Man Utd and their owners dominate the Mailbox as Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his vulture capitalism are more than a match for the Glazers.
Come on, let’s have some different subjects; mail us at theeditor@football365.com
Good news
Delighted to see that Reading have been taken over by a guy that seems, at least from the outside, interested in running a football club and that club being good at football. No community should go through losing a club, and it seemed all too possible.
Dan, Plastic LFC
Ratcliffe is like Gordon Gekko
So Lee wrote in to support Ratcliffe. Just to be clear it’s a different Lee because this Lee would only ever be caught saying Chuck Feeney is a decent billionaire (Google him, it’s a good story ) the rest are just self serving vultures.
There’s a couple of things I’d like to challenge in Lee’s mail
1. We don’t know if Ratcliffe will turn the club around?
2. He’s a self-made billionaire
Answering question 2 will actually answer question 1 so we’ll start there.
There is no such thing as a self made billionaire. Every billionaire starts from a position of middle-class safety in which they have a family which funds their living costs while they build their dream, Jobs, Gates, Musk, all had it. Ratcliffe had two working class parents who had become middle class thanks to their work which gave Ratcliffe the middle class base he needed.
He also got his start in petrochemicals after convincing Esso to pay for his MBA, so that’s three different people who have helped him already but like I said there is no such thing as a self made billionaire.
But this doesn’t mean a billionaire doesn’t work hard, most work long hours and rarely take holidays. So did Jim. But Jim didn’t get where he is by being a brilliant engineer and inventing something amazing or even being a chemical engineer and inventing something. His wealth comes almost entirely from raising private capital which he would then use to buy struggling companies, asset stripping them and moving their headquarters to tax havens.
His chemical businesses in Middlesbrough also regularly just ignore environmental warnings about air and water pollution so if the air and water is terrible – his company is a big reason why.
But his general MO in every case is as follows – identify struggling business with assets which can be sold. Buy very cheap. Immediately cut staff, sell assets, change HQ to tax haven and then pocket the money while publicly claiming the business is struggling and needs to cut costs.
Sound familiar?
Jim is a proud Manc and English man. So proud that he campaigned for Brexit to give Britain back to the British and then once the vote had been taken immediately moved his personal residence to Monaco so he didn’t have to pay UK taxes and support UK services and economy.
Jim is not Lou Gertsner or Warren Buffet who invest in businesses to make them succeed. He’s closer to Gordon Gekko, a vulture capitalist who bends rules (or ignores them) to benefit himself while putting thousands of people out of work.
Will he turn around United? Why don’t we ask the fans of OGC Nice – the other team Ratcliffe owns…
He bought Nice for 100m when they were struggling financially, he immediately came in promising greatness while making massive cuts to staff. Managers last on average 14 months before being fired.
In the six years before Ratcliffe bought the club nice finished in the top 4 three times. Since he bought it? 0 times. At first fans liked Jim as they saw him attending games regularly, this changed within two years especially when Jim was caught saying ‘Nice games just aren’t very interesting to him’.
Today the Nice supporters often protest Jim’s ownership stating he promised a lot and never delivered anything but constant change and chaos.
So my guess….is Jim probably won’t save United. But he will be en excellent bullet shield for the Glazers for a few years.
Lee (the LFC one)
BBQ fine thoughIt’s simple, United don’t do parades for anything but Premier League and Champions League. Haven’t had a parade since Fergie’s last season.
Kind of of a ‘nothing to see here’ situation this BBQ thing but alas that wouldn’t be clickbaity or allow for DISGRACE and EMBARRASMENT would it.
In fact, United have NEVER held a parade for anything other than the Prem or Champions League… even in Fergie time…. MADNESS
PATHETIC attempt at journalism lol…. AGAIN
Moses
Glazers have done a fine job
How can you say that the Glazers mismanaged their ownership of Man United? In over 20 years, with minimal input by themselves, they have made hundreds of millions of pounds in personal profit. That seems like brilliant management to me. They even managed to sell a debt ridden business with run down assets for more than they paid for it. Again astounding business.
Hell, the shambles that is the football part of the business even managed to win a trophy every couple years. They can take pride in having won more in the last 20 years than the owners of all but 3 clubs in England (assuming City, ‘pool and Chelsea have actually won more).
How dare you say the Glazers, who bought so much footballing pleasure to the ABU crowd over the last 2 decades are guilty of poor management. After all there are many more ABU’s than MU supporters. By any measure personal to the Glazers they have done a brilliant job of managing the club.
Murray (life long member of the Anyone But United crowd who was saddened when the Glazers left)
(Erm, they haven’t left; they still own more than 70% of the club – Ed)
Pashun and wages
Firstly, some people seem to have issues with Liverpool fans proclaiming themselves as special, or the best in the world, while also booing Trent. Whilst I’m not a fan of booing, it’s probably fair to say that far from being mutually exclusive, they probably go hand in hand.
Typically, fans leave an impression not for their chat about ecumenical matters in the pre-Columbine era, but more for making a massive racket in the stadium and knowing a lot about their players. This might also be called passion and knowledge. It’s therefore no surprise when the outliers do then act like jilted lovers when a player leaves.
On another matter, people often redefine their league failures by quoting where they are in the wages league table. Obviously some clubs pay more than others (I’m looking at the republic of Mancunia), but in the main, professional contracts at elite clubs can give up to 100% extra on top of base salary for hitting performance targets, so is that really any justification? It all sounds a bit chicken and egg to me. Or am I missing something?
To put that sentiment more succinctly, Arsenal will be low wage payers this season because they underachieved in most metrics.
Adam, LFC
Trent and ‘family’
First things first, I’m an Arsenal fan so I’m more than likely obnoxious. Just gonna say that up front so all the fans of other clubs can decide whether my opinion is worthy of reading. And yes it is about Trent.
Obviously the Liverpool fans booing a man who has played an important role in winning them everything are stupid, classless, ungrateful, all that. And I also understand that fans are allowed to be stupid and classless. It’s not illegal, it doesn’t necessarily point to a problem with anybody’s character. It’s sport.
You’re not a worse person for booing Trent Alexander-Arnold or for being bitter toward him. But you are stupid, classless, and ungrateful. And you probably don’t have anything in your life worth celebrating if you can’t even celebrate this wonderful footballer, and I mean that sincerely.
What disturbs me about the whole thing is the justification that “he’s one of our own so it hurts more.” That if he’s part of the Liverpool “family” then it makes it even more of a betrayal. Honestly I have to wonder how you treat members of your own family if that’s how you think about it. You should want your family to leave home and spend time experiencing the world. Just because of where he’s born he has to compromise his career to make his family happy? “But we didn’t even get a fee!” Let the man have a life.
I have to wonder how players like Van Dijk and Salah must feel when they see how some of these fans react to “one of our own” leaving his hometown to start a new chapter of his life. Some (often abusive) people are far more horrible to their families than the people they work with and see outside the home, so I have to wonder exactly what kind of person has this sentiment.
Again, you can feel however you want. You’re not better or worse than anyone else for booing your own player (the best right back in the history of the Premier League besides Lauren of course). If you want to allow a thug and a bully like Jamie Carragher to dictate how you feel then be my guest. I’m sure plenty of people will be able to point to other clubs who have booed their own players, been horrible, etc. But I’m not talking about them.
What we saw on Sunday was needlessly small and petty behavior directed toward a club legend, and I don’t think players forget things like that. You’ll never walk alone until you do.
Deadbeat Cat Dad
**Ronaldo Jnr?**Am I the only person who finds it completely mental that Cristiano Ronaldo has a 15 year old son playing for Portugal’s U15s? I guess Ronaldo still seems to be 25 in my head.
No idea if the kid is good enough to make it to the men’s team, but it would be one to watch if they both played in the same match (would Sr lose his shit and dock his pocket money if Jr didn’t pass to him?)
Has there ever been a father/son combo in an international match before?
Phil, Manchester
FA are actually blameless
Further from Paul’s mail earlier about officials not flagging offside at the time they see them, and how this could have prevented the nasty injury suffered by Awoniyi.
I totally agree that the current rules/guidance isn’t necessarily correct but it had to be changed to accommodate VAR.
What I don’t agree with is Paul blaming the FA. They don’t decide the rules which officials follow – it’s IFAB who do this.
A, LFC, Montreal (stuck up for VAR recently, now the FA – something must be up with me!)
Beckett is an Evertonian
I just want to respond to Mick T, Liverpool from his comment on Evertonians and relegation. When I lived in Liverpool, I actually became good friends with a bunch of Evertonians (massive Liverpool fan here) and found them 20+ years ago to be better with the banter (Rafael Beneath Us) and all that. But I always looked at Everton as a kind of second team in my books…happy to support them 36 out of 38 games during the season, etc. But there has been a real shift in them (I blame Jordan Pickford), and they are a supremely bitter club…but also delusional (We won 2-2 at Goodison Park).
And so, let Everton wish for relegation before Liverpool wins a title. I wish Everton a perpetual life of 17th place finishes, staying up on the last day forever, never getting relegated, but always that fear. A sporting equivalent of Waiting for Godot.
Jonathan, Toronto