With the recent announcement of Tevez's departure, coming on the back of Ronaldo's eighty million pound sale, eyes are starting to turn in the direction of the club's American owners, the Glazers.
It is estimated that Manchester United is currently being operated on about £700 million of debt. After United announced that it had made an agreement with Real Madrid over the sale of Ronaldo, the Glazer family promised that the money coming in from this deal will be spent on new players and not put towards lowering the massive debt.
The various rumours floating around were that United were going to go after Ribéry, Villa, Benzema and Valencia. Many also believed the money may be used to secure Carlos Tevez's long term Old Trafford future. The Tevez deal did not go through, as he shunned United and their president David Gill saying that they didn't make an offer until it was "too late".
Five days after the Glazers announced that they would be willing to spend as much money as Sir Alex wanted, the club released another announcement. The club installed a long term policy that they would no longer buy players aged twenty-six of higher.
Twenty-six seems to be somewhat of an arbitrary age until one looks a little closer to see that Franck Ribéry, a player for whom United was rumoured to put in a bid worth around £87 million, just celebrated his twenty-sixth birthday this April. This made him ineligible for a transfer to United as well as United's target with the second highest transfer fee, David Villa.
Although this still leaves bids for Benzema and Valencia on the table, it looks as if this new policy has David Gill and the Glazers looking at the resale value of these players instead of their value on the pitch.
The trophies over the last few season seem to have gone a fair way in covering up the problems that Glazers have brought with them, but this summer is proving that it could be a bit of a wake up call to the club's supporters.
Despite the recent on field success, including three Premier League titles and a Champions League crown United's debt is higher than when the Glazers first bought the club in 2005. United have continued to refuse any comment on the issue, evidently trying to avoid any excess media attention on the issue.
The situation with the Glazers seems to have calmed down among the supporters recently, but the situation this season may be worse than ever. With ticket prices still at a premium, and United whoring out their brand around the world, the debt continues to increase. On field success has kept the supporters happy, but with what will undoubtedly be a demanding offseason, the Glazers may find themselves once again under intense scrutiny.
For the first time in three years Manchester United are not going in as the clear favourites to win the Premier League crown. Many people believe that they have turned into a selling club over the last few weeks, selling their top player for a massive profit, while letting another influential player out the door.
United need to spend this summer, but the Glazers may not be ready to...
1 comments:
Although the debt is worrisome, and Man U fans the world over are clambering for big name signings, I would be more concerned about United throwing that huge transfer kitty away. There are no guarantees in life and that includes high profile signings being a success at Old Tr afford. Especially if they are only there for the money, but would rather play in Spain. Which appears to be most of the higher profile players that they have been linked to.
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