It was back in 2014 that Nottingham-born Brent Di Cesare, then a policeman tasked with investigating financial fraud, was on holidays in Majorca when an entirely miserable World Cup for England came to an end. Having already lost to Italy and Uruguay, a scoreless draw against Costa Rica ensured that they didn’t even get out of their group.
Safe to say, manager Roy Hodgson’s name was taken in vain on sundry football forums at the time, Di Cesare among those letting rip after the shambles in Brazil.
It then occurred to him that it mightn’t be a bad idea to start a YouTube channel where he could similarly vent about footballing matters. Because of the nature of his job, though, he decided it might be wise not to use his real name, so Mark Goldbridge was born.
Off he went on his shouty, ranty, sweary journey about all things football, while also creating a channel focusing on the club he supports, Manchester United.
And the timing of the birth of The United Stand, for a fella specialising in incandescent-with-rage stuff, couldn’t have been better – Alex Ferguson had retired in 2013, so ever since there’s been plenty to be shouty, ranty, sweary about.
If The United Stand, which Goldbridge describes as “a United fanzine on YouTube”, had been born a decade before, it probably would never have worked – who would tune in to an endless stream of contented monologues about the team winning yet another trophy? Instead, he’s been able to fulminate for just over a decade while providing live watch-along reaction to United playing like drains – like on Monday night against Leeds.
Still, though, when he set out on the journey even Goldbridge wasn’t convinced his YouTube work had much of a future. Who would want to watch this class of thing?
Well, at the last count, The United Stand and his That’s Football channel have a combined 3.7 million subscribers, the revenue generated from them allowing him to pay himself a salary of £1.5 million (€1.7m) in 2024. And his OMS Investments Limited Company, which is primarily made up of his YouTube channels, was valued at close to £5 million (€5.75m) in 2024. The 47-year-old has long since left his policing days behind.
There was a time when the footballing powers-that-be would have run for the hills rather than collaborate with the likes of Goldbridge, but even they can’t resist working with someone who has a following that hefty. So much so, he was chosen as one of the rights holders for Germany’s Bundesliga this season, allowing him to show 20 live games on Friday nights, during which he provides his usual live commentary.
Gary Neville with Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane at Blarney Castle in 2023 during filming of 'The Overlap on Tour'. Photograph: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
Gary Neville with Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane at Blarney Castle in 2023 during filming of 'The Overlap on Tour'. Photograph: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
And Tuesday brought yet more news that confirmed his 2014 Majorca idea is turning out rather well. Gary Neville’s sports media empire, The Overlap, has bought both his YouTube channels in a deal said to be worth at least a million pounds.
“We want to build a network across YouTube and audio,” Neville told Broadcast Sport. “We’re looking at channels that cover clubs with large fanbases and we want to expand our community beyond where it currently is. We’re set up to create the world’s best Manchester United channel.”
That’s Football will be relaunched as a daily news channel, while there will be two new formats on The United Stand – another daily news channel and one featuring interviews with former players and journalists.
Until now, United employees, either past or present, tended to avoid Goldbridge like the plague because of his, well, rather ill-mannered criticism of so many at the club (eg “Ashley Young couldn’t lead a pack of ants to a picnic”). When Rasmus Højlund gave an interview to Goldbridge in 2024, his team-mates were said to be spittin’ with the Dane.
Goldbridge has, predictably, been accused of being a “sell-out” for his link-up with Neville, a partnership that not many saw coming considering there’s been no little animosity between the pair down the years. Neville had never been a fan of channels like The United Stand or ArsenalFanTV, criticising their often hysterical (and occasionally unhinged) reaction to events at their clubs, but business is business, and a canny Goldbridge has created a thriving one.
In an interview with FourFourTwo a few years back, he recalled his father taking him to a Nottingham Forest game. “There was this guy about three seats down from us and he would stand up and go, ‘Nigel Clough! Lay down and die!’ My dad would turn round and tell me, ‘Look, this is his moment. All week he’s working somewhere. He’s probably got a wife who’s always nagging him, and this is his moment to release.’”
That was probably the day he spotted his target audience. A lucrative spot, too.