Andreas Absenger

🚨Ineos has done a terrible job — but it is 100% a lot easier to get the Glazers out today than in 2023. What few realize is that the money it would take to make United a giant in European football again “is peanuts”. There is a clear blueprint for how to build a successful top European club. This should not be mixed up with what it takes to maintain a top position, which is a lot less. City, PSG, Real, Barca, Chelsea and co have all done it at one point or another. It’s to spend more than your rivals on the transfer market, get the best players, for a period of 2-3 years. With the way this club is run, it can afford to spend say 150m per summer. If an owner underwrote an additional 300m per summer it brings the total amount up to 450m per summer. Do that 3 summers in a row, for a total of 900m of owner support — and United would be back. United ‘being back’ equals at least 200-300m more in revenue per season. So the money being put in by an owner is basically not a cost, it’s an investment. And as we see everywhere else and as is only natural — once you built a winner, you do not need to keep spending as much. BUT — United does not do this because of the Glazers. The Glazers require a strict budget to be implemented. Why? Because if costs get out of hand, the owners have to cover it — and they have no money. United is their ATM machine (a tautology?). I’ve said it before, if Ineos throws in the towel, the Glazers ends up in an awful position. Simply awful position. No stadium is getting built. The club is in its worst position in 50 years. Sure, they could go to some hedge fund that will finance a new stadium and the club against security in future TV money or whatever. But the terms of such a deal would be completely awful given the negotiating position the club is in. Why are leaks coming from the Glazers now?

What scares me is that everyone that knows this team well either expected this or knew it was a distinct possibility. Wilcox clearly does not have a good “football mind”. We played well for stretches — but no LB cost us. Surprising? I called this several times this summer when there were talks about how Mazraoui could play LB. Sure, for a functioning team at a lower level. Dalot, Mazraoui and co can’t do it in the PL. It will cost us, and we are too weak to handle big flaws on the squad. Like it or not — facts are that everyone that follows this team closely either knew or feared that this would happen.