Dear United Fans...

[Monkeymaw]

Interesting piece in yesterdays Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... ie-glazers


Manchester United's signing of Robin van Persie has delivered a blast of the ambition which the glory, glory football club is supposed to stand for, after a summer dominated by the shabby details of its owners' float on the New York Stock Exchange. To make sense of United since the US-based Glazer family bought the club and loaded it with £525m borrowings in 2005, it has always been instructive to wonder where the Reds would be had the US corporate raid never happened.

The signing of Van Persie is the boldest of statements for the forthcoming Premier League season, and a reminder of what might have been, if the Glazers had not inflicted their leveraged takeover on United, which has since cost the club over £550m in interest, fees and charges. Van Persie is United's first truly major signing of an outfield player – with due respect to Ashley Young and Phil Jones – since the club paid £30.75m for Dimitar Berbatov on 31 August 2008. That was the day Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan bought Manchester City, and from then, with Mansour intent on pouring almost £1bn in, the opposite of the Glazers' financial drain, United's signings have been eclipsed by City's.

Sir Alex Ferguson's justifications have never quite convinced; his assertion that the owners, whom he pronounced "great" this summer, have made enough money available to him but he declined to spend it because there was "no value in the market." The transfer market can be considered obscenely inflated, but it works both ways and United never spent the £80m received from Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo on replacement players of similar class. Instead, the enduring Portuguese puzzle of Bébé aside, Ferguson signed good players of promise including Jones, Young, Chris Smalling and Javier Hernández. The manager repeatedly insisted he was not inhibited by the Glazers' draining the finances, but asserted he was only interested in footballers of youth, who would develop.

The hauling of the 37-year-old Paul Scholes out of retirement last season, while City were powered to the title by his world class opponent in midfield, Yaya Touré, 28, bought for £24m, exposed United's vulnerability from successive seasons of declining to land established stars. The Van Persie signing, bitter for Arsenal, swipes that away; he is 29, and is being bought for what he can do now.

So this is a taste of the buying power and the A grade ambition United could be expected to have wielded had the Glazers not swooped in 2005 to buy what they describe, in their heart-sinking flotation prospectus, as "one of the world's most recognisable brands." The acquisition of Van Persie came a week after the flotation was finally achieved, at a reduced price of $14 per share, the jarring re-registering of the famous Manchester United in the Cayman Islands tax haven, and the choice of New York to trade its shares.

United's Old Trafford-based chief executive, David Gill, and London-office sited vice-chairman Edward Woodward, have pointed in support of the Glazer ownership to United's much-envied sponsorship deals and doubling of income, from £159m in the eleven months to 30 June 2005, to £331m for the year to 30 June 2011. However critics, most prominently the Manchester United Supporters Trust, who campaign for a genuine fans' stake in the club, have always argued bitterly that the Glazers' running of United is designed to serve the family itself.

Malcolm Glazer and his six children, "lineal descendants" as the flotation document bloodlessly described them, have conducted a text-book example of a leveraged buyout, loading the money they borrowed to buy the club on to United itself to repay. Amid all the detail, and widespread criticism, of the New York float, for offering to traders a club still £423m in debt despite the £550m drained out since 2005, two points are most central to understanding it.

Following the worldwide attention focused on the financial manoeuvrings, which came after an abandoned plan last year to float in Singapore, the Glazers ultimately only floated 10% of Manchester United in New York. When they announced on 3 July their plan to float, the Glazers stated that all the money raised would be from selling new shares, and would be used to pay down the debts they loaded on the club. "We intend to use all of our net proceeds from this offering to reduce our indebtedness," the original prospectus, said.

When the flotation actually happened last week, it turned out that the Glazers had changed their intention, and in fact were helping themselves to half the proceeds. They sold some of their shares, and only issued five per cent new shares. Of the $220m (£140m) earned from selling the Manchester United (Cayman Islands) shares to investors, only $110m (£70m) has ultimately been banked by United. The Glazer family themselves have been paid the other £70m.

Reducing the debt by only £70m after all this fuss and effort, at 8.75% annual interest, will save United £6m in interest a year. As the investment analyst and critic of the Glazer leveraged buyout Andy Green has pointed out, the saving in interest is exceeded by the $12m (£7.7m) it has cost United in lawyers and other fees to float, following the £7m costs incurred for the aborted flotation in Singapore. The costs of hocking United around the world are coming out of the club's share of the proceeds, not the Glazer family's.

The US-based venture capitalist Michael Moritz, who has financially backed companies with huge growth prospects including Google, has repeatedly been scathing about United's float. He has insisted that the Glazers' financial draining of United for their own interests should be considered by the old-fashioned description: asset-stripping. Although the Glazers never explain themselves publicly, Ferguson, Gill and Woodward have always defended their running of United. Now, with Van Persie, United have found the money to sign a genuinely top class, fully-formed footballing asset, for the first time in years.

[northbank123]

Read the first two paragraphs then got bored at more anti-Glazer dross, the most boring conversation topic ever conceived.

[OneBardGooner]

I only got two lines in that was enough.

[Rob Admin]

Having had a day to get over the disgusting decision RvP has made I am begining to wonder if perhaps this isn't a calculated master-stroke.

Fergie is insanely jealous of Wenger, sure he has the trophies but Wenger broke his domination, the Johnny Foreigner who was only supposed to be here for a few seasons showed him how to play football beautifully with rough diamonds. Without money Ferguson would not be a success and yet Wenger keeps punching above his weight despite not splashing ot on big singings. As has been said in this thread, the United model relies on raping talent from the Premiership. We know the two are not best buddies, Fegie has been trying to nick one of our stars for years and finally he has done it and got one over his old foe.

But who knows the history of RvP's fitness better than anyone? It wouldn't surprise me to learn that due to his scientific approach to football Wenger hasn't got a formula devised to calculate risk to injury based on various factors. RvP with his fitness record and age... massive injury imminent.... £24m thank you very much.

Maybe I am clutching at straws, but maybe Wenger will have the last laugh over this?

On RvP to United... where is the integrity of the man? I presume RvP has a lot of respect for Wenger who brought him to the Premiership and nutured him. The same man who season after season is abused by all 4 sides of the stadium who stand and sing Peadophile songs.... and then there is RvP shaking hands with those same fans this morning.

I'd like to think that if that was me, my family or friends would tap me on the shoulder and ask me 'where is your integrity'. Money is a wonderful drug isn't it!

[highburyJD]

hope he returns to his pre last season stats
average 22 league games and 9.4 goals per season

[Rob Admin]

You don't even want to know how much I want that form to return.

Logic and reason suggests he will not suddenly become injury free at 30!

They will soon learn the feeling of resignation and dread each time he gos down...

[OneBardGooner]

You don't even want to know how much I want that form to return.

Logic and reason suggests he will not suddenly become injury free at 30!

They will soon learn the feeling of resignation and dread each time he gos down...

Yeah...I can envisage it now...Interview time: Wenger sat there - 30 odd reporters camera's clicking away MP3 recorders at the ready....

question 1: Arsene did you know when you sold rvp to the mancscum that he would break down in his third game and be sidelined for the next 7 months?


AW: grinning like the proverbial Cheshire Cat..."Wull Urrrr I deed warn ole red nose...but ee wuzz eentent on spendingg glazierrr's monay and jus wudn't leesten to me".


"SWEET"

[Its Up 4 Grabs Now]

But who knows the history of RvP's fitness better than anyone? It wouldn't surprise me to learn that due to his scientific approach to football Wenger hasn't got a formula devised to calculate risk to injury based on various factors. RvP with his fitness record and age... massive injury imminent.... £24m thank you very much.

Maybe I am clutching at straws, but maybe Wenger will have the last laugh over this?

I dont think there's any maybe about it. RVP may well pick up another of his injuries soon & personally I can see this move possibly being a simultaneously bad one all round for everyone involved - us, him and them - but if Wenger has such a scientific formula for predicting injuries he might want to start using it a bit more often. Unless of course the double-negative was intentional, cos it wouldn't surprise me that Wenger hasn't got a magic back to the future injury almanac either. Biff Szczesny on the other hand...

[OneBardGooner]

when we play the mancsum - should rvp still be fit & playing, I can see both frimpong and shez taking rvp out at the first opportunity.

[highburyJD]

I'd take a Frimmers 9match ban all day
instant hero

[I Hate Hleb]

hope he returns to his pre last season stats
average 22 league games and 9.4 goals per season

Playing 2/3 of a League season and scoring 1 goal almost every 2 games. I think United would settle for that if those goals were supplemented by 20 from Rooney, and another 20 from the other attackers and the midfield and it ultimately helped them win the PL and/or the CL.

[DB10GOONER]

hope he returns to his pre last season stats
average 22 league games and 9.4 goals per season

Playing 2/3 of a League season and scoring 1 goal almost every 2 games. I think United would settle for that if those goals were supplemented by 20 from Rooney, and another 20 from the other attackers and the midfield and it ultimately helped them win the PL and/or the CL.

Those "average" stats (like all stats) are bollocks though. Without doing the math they look like they are averaged from all his "appearances" ie; including subs - even if he went off after 5 minutes injured.

His actual PL record is;


2004-2005 12+14
2005-2006 13+11
2006-2007 17+5
2007-2008 13+2
2008-2009 24+4
2009-2010 14+2
2010-2011 19+6
2011-2012 37+1

[highburyJD]

I dont think 9 goals a season is worth £200k + a week for a free transfer striker
let alone one who cost over £20M

[SantaPoldi]

I dont think 9 goals a season is worth £200k + a week for a free transfer striker
let alone one who cost over £20M

Is 0.40 major trophies per season worth £7m per season? (Wenger)

[highburyJD]

I see your maths is as good as your English