We’re a Business, Your The Product

Manchester United are not where we want them to be as a fanbase. Yet some are treating it like we have a divine right to be successful. We want success so badly, and we’ve been starved so long that we’re forgetting where we are and that it’s going to be a sprint, not a marathon, with the resources we actually have due to the absolute appalling way the Glazers have mishandled and treated us like a business with no regard to the traditions and standards that were set prior to them.

You look at it, and we’re not going to compete unless we make the tough decisions, and we have to accept short-term pain for (hopefully) long-term gain because we have no other choice under this ownership. It is absolutely clear to me that we’re trying to change things in and around the club. However, it’s the same ownership, and the years of mishandling the club have finally caught up to us. We’re finding out exactly the state the club is in, not just financially but also in terms of the absolute abysmal recruitment strategy and handling of wages.

At a point now, things have to change for the good of the club. It cannot be run the way it currently is. We have never had so many players who think that they’re above the club. That they think just because they earn a high wage they have a divine right to play, and that has created the toxic culture within. You look at Amorim, and the decisions he has made have been good ones, even if your unsure of his system. The fact is, he is unable to play the football he wants with the current crop of players, and he’s now having to build within getting rid of players that aren’t fit to be at Manchester United.

The trajectory of success is never guaranteed under anybody running the ship. It’s even a more impossible task when you have the track record of owners that we now have at Manchester United. Things could have been so much different if we just had Qatai and the money that would’ve cleared the debt. I feel that half of that is true, because the resources would’ve really helped. However, the recruitment and the structure around the club have been abysmal, and we cannot ignore that either. The Manchester United we knew has gone. It’s now up to Amorim to try and bring it back under a new identity and a new culture of outstanding young talent on the football side. Ultimately, with one hand tide behind his back.

I wrote an article saying that the club is in a mess. That the trophies we have won have only masked the problems. We’re a Cup team right now. However, our rivals have been in the same position as us. We’re victims of the huge success we had under Fergie. However, I think it’s because, in terms of fans, we’re the most represented also, and any owner can monitize that to it’s full extent. We have to try and find a balance. We have to try and keep the faith in these difficult times. After all, it’s not only us who have been through them. The optics do not look good by any stretch of the imagination. However, this new stadium could be a light at the end of the tunnel in terms of renewal to the club and the surrounding area.

We have to accept that we’re being run as a business and we’re the product, and we also have to accept that if we want change, it has to come from within us also as fans. Otherwise, it could be a long road ahead of us back to recovery and getting our football club back.