11 Aug 2018 20:15:28
Our club has been at the forefront of the money pursuit ever since it went public back in 1991. And while its true the once primary relationship between the gate and the club's financial well being has been superseded by commercial revenue and TV rights, can it really be said that our club is any more of a commercial whore (as someone below described us) than those who have been less successful at the sponsorship game and are trying to emulate it? And isn't a commercial whore a somewhat redundant concept anyway?

That same person, a fan for 54 years (one less than me) is disgusted at us? It's the worst he's ever known. Really? How about the side that went down to the division 2? Or indeed any of the sides that didn't win the league between 1967 and 1992.

Does our failure to win the league last year, coming second with 80 points, make us a laughing stock? Only if you believe the press. As we all know our success has made us the most hated team in English football, and because of that the pundits just love to take the opportunity to stick the oar in when things aren't going right. You can choose to buy into, or you can choose to ignore it and just support the club, which means supporting the players and the manager not just on the field but off it.

1.) 11 Aug 2018
11 Aug 2018 20:25:29
Superb post mate.

2.) 11 Aug 2018
11 Aug 2018 20:34:00
Great post shawthing some of the posts really have been embarrassing.

3.) 11 Aug 2018
11 Aug 2018 20:47:53
Spot on mate. You can understand why fans of other teams say we are spoilt. If we feel the team owes us entertainment then we owe them unconditional support through thick and thin.

4.) 11 Aug 2018
11 Aug 2018 22:58:04
Spot on Shaw,

Been utterly embarrassed by some of our fans the last few days, people saying I’m ‘deluded’ for having a different opinion, finally a little bit of sanity, I really hope this team proves people wrong.

5.) 12 Aug 2018
12 Aug 2018 01:09:20
Not when Pogba has just reignited the flame. What are you doing Paul?

6.) 12 Aug 2018
12 Aug 2018 01:29:39
But some people will still not appreciate the club ans the manager.

There is an old saying "The grass is greener on the other side".

7.) 12 Aug 2018
12 Aug 2018 06:36:49
Yeah, that's all well and good but the main thing you're failing to recognise is utd have been playing sh*t boring football for a long time now and I'm not prepared to bother with it anymore. I'll come back when the club have a better product to offer me.

8.) 12 Aug 2018
12 Aug 2018 07:13:57
Shawthing

You asked whether we were any more of a commercial whore than others. The commerciality was to be expected but under the Plc we were debt free, now we have to pay for loans taken out for the owners to buy the club. The remaining £300m of CLUB debt did not one bit of good to the club. A loan like that could he rebuilt the Soith stand three times over. Other clubs may be commercial but the money will go towards making them successful. Our commercial ventures have come at a huge price of hundreds of millions lost in interest and loans. I support the club but not owners who did that.

9.) 12 Aug 2018
12 Aug 2018 07:27:22
Redman, I hear what you are saying. But arrant the owners the same people who put in place a solid marketing model that made it match easier to pay the loans? Moreover once the loans are manageable the money generated will go towards the club and line their pockets - like all businesses. But without the infrastructure to rake in so much income we won’t be able to spend all this money we have been spending. Would you rather not have much money to spend and be debt free?

10.) 12 Aug 2018
12 Aug 2018 09:15:02
Ryan’s left foot

I should be grateful the owners put in a marketing plan to enable the club to pay loans for years which enabled them to buy the club. Seriously. All praise their marketing but a leveraged buyout has cost the club hundreds of millions. “Like all businesses”, borrowing can be good for a business but the capital in this case did nothing for the good of the club at all, it didn’t buy a player or renovate a stand. All this commercial acumen is for one thing, improve the asset value of the club and to the benefit of the owners. Believe otherwise if you wish.
With that I feel like I have taken on the mantle of Kloot in the old days except he was far more aggressive about them.
We will never know what might have been if instead of the owners we have, we picked up City type owners who have massively elevated that club.

11.) 12 Aug 2018
12 Aug 2018 09:34:16
ManMan and RedMan. Thank God for a bit of reality check. We can say it 1000 times that the club is in a good place, but the reality is that it isn't. The Glazers saddled us with crippling debts that have done nothing to helo the club on the pitch. It has however, put an eyewatering amount of money into their pockets, and built up the brand so that they can sell it for the ultimate pay day. And that is the difference between the Glazers and the City owners. Unfortunately, we have got the horrible lot, and they managed to get the owners who genuinely care.
So people can twist any tale the way they want, but the truth is, until these greedy lot have had enough and until we get someone rich and passionate about our club, then we're going to be stuck in this never ending cycle.

12.) 12 Aug 2018
12 Aug 2018 12:11:15
AAA, I don't think City's oweners care a jot about the club and the city. What they do care about is having a vehicle for good PR of UAE to try and gloss over their horrible human rights record. I actually prefer the Glazers because at least they don't indulge in slavery. If we had an owener like that I would have nothing to do with the club at all.

So, if we want to talk about football in purely commercial terms then we have to see it as a product. Man utd's product is not fit for purpose and should be subject to a recall. No one in their right mind would keep going back to the cinema time and time again to see a sh*t, boring film so I have no idea why Old Trafford is full every week.

13.) 12 Aug 2018
12 Aug 2018 14:58:13
No part of my post was related to the style of football we are playing or whether it is entertaining enough. I acknowledge we're frustratingly behind Liverpool and City at the moment, but that's a separate discussion and has nothing to do with the "commercial whore" and "laughing stock" comments. Nor is the Glazers LBO and its long term impact on the club, something I've been extremely vocal about. Had SAF not been able to maintain the success on the field, who knows we might have ended up in bankruptcy.

14.) 12 Aug 2018
12 Aug 2018 20:42:56
Shawthing, but in your OP you advocate we "just support the club, which means supporting the players and the manager" and I'm saying no to that because the football is so bad which is partly because of the club, partly because of the manager and partly because of the players.

Support is not unconditional, it's a two way contract and it's earned. For my support (which comes in the forms of both time and money), I demand decent football.

Also, you can't seperate the club from the business, they are one and the same.

I agree that we are not commercial whores, nor are we a laughing stock. Also, Jose is an improvement on LVG which is the worse I've seen Utd. Sheffield Utd at home in the FA Cup was the lowest point of following Utd.