The Man Who Bought United

November 02, 2009 at 11:35am by Scott

Hoo boy. Here’s a documentary about the Glazer takeover of Manchester United that has resurfaced after a couple years now that the Glazers are being demonized for their failure to spend money. It’s 23 minutes long, but even you can get the gist of it by listening to it with Excel running in the foreground if you’ve got one of those bosses. You know, like Malcolm Glazer.

Okay, let’s be fair. This is a documentary in the same way that a Michael Moore or Alan Peterson movie is a documentary (See how I straddle the fence there? I’m such a political mystery!) It’s obviously a hit piece intended to trash its subject. Everything they say may be true, but it’s so one-sided that it’s hard to take seriously. The inclusion of a few bars from Don Henley’s “New York Minute” doesn’t help. And yet… wow. If Glazer is even one-fifth the ass that this piece makes him out to be, that’s a whole lotta ass.

/Jimmy Page guitar

I’ve always defending the Glazers, even if it felt a little dirty doing it, because they did spend some real money bringing in good coaches and veterans and a new training facility. And I’m not going to let this one piece sway me too much. It’s a business, we all know that. But is the ultimate play for him to suck as much profit as he can out of the team and leave it as a husk when he finally does decide to sell?