The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- Judith Benjamin
For 90 minutes on Sunday, Manchester United were out-hustled, out-played and out-classed by cross-city rivals Manchester City.
They lost 3-0 at home, in front of a restless home crowd, on a day to honor Sir Bobby Charlton, who died earlier this month and is widely considered the greatest English player of all time with two decades at United.
Those glory days are long gone. So is the time of David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo and the legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who led United to two Champions Leagues and 13 Premier League titles before his retirement in 2013.
These days, the most successful team in the history of English soccer is deeply mired in futility, enduring their worst start to a season in more than 30 years and bumbling through a series of off-field issues that have included a failed takeover bid and the loss of a talented young player after allegations of attempted rape.
On Sunday, Old Trafford stadium – known in happier times as the Theatre of Dreams – again featured mutinous protests against the Glazers, the Florida-based family who own the club as well as the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“They have overseen 10 years of mediocrity off the pitch and on the pitch,” Gary Neville said recently, one of several club legends who have been fiercely critical of United in the post-Ferguson years. “They set the culture of greed, ill discipline, indecision and uncertainty that runs right through the club.”
The team’s demise has sent shockwaves through the sport given United’s previous status as one of European soccer’s genuine heavyweights. Rival fans have taken malicious pleasure from the downfall of a superpower that used to dominate the league. “Old Trafford is falling down,” the City fans sang on Sunday to celebrate a 3-0 victory
The Glazer family took over in 2005 and have been trying to sell the club for more than a year. Earlier this month, talks collapsed over a possible takeover by Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al Thani of Qatar’s royal family amid reports the Glazers wanted $8 billion for a club whose market capitalization on the New York Stock Exchange is estimated at just over $3 billion.
Sheikh Jassim pulled out of the negotiations after purportedly valuing the club at around $6.3 billion, with a further $2.1 billion earmarked to improve the stadium, training ground and other facilities that former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer described recently as “neglected.”
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the second richest man in the United Kingdom and a United fan, is expected to take a 25 per cent stake for $1.6 billion, with many observers viewing that as a step toward seeking a higher stake. For now, however, the Glazers, who rarely visit Manchester, remain firmly in charge, with protests against them at every match.
Fans forced the abandonment of a match against Liverpool in 2021 by breaking into the stadium and invading the pitch. On another occasion, a group of 20 hooded United followers turned up outside the house of Ed Woodward, then the executive vice-chairman, and sprayed the building with red paint and let off flares and smoke bombs. Jeers have come in the form of shouts from fans in the stadium and banners flying overhead.
In April 2021, Joel Glazer admitted United’s owners need to “become better listeners.” Two months later he added: “Our silence wrongly created the impression that we aren’t football fans, that we only care about our commercial interests and money. And I can assure you, nothing could be further from the truth.”
After 16 years on mute, this indicated a move towards greater dialogue. Yet in the months that have followed, little has changed and large swathes of United fans still feel cut off from their club’s U.S. owners.
The front cover of the latest Red News, United’s oldest fanzine, sums it up: “We just want to be proud of our club again.”
