Kay's View: Manchester United, Listen to Your Fans

Gone are the days when Manchester United use to have a business plan that worked on its own profit, with cheap ticket prices. Gone are the days when United had a team full of passion, and when no player was ever as big as the club.

In a matter of just seven days the once greatest football institution in the world has become a farce amongst its peers.

Rooney first stating that he is leaving the Mancunian club, and then signing a contract two days later tells me that United have lost the plot. They have met their match in a 24-year-old-called Wayne Rooney.

And by signing Rooney on a new contract that makes him the highest paid footballer in Britain, Man United has also taken a big gamble. Nothing guarantees United or its fans that Rooney will find his best form and help the team move forward.

The only good that could have come out of all these shenanigans is that Rooney put the Glazier’s under pressure; albeit for his own purpose to get a raise.

“During those meetings in August I asked for assurances about the continued ability of the club to attract the top players in the world…”

This is the statement that Rooney made on Tuesday and said that he did not get any assurances and that United had "no ambition." How could United give assurances in the state that they are in?

United had a record operating profit of £100 million. However, they also made a full-year loss of around £84 million due to the huge amounts of debt strangling the club.

Chief executive of the club, David Gill, insists that all finances at the club are under control. Even if they are, what is happening at United is a travesty.

The clubs’ listed debt last year stood at a staggering £716.5 million, with 16.5 percent interest on a large chunk of that amount. The money completely wasted on all this interest did not even have to be there in the first place.

All this money could have gone into buying new players, upgrading facilities and so on. But the real issue is the fans. The fans would not care as much about all the business problems with the team unless it did not affect the fans directly.

Since the Glazier takeover they have annually increased the price of the tickets. Football use to be a working mans sport, now not even a middle-class fan can afford to take his whole family to watch a game at Old Trafford.

What the Glaziers are doing is pushing away the fans that make the club. They do not understand what it is like to be a fan of such a historic football club.

I once read an article which stated that Roman Ambramovich, the owner of Chelsea FC, was not helping his team by getting too involved with the team itself.

After Jose Mourinho left the club, it was said that they had a bust up between them because Ambramovich wanted his team to play more attractive football, while Mourinho insisted that the approach to winning trophies is to do it his way. 

The article stated that Ambramovich was being a Chelsea fan instead of a Chelsea owner. In other words he listened to his heart before his head.

In United’s case it is the exact opposite. The Glaziers are all about the business and making money; and that is worrying when you see that the Glaziers other business ventures are not doing quite well; change that—not doing well, full stop.

Where Ambramovich has poured millions on improving his club both on and off the pitch, the Glaziers have made millions by attracting new markets and drawing huge sponsors to the club. However, all this money is being used to pay the debts and to go into the Glaziers personal bank account.

Since their ownership United have won seven trophies, but the team that won these trophies was gradually being built before the Glaziers takeover.

What Manchester United need is an owner who is both a fan and a business man. To make use of an anthropological term, they need a doubly-marginal person who is one with the people, but who can separate himself from them when he needs to look at his club from a financial point of view.

At the end of the day it is the fans that make the club. It is time for everyone at United, both on and off the pitch, to realize that, because the day will come when the fans will have had enough.