Glazers know some fans need convincing
Twelve months on from their hugely controversial £790m (€1.2bn) takeover of Manchester United, the Glazer family admit most supporters are undecided over whether they have been a force for good.
While the new owners privately insist United are currently in a far healthier financial state than they would have been had the club remained a PLC, who admitted they spent all this season’s transfer budget on Wayne Rooney in 2004, they are also aware a large degree of scepticism still exists among the rank and file support who have not transferred their allegiance to rebel outfit FC United.
Yet, rather than break cover and expand their media profile beyond the single interview Joel Glazer gave to MUTV on completion of the deal last summer, the family prefer to sit quietly in the background, reaffirming their commitment to United over the long-term and content in the forceful statements offered by Alex Ferguson and chief executive David Gill that the club’s ownership structure makes big decisions far easier to make than has been the case in the past.
“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” a source close to the Glazer camp said.
“It would be fair to say the majority of Manchester United fans remain in the ’wait and see’ category. They will judge the ownership of Malcolm Glazer to be a success or otherwise by what happens on the pitch.
“To that end, the family have already demonstrated their commitment to the club by investing in players both before the season started and during the transfer window and there will be a pot of money available for the manager to use as he sees fit this summer.”
Although the Glazer family have suffered the trauma of father Malcolm suffering a stroke over the Easter period from which he is still recovering, business at Old Trafford has remained unaffected.
While the Glazer camp do not want to get involved in a slanging match with the dissenters who have aligned themselves with FC United, they do feel there is hard evidence to prove they are running the Red Devils with care, sensitivity and, off the pitch at least, successfully.
Bryan Glazer and commercial director Andy Anson certainly confounded the sceptics who predicted the club would struggle to find any company willing to match the £9m (€13.2m) sponsorship deal United lost when Vodafone announced they were terminating their contract two years early in December.
In securing a four-year, £56.5m (€82.8m) deal with American finance giant AIG, United not only secured an extra £20m (€29.3m) over the term of the contract but did so without having to cope with the moral implications of having the name of gaming giants Mansion splashed over their shirt.
Although the massive £540m (€792m) debt taken on by the Glazer’s to complete the deal still exists, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner’s recently-appointed chief of staff Ed Woodward is believed to be trying to put together a refinance package, which would ease the strain of massive repayments, which wound up the more vociferous anti-Glazer protesters during the summer.
However, having stated firmly the interest payments on the debt are not materially in excess of what United would have been paying out in corporation tax and dividends as a PLC, Gill, who did authorise statements prior to the Glazer takeover claiming the American’s business plan was too aggressive, is optimistic about the future.
He said: “We have obviously got more debt than we had in the balance sheet a year ago. One of the concerns that the plc board had before the Glazers took over and the comments we made publicly was about the aggressiveness of their business plan and the level of the debt associated with that.
“It is quite interesting because that business plan is not the business plan we have today. For example, their business plan assumed Vodafone would continue at £9m (€13.2m) per year.
“Now that is clearly going to change next year because we are going to get £14m (€20.5m) versus £9m (€13.2m). Things change.”
