For European football in general and English football in particular, any club that receives investment from outside - meaning a new owner - is an opportunity to change the world. But for Manchester United, up to this point, it is also a "change of the world" but it takes place in a different aspect.
Recalling the owner's story, exactly 20 years ago, American billionaire, Malcom Glazer, bought a 2.9% stake in Man United for about 5.6 million USD. Less than two years later, that stake increased to 57% and he opened a leveraged buy-back deal in 2005 for $1.5 billion, ensuring a 98% stake.
20 years have passed, will the Galzer house succeed or fail at Old Trafford? Everyone will say they fail. Not just once but many times, even if the titles and trophies still come.
The problem here is their failure in management methods and investment selection. For American billionaires, investing in European teams is considered a " entertainment", because they also own one (or a few) other sports teams. And because Man United is a global brand, success still comes in all aspects.
In fact, the Glazer's 2 decades at Man United can be divided into 2 stages, with the first 10 years being "successful" and the next 10 years being a "mask turn". Success is placed in a double direction because it must be emphasized that it is thanks to the presence of Sir Alex Ferguson - who built his own empire and the operation of the Theater of Dreams in the determined cycle.
But after Sir Alex retired after the 2012-13 season, and Malcom passed away in 2014, leaving management to his 6 children, the past 10 years have been something Manucians could not imagine.
Or in other words, in the wildest dreams possible, they would never believe it would happen to their team.
Every club has a crisis period, but in the position of a big team, the time to overcome the crisis is about 2 to 3 years.
Old Trafford, 10 years later, is still called The Theater of Dreams.
The new coach arrived, was criticized and left. New players arrived, failed and left. They are blamed, but at the end of the day, the problem lies in the upper floors. It is the Glazer family. Because they have even replaced the entire executive team, but when they are still influenced by the owners, the way they operate has not changed at all.
And in fact, Galzer failed as soon as he officially took possession of Man United in a way that the English at that time could not have imagined, or simply pushed the club into an unprecedented situation of debt.
Most of the capital Glazer used to buy Man United was in the form of a loan, largely guaranteed by the club's assets, with an interest payment of more than 60 million pounds per year. The remaining amount is in the form of PIK loans (payments in kind loans), then sold to protection funds.
During his tenure, the $787 million debt Malcom used was recorded in the club's books. By 2010, the debt was up to 1 billion USD and despite the backlash from fans, the family had refinanced the debt through issuing bonds worth about 500 million pounds.
Up to the 2022-2023 season, the debt is 902 million USD...
When Man United announced in November last year that the board of directors were starting the process of finding strategic alternatives for the club, many people believed that the Glazers 18-year tenure was approaching.
Nearly a year later, that process could end as the family retains majority control, with only Sir Jim Ratcliffe's INEOS holding a 25% stake and responsible for sporting decisions.
But, the question is, will management work become more complicated, overlapping and layered? Manucians will have to hope that INEOS will be the first step and that in the near future, Mr. Ratcliffe will complete the entire takeover.
If it is not the end of Glazer's ownership, then perhaps it is at least the beginning of the end.
