I’ll Always Love United. I Just Can’t Write About It.

I will always love Manchester United for the club it is and the values it held before 2005. When I was much younger than I am now, I was part of the anti-Glazer movement. I told everyone on that forum at the time: “Don’t let them have it, or we’re not going to be the same.” Years on from that — look where we are.

Nobody listened then, and the numbers speak for themselves now. On 22 June 2005, the Glazer family paid £790 million to buy out the club’s shareholders, using borrowed money secured against the club itself. United, virtually debt-free since 1931, saw its gross debt balloon from £50 million to £604 million within a year. According to BBC Verify, roughly £1.2 billion has since gone out of the club in debt interest, repayments, dividends and fees to the family — money that never touched the pitch.

No ambition, same cycle, rinse and repeat: different managers in and out. I didn’t want to sign off on writing about Manchester United, but unfortunately my heart isn’t in describing the torment this ownership has brought upon us for the vast majority of twenty years. We’re meant to just watch our team go through the same vastly underfunded, unambitious routines. Some will say that’s what being a supporter is — through the highs and lows, you are there. But this is a very different situation to your average club. The takeover should never have happened.

For all the good that Sir Alex Ferguson did over 27 years, in the latter years under Glazer ownership he was vastly let down. Moyes came in, ripped the script up, and was expected to do everything with an ageing squad that had just won the title but had no hope of carrying on — because Sir Alex was in a world of his own as a manager. It deeply saddens me how the club is being run, and for my own wellbeing I simply cannot write about something I no longer enjoy — not what’s happening off the pitch, and not what’s happening on it.

There comes a point where you realise the players are doing their best, but as the Martínez situation showed, this team wasn’t backed in the summer. The performances on the pitch and the morale of a squad forced to contend with a status quo that invites outcast players back into the fold — while also retaining players who would have been long out the door in Sir Alex Ferguson’s day — is not how you move a football club forward. And no matter how the PR machine spins it, I will keep an eye on what these players do on the pitch. But I will not be paying for shirts, nor will I be paying for any Sky Sports or HBO Max subscription that props this regime up.

Remember, this is the regime whose chief executive, Omar Berrada, told staff in September 2024 that the club aspired to win the Premier League by 2028 — the so-called “Mission 21,” honouring a 21st title. With total debt standing at over £1 billion, that is not ambition. That is a wish.

Everything around the club now is spin, and it’s about what a new 100,000-seat stadium can do for those who want to see the money keep pouring in. United have committed £63.5 million just for land northwest of Old Trafford for a project estimated at around £2 billion, with talk of naming rights deals to finance it. A “Wembley of the North.” And what about the football?

We need new ownership — and even if we did win something, watching this ownership jump in glee would leave a sour feeling in my soul. I do not want to contribute anything to the downfall they are presiding over at our beloved football club. It has become a soulless business that generates vast wealth for people who couldn’t care less. They showed that this past summer, and until they show genuine ambition, they will continue to get the thumbs down from me regardless of the club’s financial situation.

We’re talking about a footballing empire built on the success of Sir Alex Ferguson, and one that isn’t being looked after the way it should be. Is it any wonder when the likes of Ronaldo speak out? Instead of listening, they’re shipped off or told to apologise. What for? Telling the truth and holding those in the upper echelons to account? We saw it with Ralf Rangnick as well. It is a disgrace, and we’re all being let down by a dishonest ownership that wants to protect itself at all costs.

I welcome anybody from the club to reach out and tell me otherwise. This will be my last Manchester United piece. But in my heart of hearts, I will always remain a fan.