Red Knights bid: Do you feel let down?

Green and Gold

When it was finally “revealed” via statement yesterday that the Red Knights were effectively announcing their intention to NOT make a takeover bid for Manchester United in the near future, I wasn’t surprised. In fact, the more news that has come out in the last few weeks, the less confident I was about a bid at all and the more suspicious I got about the motives of supposed saviours.


Make no mistake; the intention and plan is the right one. One that all United fans should champion – returning football clubs to their roots with fan ownership is probably the only way that, in the modern game, supporters can retain a true emotional affinity from the ground up. Clearly that isn’t true of the elder generation. Those that were around in the 70s and even older, pre-Munich for example, have a lifelong relationship with the club that the corporate whirlwind cannot diffuse even if it does serve as a source of disillusion.

Furthermore, the Barcelona model shows that a club with such a proud heritage can not only remain competitive but also stay ahead.

So, why was I so undecided about the motives? Well, there was always the risk with the club being worth so much that getting the money together would be unlikely. So a cynical mind would think it was all an elaborate PR stunt. Some financial moguls referenced it as such when Keith Harris got publicly involved but nonetheless, early on, the noises were positive.

Positive enough to encourage tens of thousands to register to the MUST campaign in support of the Red Knights – MUST can’t be blamed for backing the wrong horse because the Supporters Trust is a tremendous resource and community for fans on its own merits. Back the wrong horse they have though and the cost to those who have supported the club for generations is yet to be counted.

As the campaign gained momentum and more and more dodgy financial results were published, more and more diehard fans started to pay more attention and get behind the cause. Visibly in the green and gold campaign and notably with the refusal to buy merchandise and low turnout in the renewal of season tickets. A forum thread mid-season on this site demonstrated both sides of the coin; extremist passionate pleas to boycott all money into the club and that nervousness that doing so would quickly accelerate the demise of the club. That reticence to fully stand behind the Red Knights is being justified now but it seems that this group of pirates have already made their mark.

Imagine if you will a family of season ticket holders for generations. They give up their tickets in protest; someone on the waiting list gladly snaps them up and the Red Knights just fizzle out. Might take another generation for that family to get their tickets again.

Worse is the apparent reason that the bid won’t come; because the Glazers are being “unrealistic” in their expectations. Hello. Loathe them as I do, they own a business, the most successful sports franchise in the world. Valued as such despite the debt. The naivety on show is appalling; is it acceptable, is it forgivable for a bunch of publicity hungry lowlifes to encourage some huge decisions from lifelong fans to support a bid that was never likely to materialise? They have encouraged a wide scale boycott of putting money into the club that is only likely to prompt the Glazers into bleeding more money out of the assets of the club.

At least with the yearly publishing of our nightmare accounts and all the figures that surface inbetween, the despicable behaviour of our American owners is transparent and there for all to see.

In my opinion; it’s even worse to masquerade as self proclaimed saviours of the club when in reality they have only served to worsen a situation already at the point of despair. The only likely scenario which will see the Red Knights successful in any takeover bid from this point will be to see United half in value in a very short space of time – short enough to keep the interest of the fly by night heroes.

Considering the dire straits the club are likely to be in to get to such a point and the level of contribution we will be able to attribute to the Red Knights; if they do finally seize control of the club, they shouldn’t be treated as our saviours. Especially by those who won’t be at Old Trafford to “witness the revival”.

Source: (Yolkie)

8 Comments on Red Knights bid: Do you feel let down?

  1. The Red Knights appear to have pulled out on the basis that the Glazers aren’t dribbling idiots.

    I don’t really feel let down as such because I was a bit suspicious about the Red Knights to begin with.

  2. These bankers used gullible fans to try and make a killing buying and selling United. Our fans groups MUST and IMUSA were suckered in, or worse, were actually in on it. We’ll never forget that. They’ve lost credibility.

    Most people that I spoke to though knew this was never going to work and that these egotists could never raise the money. It’s Michael Knighton x 5.

  3. Oh, by the way, Barcelona are €450m in debt and they are borrowing money to pay player wages. That’s not a model I’d ever advocate. They are worse off than United. At least we can pay the players wages.

  4. i dont believe the club shud be run by fens it breeds instability u manke example of barca look at them when they are not winning

  5. why would anyone feel let down?
    UNLESS they had totally unrealistic expectations?

    and thank god that people who really care didn’t take such a mard arse attitude 5 years ago. cos that’s how long some people have been trying to extricate these bastards who are fiscally raping our club.

    anyway, here’s hoping that the glazers see sense and start charging the fools who want to line their pockets by renewing a heapload more for Season Tickets, and selling off some more players.
    they might as well see how far they can push people, now that most appear to have ‘given up’.

  6. Recent ‘news’ has come to light that would surely affect any decision made by the RK.
    Firstly its been reported that the Glazers have called in a Risk Management company to help sort out their financial business mess in the US.
    Secondly it’s been reported on another fan site by a fan who was speaking to a person in UTD’s ticket office that season ticket sales are down by 42%
    Thirdly next week’s expose about the Glazers on the BBC may reveal the true financial situation about the club’s owners

    Sp why should the RKs offer the Glazers £1 billion if they could get control for considerably less?
    And that may well be the case.
    BTW, anyone expressing doubt about the motives of the RKs are really playing into the hands of the Glazers,

  7. Having doubts about the Red Knights isn’t the same as supporting the Glazers or even wanting the Red Knights bid to fail/stall.

    In an ideal world the Red Knights are the everything their name implies, but to just trust them on the basis that they’re not the Glazers is practically bending over and asking to take the shaft again.

    On the one hand I don’t have a clue what possible gameplan the Glazers can have in the long term they’re supposedly in this for, but that doesn’t mean I’m going trust the Red Knights purely on the basis that they say we should.

  8. Ffan- in essence what you’re saying is that the RK are making a calculated business decision first and foremost. Which makes their initial screams of ‘whatever it takes’ a little hollow. The fans played their part, the RK didn’t

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