24 Feb 2025 21:06:40
At the end of 2023/ 4 United had the largest monthly payroll of any club with 1140 employees, up from 799 in 2016. City, rather than the City group, had just 611. Liverpool had 1008 at the end of 2022/ 3, Chelsea had 872 and Arsenal had 723. The fact is the payroll is/ was bloated. United have not made a profit for 5 years. As unpleasant as it may be, what is happening is absolutely necessary. You can point to the interest payments but, again, the level of debt after the company went public in 2012 was completely sustainable. The debt now is not due to the original purchase, but to the massive incompetence of the management team under Woodward under whom the number of employees skyrocketed.

You don't have to like SJR. He may well be a tax avoiding creep and cheapskate. The new team may well have made mistakes. They will make more. But the fact remains, these cuts and the unpleasantness must be laid at the feet of those who allowed the situation to get so bad in the first place.

1.) 24 Feb 2025
24 Feb 2025 21:49:18
Zzzzzss snore.

Absolutely necessary.

I tell you what is absolutely necessary, is that they stop messing around with millions, be it on sub standard players, hiring and firing directors and paying dividends to owners that have brought nothing but debt to a once wonderful club.

The railway workers of newton heath would be turning in their graves.

Absolutely necessary. Do me a favour.

2.) 24 Feb 2025
24 Feb 2025 22:15:41
As a Scouse red i'd love it if you got relegated as would you vice versa, but rivalries aside it’s a cnuts trick. Like us when FSG wanted to furlough all the staff. It’s not right picking on the lowest paid who depend on the job we’re all from rough council estates kick off don’t let RATcliffe fill your head with sh*t. Stand up for the workers. It’s a f#*#n digrace.

3.) 24 Feb 2025
24 Feb 2025 22:27:48
They would but then so would just about everyone from 100+ years ago. No dividend paid since 2022.

Of course buying substandard players has to stop as has rewarding them with lucrative contract renewals to "protect their value". But that takes time to unwind. It's not an either or. Both need to be done.

Meanwhile, hopefully Sancho will be gone and United will pocket £25m which will more than cover the amortization on the final year of his contract. If Rashford can be sold that would all be profit and would remove a very large chunk of payroll.

4.) 24 Feb 2025
24 Feb 2025 23:23:39
Well said Angel!

I find it abhorrent that some Utd supporters are excusing this behaviour, apologists to the core, go and spread your poison somewhere else, you can’t be a Man Utd fan, these are local people losing jobs in their hundreds! Are you really blaming the debt on a few hundred extra employees? What utter nonsense, this must be the worst post I’ve ever read. No dividends paid since 2022, let’s throw a f***ing party!

So we have to sack 400 people so we can sign a new CF in the summer? It’s not worth it, the Club stands for more than this!

The Club is rotten to the core and sadly so are some of our own fans.

Even rival fans know what’s going on is wrong. SRJ is an embarrassment, he is ripping the heart and soul out of our great Club, there is more to a Club than just success on the pitch, brutal cuts and austerity will not deliver success and even if it did at what cost.

Here’s a idea, If he wants to be the saviour of Man Utd, why doesn’t the billionaire put his hand in his own pocket and bail the Club out, surely that’s what you do when you love something, want to save it, lovingly restore it and return it to past glory. Surely that’s what he meant by putting the Manchester back into Manchester Utd right? The local lad, the Man Utd fan? No the billionaires only solution is to sack hundreds of local Mancunians, of course it’s the poorest employees that will save the Club but cutting their jobs not the billionaire owners! What a guy!

{Ed025's Note - absolutely nailed it for me DLIB..kudos mate..

5.) 25 Feb 2025
25 Feb 2025 01:04:01
It was clear from the very beginning what SJR was, but so many on here thought he would be some kind of saviour which was never going to be the case, all this rubbish he put his own money in, just grow up those that think that, all this crap about him being a United supporter, again grow up those that think that.
You all thought the grass would be greener, well we now have what many wished for……to SJR it’s £££s nothing more, get the redevelopment and he be quids in, get the useless government you now have assist him it’s even better for him! That way not only get United supporters to fund it, but whole of uk taxpayers…. Hand it to him, to make money he will take whatever route is open, no matter who or what gets in the way… oh yeah if we can win a bit along the way. even better!

6.) 25 Feb 2025
25 Feb 2025 01:21:48
Spot on for me Shaw, the workforce was bloated, accepting that doesn’t make you a bad fan or an apologist. The restructure of the start of bringing the club back to where it was, people want change then moan like mad when they get it. I knew this would be the reaction but knowing the number of employees at the club had got so out of hand this had to be done. It’s not nice and nobody wants to see redundancies but it’s a good start, lots of other things need to change as well and hopefully they will, we have new people in charge and hopefully they put the football side of things first, it’s been a while. Too many middle managers and jobs for the boys.

7.) 25 Feb 2025
25 Feb 2025 03:29:55
Shawthing
I am disappointed with your post there.
1) “United have not made a profit for 5 years. As unpleasant as it may be, what is happening is absolutely necessary. ”
My comment. So what, a business’s number one purpose in the M&A’s is to make a profit, yet why should we the fans care about a profit? Absolutely necessary for who? Not us fans, profits are for the leeches who own the club. This is a football club, built by Busby, Jimmy Murphy and SAF to play football, for the fans. Busby and Murphy would turn in their graves seeing the disgusting behaviour of the Glazers. How sad there haven’t been dividends paid or sucked out of the club for 3 years because of the losses. Question for all of us is whether all the redundancies and cost cutting is to return us to profit so the Glazers can have their dividends again?

2) “the level of debt after the company went public in 2012 was completely sustainable”. £60m a year? One cent not going to the football business was unacceptable and at the levels we have, it is utterly unsustainable, always has been and that has been shown. That’s why there still is a debt. Only the apologists and financially naive think it sustainable.

3) “the debt now is not due to the original purchase, but to the massive incompetence of the management team under Woodward”
Do enlighten us when the original debt was repaid? The shoddy mess has been since the leveraged buy out. Even when the Glazers sold their shares to the Rat, they received Rats £1.3Bn, the Rats money went to the Glazers. There were costs from the deal of circa £30m, the club paid them. What a great deal for the club and supporters. Mass redundancies so the Glazers can pick up £1.3Bn, the value of part of a club built by Busby, Murphy, SAF. I feel for those who are paying the prices with their jobs for all this.

We are paying for the greed of the owners and compounded by apologists who have heard and quote soundbytes put out to excuse what has been done to the club. The maximum was extracted by the Glazers but the debt had never been paid, the capital never repaid, no plan to pay it has ever been put in place. They never put a cent in. Great business for the Glazers but the fans, the history of the club has been trampled on ; all with the aim of making the Glazers rich. Utterly disgusted with all of it.

8.) 25 Feb 2025
25 Feb 2025 06:38:31
How do you know it was bloated gds?

It's a good start, F me, what am I reading on here ?.

9.) 25 Feb 2025
25 Feb 2025 07:13:56
Like the analogy i saw used yesterday.


"Staff may have been bloated but sacking staff to fix a budget shortfall is like a cocaine addict cutting back on milk and bread to save money. The obvious problem is staring you right in the face"


But it's all okay lads, SJR is a lovely man, doing the needful. Just hit the working class and the rest will sort itself out.

Anybody want to talk about the bloating upstairs. Why do we need Berrada, Wilcox, jean Claude blanc, viveli? Have we checked on the amount of coaches we have? Is RAs backroom staff bloated? How about the glazers give a few millions in dividends back.

Again, the poorest and the hardest working will be hit and fat cats will be fed. There must be a good few millionaires on here.

10.) 25 Feb 2025
25 Feb 2025 08:45:17
Not triggering the 1 year extension on Maguires contract would have saved the club £9.8 million.

Not triggering the 1 year extension on lindelofs contract would saved the club £6.2 million.

This is the real issue. Clear incompetence!

11.) 25 Feb 2025
25 Feb 2025 09:29:50
SJR bought into Manchester United to make money, not play with a new toy. To think otherwise is ludicrous.

Im telling you now, it will start with working class staff, then it will move up to the players. We are already experiencing the effect of what cheap recruitment can do.

I don't buy into the "we want to buy young upcoming players" narrative from Ineos. They want to do that because its cheaper and will look better on the books. The squad or position won't improve. Just look at every football club Ineos have touched.

When the profits start again, the Glazer Hyenas will be back to claim their dividends scraps, but this time SJR will be among the pack.

12.) 25 Feb 2025
25 Feb 2025 10:11:08
Free lunches being ended will save £1 million per annum is what is reported. Over a billion paid to Glazers in Dividends/ Payouts.

Mind blowing that we are fixated on the small people whilst that billion would have paid for the free lunches for 1000 years, let that sink in!

13.) 25 Feb 2025
25 Feb 2025 10:41:52
MH exactly that. But it's a lot easier to deal with what they perceive to be 'low hanging fruit's. the tough choices.

Sounds like any government in power. We had to make the tough choices, those on benefits, the unemployed, the raises in the tax for the everyday worker.

SJR is a scumbag and I won't stop saying it until he's out and all.

14.) 25 Feb 2025
25 Feb 2025 10:53:11
Owners eh? ! I wish we could return to the halcyon days of previous owners! Those that sold substandard meat to schoolchildren. Sorted a rights issue of shares to vastly increase their wealth. Had a son who had a penchant for looking under the doors of women’s toilets! The good old days!
Get a grip guys. United ain’t no charity. It’s a business. The purpose of which is to maximise profit.
Could do with a decent striker mind!

15.) 25 Feb 2025
25 Feb 2025 15:03:31
That is not this clubs purpose. If you support this clubs purpose being to make a profit then you are part of the problem. We need these leaches out.

16.) 25 Feb 2025
25 Feb 2025 19:50:34
It’s the owners purpose. Why do you surmise it’s mine? “We need these leeches out. ” Good luck with that!

17.) 27 Feb 2025
25 Feb 2025 21:36:34
Football clubs have become businesses globally, end of story. It has been happening for years, decades in fact. To think otherwise is the epitome of naivety.
If you have continued to purchase merchandise, year on year, you have been part of the problem. If you have continued to attend games, week after week, you have been part of the problem. These prices have continued to rise, year on year, but the business has continued to be fed by the fanbase. Simple supply and demand folks.
I stopped attending games over 18 years ago, and stopped buying shirts even further back.
I don't think football in general will ever return to what it once was. If you want that, it is probably best changing your colours to Salford FC.
For the good of the game, it might be best if the Super league is greenlit and the money can flow into that, leaving behind the good old days.