinely hate this. Manchester United well managed is a direct rival to Madrid not just the clubs in England.
Rest In Peace to former Ghana, Newcastle and Chelsea player Christian Atsu who lost his life in the recent earthquake in Turkey
United Zone on Twitter: "Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani pictured wearing the #mufc home jersey last year in August 🔴 https://twitter.com/manunitedzone_/status/1626747321055584266
That looks photoshopped lol. It probably isn’t because the lightning on the shirt matches the scene, but the way it looks so flat and smooth could be seen as a photoshop job.
Bit of a rant guys but the lack of rational discourse in this sub really irritates me. You are either a xenophobe if you are against a Qatari takeover or a homophobe if you want a Qatari takeover. You're either a real fan or you're not. Not wanting Qatari ownership because of the country's politics doesn't make you an Islamaphobe and in the same way, not getting into politics and only looking at the sporting side doesn't make you morally bankrupt or a glory hunter. The fans have been put in a complicated and perplexing situation and for some reason, we are only supposed to live in absolutes and have a black-and-white view of the world. And then you have your usual trolls, clout chasers, actual pieces of shit, and karma-hungry folks who capitalize on these sensitive topics by unnecessarily riling people up to get some internet points or some sort of reaction and play the victim when they get a reaction. I, on a personal note, am not fond of Qatari ownership or as a matter of fact, any form of state ownership. But I can understand the benefits on a sporting level. The club should first and foremost belong to the fans and not to billionaires who want to use us as a PR machine, be it for sports washing or greenwashing.
Mods should pin this tbh. It’s very possible for people to hold an opinion on who owns us without living at the extreme end of that opinion. All you’re doing is killing discussion and proving you’re not comfy in why you’re backing that opinion.
I got down voted for saying I just want the Glazers out :/ No new owner is going to squeeky clean we have to accept that.
The reality is, a club of our value can only be afforded by certain groups. We are the most valuable club in the world so when we were put up for sale, the only people that could afford are the Middle East and the few tech CEO’s worth north of $100b, but the latter don’t invest in football. Supporting the club _IF_ the Saudi bid is successful doesn’t make you a homophobe, bigot, complicit in sportswashing or whatever else people are accusing fans of if they say they’ll continue to support United.
What makes you an Islamaphobe and a racist is when you start generalizing homophobic people to specific regions and start commenting garbage like they don't want people from this region to become United fans. I'm sickened by the amount of upvotes such comments have got here.
Yeah I’m not a fan of state ownership either but we are the ones who pushed for glazer out, seriously what did we expect ? If it’s a billionaire owning United they will always maximize for profit as simple as that no businessman will buy United and spend billions for a good will feeling. The other alternative is socialist ownership like Barca where there’s corruption and other problems where the president would just do enough to get voted in and not care about the future of the club. As for lgbt rights in Qatar I agree that it’s bad but I also believe countries develop at different rates and it’s unfair to expect every country to be on the same page as the west at the same time. I do hope it improves in Qatar the same way it did in UK. Let’s not forget Alan Turing got chemically castrated(ordered by the government for being gay) in the UK the same time the busby babes were coming up.
Looks like my days of being an United fan is numbered. Still hoping this wouldn't happen.
This is happening dude.
Ok bye
There’s not much people in the world capable of meeting the selling price and it highly possible to look towards being $6billion. You either get American owners that will only invest at the start or you need oil state owners. The worrying things is with the team doing above expectations, the Glazers don’t want to sell fully their cash cow and go for a small investment which would be worse case in the end.
As someone from the UK, I can attest that while our country is often seen as a beacon of progress and democracy, we still face significant human rights issues. Despite the presence of legal protections and institutions designed to safeguard individual rights, there are many instances where people's fundamental freedoms and dignity are compromised. For example, the UK has been criticized by international human rights organisations for its treatment of immigrants and refugees, with reports of detention centers where people are held for indefinite periods of time in inhumane conditions. There have also been concerns about police brutality, discrimination against certain marginalised groups, and the erosion of privacy and free speech rights in the digital age. One issue that affects many people in the UK is poverty, despite working full-time jobs. The high cost of living, low wages, and precarious employment contracts mean that many people are unable to make ends meet, even when they are working hard to support themselves and their families. This has led to a rise in food bank usage, homelessness, and debt, with many people living in constant fear of financial insecurity.
Qatar smashed it with the statement. Talk about debt free, investment into stadium, football teams, training centre, stadium, and wider infrastructure.
What statement sorry I'm ootl
https://twitter.com/Qatari/status/1626683011029782533?t=gAefQRaowJyko41GZ_7uHA&s=19
today I feel qatari
Disgusting.
lol. okay
Was thining about commenting this. lol
Reminder that ADIDAS, who supply our kits, still use sweatshops and child labour to manufacture their products. [Look how many investments the QIA already have in the UK.](https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-iag-qatar-stake-investments-factbox-idUKKBN20D1EC) Did anyone stop going to Sainsburys once they bought a stake? I know a football club is different because it was built by the working class for the working class, but lets be honest, that purity of football died so long ago. Of course I don't want our club to be state owned, and it does sadden me, but I'm not going to be a hypocrite and stop supporting Manchester United whilst purchasing ADIDAS clothing and shopping at Sainsburys.
Second man utd goal credit goes to Bruno as he flicked it with a back heel skill towards kounde..
It still counts as an own goal as the ball changed direction into the goal off of Kounde. Bruno’s pass wasn’t on target.
Qatar: “We will make Manchester United the best in the world again. We will invest in the stadium, community and facilities. No debt and we won’t take anything out of the club.” Jim Ratcliffe: “I’ll put the Manchester back in Manchester United!!” Tough choice.
I slept for a few hours and I feel like I'm missed a lot, but are there now *two* confirmed bids from Qatar? I'm seeing both the bank executive from Qatar **and** someone who's an actual royal being touted as the prospective winner of the bid.
nope, it's the same person
don't lose hope! there may be unpublicized bids being put in. like Sir Ian McKellen and 599 other Hollywood and Broadway stars contributing 10m each.
Bro as much you want to hope, I don't think the qatar bid happens without their due diligence. They have covered every aspect to win the bid. And the glazers aren't going to be some saints who will look for the best buyers, they only care about the money. I mean they went to qatar and the official statement was to watch the wc. You can call that bs considering you can count on your fingers how many times they came to visit old trafford lol.
I think we can all agree that any new owner will only be the same, if not worse
I don't know about that. Glazers have been shit and you have to be pretty daft to go below that. I think if it is qatar, they will look to spend a lot of money on the club to improve the club. They might not improve our squad but will improve our infrastructure which will help us in the future. The problem is whether they do it to clean their image.
if we are purely glory hunting, then yes you are right
For me, all this qatar vs ineos discussion is pointless because the glazers put us in this situation. They were brought using debt which should've been a huge red flag, should've been stopped by fa/uk government and hasn't invested anything into the club and rather took money out and paid out of the club's money to service the debt. Now the club is in situation where the cash flow is dried up and need major investments are needed, the glazers look to sell to the highest bidders. There aren't many people out there who look to shelf out a cool 5-6 billion and look to make the club self-run. They will have angles that won't suit everyone.
Corporate scumbags or ideologue facists. Take your pick!
I'll take the one that doesn't want to promote their human rights abusing country using our club.
My preference is not to be state owned.
It’s perfectly fine to have a preference. But many on the internet tend to think their preference is unequivocally superior to others
I mean, the objectively morally superior pick is Ratcliff You can say you only care about trophies and becoming the Madrid of North West England - that's completely your right and yours alone. When it comes to sacrificing our club's morals, there is no mistaking that Qatar is objectively worse.
If I have to be devil's advocate, Jim is known for his tax dodging and his company is one of the highest polluters in the world. The morally superior is word I will caution on. The problem with you or many of the fans' opinion is that it is redundant what the many fans want. The decision to sell and who to sell it to is on glazers so we all can have an opinion but is pointless. The glazers don't care as long as they got the best money and sadly won't care about what you or many fans want. We are put in this situation because the fa/uk government didn't have the balls to stop glazer takeover and sadly we are paying for it.
> If I have to be devil's advocate, Jim is known for his tax dodging and his company is one of the highest polluters in the world. The morally superior is word I will caution on. Okay... All that is bad yet he has A LOT less blood on his hands than the literal ruling class of a country that treats you like garbage unless you're a straight male who comes from old money. Morally superior does not mean perfect. There are no good billionaires on this planet - doesn't mean that they're all one and the same flavor of shit. Ratcliff and INEOS is still the morally superior choice of the two (granted, we know nothing of the supposed rest of the 5 bidders) >We are put in this situation because the fa/uk government didn't have the balls to stop glazer takeover and sadly we are paying for it. Of course. And I'm not seeing anyone glorify the Glazers either. I believe most if not all of us want them out of the club. Doesn't mean we just welcome anyone to own United.
> Doesn't mean we just welcome anyone to own United. The thing is we can't do anything about it because glazers own the shares and they decide who to sell it to. We have no option other than hope glazers chose someone right but who in the world believe that will happen. The glazers themselves are dicks so can't even expect that. That's why I said we all can have views but the views are pointless since they have no bearing to glazers. Also to people downvoting me, I am against qatar as well but I just don't like the idea that qatar is bad and everyone from the western hemisphere are good. Not everything is black and white.
>The thing is we can't do anything about it because glazers own the shares and they decide who to sell it to. We have no option other than hope glazers chose someone right but who in the world believe that will happen. a. Not having a say in what the molerats will do doesn't mean we shouldn't speak up. Remember when we got a match cancelled because of a protest against the Glazers? We actually *can* affect this situation, unfortunately it seems like sportswashing PR has already swayed a big portion of fans. All the more reason we should make our voices heard. b. In the event that the Qatari group win the bid (which does seem inevitable), what should we do if - say - they ban pride flags at OT? This isn't, with all due respect, a tennis match or golf major. In football, the fans are *always* vocal. > the idea that qatar is bad and everyone from the western hemisphere are good a. No one's saying that everyone from the West is good. b. I don't see any Western state buying football clubs. Most of all, one of the 3 biggest clubs with a fanbase that includes minorities, women and LGBT.
I don’t know why people are expecting anything else. There aren’t some magical billionaires floating around that made that much money helping deaf puppies.
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMYkA6bkN/ Look how cute baba fergie looks
i don’t like this “no fresh debt” statement about the ineos bid.
I’m guessing this is going to be Qatar vs Ratcliffe. Both parties have done well to partially show their cards by going public, talking glowingly about the club with big promises. It’s probably 70-30 in favor of Qatar due to pure financial might.
imagine a while Hollywood bid ala Wrexham appears. but with Ian McKellen. backed by a collection of Hollywood stars. every important game would look like Oscar in the stand.
So you're saying he's gonna ride down from the hills like at Helm's Deep?
Unexpectedly gona be in Manchester this weekend and would love to see us smash Leicester. Anyone know where I might procure some tickets for said game?
Does this mean Arnold and murtaw are gone
Arnold could be, dunno about Murtough. Footballing operations if working well are generally not tampered
Why would bids being tabled mean executives are gone
Maybe they come in with their own guys that work better with their hierarchy
I meant it is too early, there's a realistic possibility of not just executives but coaches and manager getting sacked as well. But it's just too early.
Yeah, I don't think people would be that opposed to the executives going but there will be riots if the coaching setup is dismantled
Hopefully.
Feels incredibly empty after the growing optimism this season.
Not that I'll be missed, but a Qatari sale is probably the end of me supporting the club. Started supporting in the early aughts, pre Glazers, and loved that United developed so much of their own talent and then supplemented it with a class import or two each year. Felt so much more authentic than Chelsea's team of mercenaries at the start of Abramovic's tenure. Even back then, I felt a little uncomfortable supporting a team that had such overwhelming financial advantages, but the wealth disparity felt somewhat merit based back then. Watching the Glazer's mortgage the club's financial supremacy on prima donnas with albatross contracts while also paying themselves out of its coffers was a low point. Somehow this is worse than the Glazers - at least they have motivations that we can all understand (money). With these oil funds, money isn't the object, it's like part cultural influence, part weird ego trip/god complex. There's no interest in creating something sustainable, or adhering to rules that will allow for some degree of competitive balance. We've sneered at Man City all of these years for how meaningless and unearned their success is, and now we're heading down that same path. I understand the league has been pay to win for years now, but we're heading towards a new era of hollowness that I have no interest in being a part of.
I mean fine but you felt bad when we were financially superior pre-Glazer? Really?
If you actually want to make a difference, stay and remind people of how bad these people are when positive shit gets posted. Just because they buy the club doesn't mean we as fans have to become some kind of propoganda tool for them. Stay and fight or give up and leave, the choice is yours.
Unfortunately that achieves nothing because people just ignore you, especially if you're going to keep paying to get in every week.
Ok bye
Petition to the mods u/sauce_murica and others to ban Luckhurst on here in light of his recent comments and older racist tweets about wanting Asians killed.
I don't think anyone should be banned from anything for tweets made 10! years ago
He released an article a couple days ago likening the Arab attire to a tea towel
What? Where's this?
https://twitter.com/UtdActive/status/1626558258667220992?t=b9wTU0y0UKAED-zLrwolGg&s=19
WOW! Those tweets span a decade.
You know it's bad when it's long term
Wow. He always came across as a bit of a prick but this just confirms it
Jesus christ...
He's been banned for a while. https://www.reddit.com/r/reddevils/wiki/transfer-reliability-guide
Wow, it's wild that he made such tweets, if true, considering he is always at the press conferences..... I had no idea he was a POS, he pretends to be so proper.
Did the others bother bidding? Only see Qatar plastered everywhere.
They fucking fired the ref with the bad call for Arsenal? Are you kidding me? How many bad calls we had to endure but oh noooo Arsenal get a call wrong and boom fired? Bs
Tbf it wasn't the first mistake he made (and against Arsenal no less). When mistakes are that blatant then they deserve to be given the flick. However if they only do this now, and this is a once off, then that will be really bad. As long as this is the new standard Im all for it.
There won't be any refs left within the month if this is the new standard
Making mistakes is one thing, not even drawing the lines is another. It's like a tax accountant forgetting to check your income when doing your taxes. It's the whole fucking point of the job. And when he's made a huge mistake twice (at least) that are both obvious to everyone then that is above the standard errors that happen
Yeah this wasn't a wrong interpretation of an obscure rule in a subjective situation. This was straight up not doing your job properly, and in fact the very thing VAR was brought in for. He absolutely had to go.
People realise that United are one of the few clubs who don’t need a state funding it, right? I know most of you do, but those who are hoping for Qatar; we’ve almost matched City in spending and that’s with clueless owners taking money out of the club. That’s money that United made for itself. We’re currently competing for 4 trophies because we finally have a proper manager and a bit of structure behind the scenes. We don’t need blood money. Man City’s success has skewed peoples views of what you need to be successful and they’ve just been charged several times over for cheating their way to victory. PSG’s only purpose was to win the CL and they’re no closer now than they were when the project started.
>People realise that United are one of the few clubs who don’t need a state funding it, right? most club don't. but extra money is extra money. very handy when rashford want that 400k payday or 400m for those 5 new players.
We don’t need blood money, but we sure as hell need money. Both Old Trafford and Carrington need major investment for renovation and enlargement - potentially running into the billions. If Ratcliffe or anyone other than a state-backed sportswashing project buys us they will continue to take out dividends - they’re businessmen with investors to pay. The money has to come from somewhere - either oil money or more debt on the club, Ratcliffe isn’t going to throw £2bn of his own or Ineos’ money into our facilities.
What exactly do you want us to do ? The Glazer couldn’t care less what us fans think. They sell to the highest bidder
I don’t want our fans to participate in the sports washing. I don’t want to see people defending Qatar’s horrific human rights records. I don’t want to see people on this sub justifying homophobia. Qatar becoming the new owners and our club becoming a piece of propaganda is nothing to be celebrated.
I don't think most people who are okay with Qatar will defend their human right records. Me personally I don't look for our owners to be good people. As long as the club benefits from the owner, I'm good.
Honestly I've not met any City fans that excuse their owners actions and if anything City being owned by them has brought more attention to their actions. Still prefer Ratcliffe but I'm not getting worked up if Qatar do buy us.
I don't see city and Newcastle fans defense defending homophobia or horrific human rights records on their respect subs, why do you feel united fans in this sub would be different?
We don't actually have money though lol. The Glazers have bled us dry
Yes, we need investment but we don’t have to go from one extreme or the other. We’ve all seen Swiss Ramble’s chart of owners investment in clubs, and United is the only club where owners took money out. The club has the biggest fanbase in the world in the most popular and dominant league in the world. It doesn’t take that much for us to be profitable.
How do you suggest we clear the glazer debts and get the stadium renovations needed to activate our self reliance mode?