The Saudi Takeover Rumor Thread

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I find it hard to believe that people who've spent their entire lives supporting United, and all that entails, could just syop because of the owner.

You might lose something, but to be totally done with the club/football. I'm not so sure.
 
simonhch said:
While there is undoubtedly allure to the prospect of huge investment in the club's infrastructure, especially the stadium, and the prospect of nearly unlimited funds in the transfer market; at what point do you say that you want your club to stand for more than being a teenage boy's FM wet dream, and instead be a pillar of the community? Both local and international. To stand for the values that made this club great. I support Manchester United because my dad supported Manchester United, and his dad did before him. And every step of the way the ethos of the club, and their love for it - now my love - was passed on. I've come to the realisation that I don't need to win trophies at ANY cost. I draw the line at being owned by a violent, totalitarian regime, with untold atrocities on their hands. And even if your ethical concerns don't spread that far; how much glory is there really in winning trophies because you've spunked gazillions of pounds left, right and centre? Where's the achievement? No one respects PSG, no one respects City. The respect the influence they now wield, and the wages they can now pay. But their clubs stand for nothing.

Thanks, but no thanks.
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Fantastic post, and totally agree
 
simonhch said:
While there is undoubtedly allure to the prospect of huge investment in the club's infrastructure, especially the stadium, and the prospect of nearly unlimited funds in the transfer market; at what point do you say that you want your club to stand for more than being a teenage boy's FM wet dream, and instead be a pillar of the community? Both local and international. To stand for the values that made this club great. I support Manchester United because my dad supported Manchester United, and his dad did before him. And every step of the way the ethos of the club, and their love for it - now my love - was passed on. I've come to the realisation that I don't need to win trophies at ANY cost. I draw the line at being owned by a violent, totalitarian regime, with untold atrocities on their hands. And even if your ethical concerns don't spread that far; how much glory is there really in winning trophies because you've spunked gazillions of pounds left, right and centre? Where's the achievement? No one respects PSG, no one respects City. The respect the influence they now wield, and the wages they can now pay. But their clubs stand for nothing.

Thanks, but no thanks.
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Same here i have no doubt if we were Oil doped i would still enjoy whatever trophies we might win but it just wouldn't be the same as a trophy earned the ''Hard Way''. If Solskjaer is made permanent and wins a PL or CL title with the current core group of young players we have including a fair few Academy players then thats what this club is all about. Not spending the GDP of a small country every summer.
 
passing-wind said:
Catch 22, people detest Saudi owners because of the regime that is apparent in the corruption in their countries, but then we have owners on the flip side who are clearly taking profits out of our club and not necessarily reinvesting it back into the football.

So what's more important, the reputation or productivity (through financial expenditure).

Its a lose lose situation.
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We’re basically going to games to feed the Glazers whereas if the saudi’s took over we’d be ....???
 
stevoc said:
Same here i have no doubt if we were Oil doped i would still enjoy whatever trophies we might win but it just wouldn't be the same as a trophy earned the ''Hard Way''. If Solskjaer is made permanent and wins a PL or CL title with the current core group of young players we have including a fair few Academy players then thats what this club is all about. Not spending the GDP of a small country every summer.
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simonhch said:
While there is undoubtedly allure to the prospect of huge investment in the club's infrastructure, especially the stadium, and the prospect of nearly unlimited funds in the transfer market; at what point do you say that you want your club to stand for more than being a teenage boy's FM wet dream, and instead be a pillar of the community? Both local and international. To stand for the values that made this club great. I support Manchester United because my dad supported Manchester United, and his dad did before him. And every step of the way the ethos of the club, and their love for it - now my love - was passed on. I've come to the realisation that I don't need to win trophies at ANY cost. I draw the line at being owned by a violent, totalitarian regime, with untold atrocities on their hands. And even if your ethical concerns don't spread that far; how much glory is there really in winning trophies because you've spunked gazillions of pounds left, right and centre? Where's the achievement? No one respects PSG, no one respects City. The respect the influence they now wield, and the wages they can now pay. But their clubs stand for nothing.

Thanks, but no thanks.
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To be frank, no one respects PSG because they are serial bottlers at the Champions League, not because they are rich. And you can hardly say no one respects City when pundits wet themselves about City's "potential" trophies every season. It's like pointing at a billionaire and say I respect the influence you now wield and your assets, but you stand for nothing. I mean, how do you seperate those? A club's attribute is a part of themselves.

As for the first part, you have a point of there is not much a sense of glory if we win trophies with money cheat mode on. But just hypothetically, what if the Arab owners don't pump huge money in us? They just let us go through with our business as usual, only not sucking money out of us like the Glazers. We'd do our own things and be able to spend our hard-earned revenues every year without it flowing into the owner's pocket. So no money cheat code. Then would you be satisfied? Just curious...
 
I would say look into the back ground of the Glazier family and you find that they are in fact Jewish and they have no difficulty in having business interests with Arab countries, Saudi Arabia is one of their main contracts, I can understand the views of fans who are against possible owners from that state but it would appear that the club's owners do not share that view.
 
I went away to a Newcastle weekend after xmas as my cousin lives up there. Now I have been a few times over the years. I saw 2 Man Utd shirts early 2000's, but usually Ive only ever seen Newcastle Utd Shirts, but in 2017 and January this year there were a few young kids with City shirts on. Winning trophies does attract the new 'fans' from anywhere, and like virtually every season the team with the biggest pockets wins the main trophies. We had our best periods when we were the biggest spenders. Blackburn pumped money in and won the league Newcastle went close by spending money and when Wenger came, they spent big for a while and won the league. Abromovich with Chelsea and of course City and the arabs. Leicester didnt spend as big as us and City, and are the anomoly in all this. Without financial backing you win nothing. For Utd to be able to self support itself, you would need multi billionaire owners who do it for the pride and have no need to milk it. The Glazers look at it as a business, and who runs a business without it paying out for you?
 
JPRouve said:
There is nothing for us. He talks about the reasons why countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar invest in sport and football in particular.
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So where does all this “they offered to buy United, discussions on going...” malarkey come from? Or is that just a random quote to lure us knobheads in?
 
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Personally I couldn’t give a monkeys who we’re owned by. I just want us to win trophies at any cost. For me football is all about winning. Bonus points if we do it playing good football.
 
Alex1982 said:
Personally I couldn’t give a monkeys who we’re owned by. I just want us to win trophies at any cost. For me football is all about winning. Bonus points if we do it playing good football.
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How would you have gone on in the 70's and 80's when all we won was the odd FA cup?

Football isnt just about winning. Football is about supporting your club through thick and thin and being part of a community. Most football fans will never experience what we have will they so why do they do it? Why do Luton fans go to games or Bradford City etc...

If you are willing to have a regime at the helm who have had people murdered just so we have more cash to spend then you're not a proper red. Go and support that hollow plastic club in Ardwick.
 
All these guys who keeping harping about morals etc, what are you on about? I'm reading that United should stand more than some young persons wet dream or we'll some how plastic and a hollow club?

Give your heads a wobble. We were open to be bought, easily, when were floated on the stock market We then had many share holders. We were then bought by the leeches. All you guys moaning are still fans of the club.

What a club is and what it stands for, is underpinned by the actions it takes, not just by it's owners.

And anyway, if you believe what you read, any Saudi take over isn't by MBS...
 
Nou_Camp99 said:
How would you have gone on in the 70's and 80's when all we won was the odd FA cup?

Football isnt just about winning. Football is about supporting your club through thick and thin and being part of a community. Most football fans will never experience what we have will they so why do they do it? Why do Luton fans go to games or Bradford City etc...

If you are willing to have a regime at the helm who have had people murdered just so we have more cash to spend then you're not a proper red. Go and support that hollow plastic club in Ardwick.
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I would have continued to support the club but been very disappointed that we weren’t winning.

If I supported Luton I would want them to win their league and any relevant cups they were in (not the FA cup obviously).

Whilst I want to win it’s about relevance to club size. If I were a Luton fan I wouldn’t expect them to win the FA Cup as there are far better teams in it and Luton is a small club. Winning their league would be a realistic ambition though.

We are one of the biggest clubs in the world so expectations are different. I expect us to be competing for the best of everything. Players, trophies, managers.

By the way it’s not your place to decide who is a ‘proper’ fan and who isn’t.
 
Coops73 said:
So where does all this “they offered to buy United, discussions on going...” malarkey come from? Or is that just a random quote to lure us knobheads in?
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He talks about geopolitics for almost the entirety of the video and then mentions that they made an offer to buy United, an offer that was rejected. The only information is that he doesn't know if the interest come from the Entertainment minister or MBS both rumours are supposed to be out there. And he is luring people in, since he finishes the video inviting people to follow him in order to have more info about United in the future.
 
Alex1982 said:
Personally I couldn’t give a monkeys who we’re owned by. I just want us to win trophies at any cost. For me football is all about winning. Bonus points if we do it playing good football.
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Why support United though? There are clubs that are far more aligned with your way of thinking, United isn't one of them. Were you forced by your family?
 
It's times like these when I admire Real Madrid's and Barcelona's model. They might have them as sponsors but they remain free and they don't really care about the money being spent. Barcelona's wanton spending in recent years had me scratching my head until I realized they don't really care about profits as much as they do about winning.
 
Harry190 said:
It's times like these when I admire Real Madrid's and Barcelona's model. They might have them as sponsors but they remain free and they don't really care about the money being spent. Barcelona's wanton spending in recent years had me scratching my head until I realized they don't really care about profits as much as they do about winning.
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I find that realization interesting because I remember people looking down on continental clubs because they weren't businesses and therefore weren't as efficient as PL clubs from a revenue standpoint. Now you see people who are crying about clubs being reduced to businesses and not necessarily focused on the game.
A lot of owners on the continent own clubs for pride and local recognition, someone like Pinault barely cares about football and he has no intention of making money with Rennes but the club represents Brittany and that's enough for him to put his own money into it.

That's one of my issues with FFP, it ignores the historic fabric of football, in many places it's not a business, it's not meant to break even or create wealth.
 
JPRouve said:
He talks about geopolitics for almost the entirety of the video and then mentions that they made an offer to buy United, an offer that was rejected. The only information is that he doesn't know if the interest come from the Entertainment minister or MBS both rumours are supposed to be out there. And he is luring people in, since he finishes the video inviting people to follow him in order to have more info about United in the future.
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I wouldn't read to much into that if he only said to subscribe for more news etc. Really, a lot of youtubers plug their own channel in order to grow it.

I personally never heard of the dude but Im nearly sure that someone mentioned that he's reliable.
 
mu4c_20le said:
Why support United though? There are clubs that are far more aligned with your way of thinking, United isn't one of them. Were you forced by your family?
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Our club has been owned by ruthless capitalists since forever, people who would sell it to Satan if the price is right. So why exactly do you support us instead of a fan owned club like Barca? Why haven't you moved your support to FC United instead?
 
mu4c_20le said:
Why support United though? There are clubs that are far more aligned with your way of thinking, United isn't one of them. Were you forced by your family?
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Simply because when I was a nipper no other club spoke to me as much as Manchester United.

And I don’t believe we have to compromise the will to win by losing the family feel of the club. There’s a right way and a wrong way to go about it.
 
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MaxiPaxi said:
I wouldn't read to much into that if he only said to subscribe for more news etc. Really, a lot of youtubers plug their own channel in order to grow it.

I personally never heard of the dude but Im nearly sure that someone mentioned that he's reliable.
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In general I would agree but in this case, he attracted people with info about United, said almost nothing about it and then invited people to follow him for more info about United. He may be reliable and may have info in the future but that video is about attracting people with the mention of United.
 
devilish said:
Our club has been owned by ruthless capitalists since forever, people who would sell it to Satan if the price is right. So why exactly do you support us instead of a fan owned club like Barca? Why haven't you moved your support to FC United instead?
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I'm not looking for morally perfect owners but surely a line must be drawn somewhere. I'd rather not see the club in the hands of a murderous regime.
 
JPRouve said:
In general I would agree but in this case, he attracted people with info about United, said almost nothing about it and then invited people to follow him for more info about United. He may be reliable and may have info in the future but that video is about attracting people with the mention of United.
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Fair enough. In any case, I believe there's something in these rumours - there's too much smoke around this.
 
mu4c_20le said:
I'm not looking for morally perfect owners but surely a line must be drawn somewhere. I'd rather not see the club in the hands of a murderous regime.
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That line was crossed the moment our shares were sold to business men rather then brought by supporters. The rest is inevitable
 
It's scandalous to be owned by a country with a history of human rights abuses.

It's also scandalous that one of the richest, biggest clubs in the world have been fighting for scraps the last 6 years and seem content with it.

Is Utd about making money or winning trophies or losing the new generation fan base to teams like City, etc?
 
mu4c_20le said:
I'm not looking for morally perfect owners but surely a line must be drawn somewhere. I'd rather not see the club in the hands of a murderous regime.
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Saudis already have significant link with United. We've owners who are nothing but parasites. The line has been crossed a long time ago.

I made my peace with Saudis or whoever buys us. I just want whats best for United. Though, I can also appreciate if it's too much for some people - I totally understand that.
 
What say, If they were to take over your workplace. Would you hand in your notice and leave. It's all business now, and we've got to accept it.
 
devilish said:
That line was crossed the moment our shares were sold to business men rather then brought by supporters. The rest is inevitable
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Tis true. Edwards the real culprit and main profiteer.

Only real supporters put their money down when shares were available. The rest are just people on the internet who call themselves United fans.

You’re gradually getting the club you deserve.

Real fans are almost gone.
 
Bubz27 said:
I find it hard to believe that people who've spent their entire lives supporting United, and all that entails, could just syop because of the owner.

You might lose something, but to be totally done with the club/football. I'm not so sure.
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It won't happen, it is not an option. People just over react.
 
Bestietom said:
What say, If they were to take over your workplace. Would you hand in your notice and leave. It's all business now, and we've got to accept it.
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This makes no sense for fans, United isn't a business from a fan point of view, individually we do not have to accept anything and we definitely do not have to take any business decision. The comparison with the workplace is also misguided because while that would be a business decision related to your livelihood, you still don't have to accept everything and people do resign on moral grounds.
 
It’s not necessarily about having huge investment in the club, it’s about have the “natural” levels of investment in the club that would have happened anyway without shareholders

We’ve spent £1BN+ in loan repayments and dividends since the Glazers took over...just imagine if that had been invested in the squad...even with our hopelessly scattergun transfer policies and poor scouting network we would surely have won a few more trophies along the way

Nobody respects City because its all artificial. They are a Championship-sized club who were picked up and re-branded by foreign investors. The club as it is today bears absolutely no relation to the club it was 20yrs ago...different stadium, different badge and a squad full of players who wouldn’t have known there were two teams in Manchester when they started their careers

Unethical as the regime may be, I don’t care if it’s Saudi’s, American’s or Fred Done...as long as we’re just allowed to compete at our “natural” level that would be fine and it’s hardly “selling out” is it if we’re spending our own cash!
 
It is reality of life that we deal with everyone and anyone on an individual basis nowadays. Although I have no particular like for Saudi Arabia including the way they treat women ( but that is a cultural/religious thing ) I would not desert Utd just because of who they are. This country deals with also sorts of regimes and we would be much worse off if we didn't, but would maybe feel a little more morally supreme.
I remember working for a company in the early 1970s and we were having a delegation of Japanese business men visiting and we had to give one guy a days holiday. The reason was that he had been a POW during second WW and said he would not be able to stomach such people. That was a very personal response which I totally understood and sympathised with. However, the guy did not resign from the company and continued to work on the materials we made for the Japanese contract. Not actually football related but you can see the parallels.
 
mu4c_20le said:
Why support United though? There are clubs that are far more aligned with your way of thinking, United isn't one of them. Were you forced by your family?
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Why do you support Utd? No doubt for similar reasons as him. Just because some of us want the club we love to win at all costs doesnt make us less of a fan or glory hunters. Who are you to judge his way of thinking isnt Utd? I would support Utd if we were in league 2 but I'd still rather be beating City and Liverpool to titles and competing with the best in Europe. Fair enough some may have higher morals than others and make stands on forums about this but it doesn't make you a bigger fan of the club. Im in the couldnt care less who owns us as long as we are winning trophies camp. Judge me all you want it doesn't bother me and I will carry on loving Utd.
 
I can't think of supporting any other football club than Manchester United. I'm too lazy to do that and I will contradict myself.

I'm very surprised to see people who say They will stop supporting United if the Saudi take over. Yes, They(The Saudi) do have morality issues in their country but We are currently owned by businessmen with money as their main interest. Do you know how business work? it's not much better, it can be very dirty and immoral as well.

Clubs like United are too huge to have their cultures affected by their ownership. Outside of money related stuffs I doubt it will have a huge impact, the fan base and the history is too big to be changed. United will remain United, the huge football organization. Ideally I would want filthy rich ManUtd supporters to purchase the club, but it's not realistic. If the Saudis takes over, We're not going to suddenly become the club who supports murders or hates LGBT. We're not a corporation, football club has it soul within it's fanbase, players, manager and history.

We've been owned by the Glazers for how many years now? We've never talked about how They brought American cultures into the club, have We? They're here for their own interest (money and business). The Saudi (if They take over) will have their own interest too, which is to diversify their wealth (money and business again) - not to change the club to support their political views. There are much better, less expensive tools for that.
 
JPRouve said:
He talks about geopolitics for almost the entirety of the video and then mentions that they made an offer to buy United, an offer that was rejected. The only information is that he doesn't know if the interest come from the Entertainment minister or MBS both rumours are supposed to be out there. And he is luring people in, since he finishes the video inviting people to follow him in order to have more info about United in the future.
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Cheers, if it’s true I’m sure if they want United bad enough they’ll make an offer the Glazers can’t refuse.
 
Alex1982 said:
Simply because when I was a nipper no other club spoke to me as much as Manchester United.

And I don’t believe we have to compromise the will to win by losing the family feel of the club. There’s a right way and a wrong way to go about it.
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lewwoo said:
Why do you support Utd? No doubt for similar reasons as him. Just because some of us want the club we love to win at all costs doesnt make us less of a fan or glory hunters. Who are you to judge his way of thinking isnt Utd? I would support Utd if we were in league 2 but I'd still rather be beating City and Liverpool to titles and competing with the best in Europe. Fair enough some may have higher morals than others and make stands on forums about this but it doesn't make you a bigger fan of the club. Im in the couldnt care less who owns us as long as we are winning trophies camp. Judge me all you want it doesn't bother me and I will carry on loving Utd.
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Okay, the reason I asked is because I do not believe United is a club that wins at all costs. On the pitch perhaps, SAF had an amazing winning mentality, but even then it wasn't at all cost... he would never advocate cheating, or tell his players to dive their way to the CL final. Off the pitch, I would consider us a spending club, because we were always capable of spending when we needed, but not just for the sake of it. This isn't even about glory hunting or who's the bigger fan, I was genuinely curious because I felt like his views would better align with other clubs, not necessarily a plastic or oil one but some clubs really don't care about anything other than results. If it sounds like supporting United makes you morally superior to others, perhaps maybe there is something there. After all, we've resisted efforts from Murdoch back in the 90s to take us over. We could've been filthy rich like City before it was even cool, but we didn't, because I always felt that as a club we still had a soul. Obviously getting taken over by the yanks changed that a little bit, but imo, Saudis and MBS take it to another level. Besides all the negative BS that comes with it, I simply do not want the club to be owned by a political entity. Trophies are wonderful and I do respect the fans that crave for them and are willing to do almost anything, but this feels like a hollow way to win them. We've long been accused of buying success whenever we win trophies because our critics would point to our net spending, but we've always been able to proudly state that our money was earned and not bank rolled.
 
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