Man Utd Thread:

[EC Unique]

I read that article about FA cup exit. Hard to know where they are in comparison with Liverpool. Not too far apart either way but Utd look like a top 4 this season where as Liverpool have a lot to do to achieve that. This could be a big difference.

The only difference in Utd and the clubs you mentioned is International profile. Utd is a massive world wide product. This may or may not be of interest to Arabs. Like I said I am no expert in this sort of stuff. I just like watching Utd play football

Missing 4th will be massive to Liverpool. United have had 2/3 really good years, yet they have only used returned a profit above to meet interest repayments. A bad year for either club will have massive affect on them.
International profile helps in terms of TV audience but it has proved to be a very fickle audience as well and as above a bad year would have hugh impact particularly with the rise of profile of the spanish game and clubs are making big noises their to schedule games to suit foreign markets. The merchandise markets in asia are so swamped with fake goods that this has little impact on profit lines.

I know we all love to watch football but unfortunately these clubs have turned into business's and this side of things will have a massive impact in years to come.

Agreed. The change will be for the worse IMHO. The 2 biggest clubs in English history have been bought with business and $$ profit in mind, not football. They both look pretty fucked now financially and it seems there are no easy solutions.

[bingobus]

[
I agree, why buy an established brand with a global presence, loads of history, good assets and revenue? or try to create one from scratch? I don't think you can create that sort of brand/history that Utd, Liverpool and few other teams have.
The current setup of collective TV rights lasting too much longer for a number of reasons, I would expect prospective investors would feel the same. Utd could easily pay back the debt with the TV revenue from Asia alone over a couple of seasons. If this happens, smaller teams will get left behind; potentially buying a small team and building it up may be a bigger risk than buying Utd.

This isn't going to happen anytime soon. The PL collectively have far too much power and the smaller clubs would never sanction this, they'd be screwed as you point out. The big clubs still need the smaller clubs to agree to this unless they move to form another new format/EPL.

[ross4life]

moving on from the business side of football, will any games be going ahead this weekend?

[ludermor]

Did you take that all in R4L?

[ross4life]

Did you take that all in R4L?

it's all old news i'm more worried about the results on the pitch than results in the stock market!

sure every club would love to be like barcelona for the fans run by the fan's but that's the way it is

thanks to these business men english club grounds today are devoid of any character and is dying, Everything in and around the ground is now geared towards money, and to attract a new breed of 'fan', not supporter

[wallyman]

moving on from the business side of football, will any games be going ahead this weekend?

yes

[ross4life]

7th January 1990 - The goal that started it all?

On this day 20 years ago Mark Robins won us a game that may have made the success of the 1990s and 2000s possible
i remember watching this game, hard to believe it's 20 years! it's worth appreciating that this amazing period of success might never have happened at all if that goal had not been scored

http://www.youtube.com/v/yHuUYa0sMnU&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1

[gawa316]

Did you take that all in R4L?

it's all old news i'm more worried about the results on the pitch than results in the stock market!

sure every club would love to be like barcelona for the fans run by the fan's but that's the way it is

thanks to these business men english club grounds today are devoid of any character and is dying, Everything in and around the ground is now geared towards money, and to attract a new breed of 'fan', not supporter

Typical of fans today who just seem to ignore whats going on at their clubs, and that goes for all not just utd. Maybe this will make you think a wee bit more about the problems utd face

[ross4life]

who's ignoring? i find it strange liverpool fan's coming on here discussing united problems?

P.S i don't need any more newspaper info it's well known THANK YOU!

[Norf Tyrone]

Oliver Holt made a great point re Portsomouth in the paper there. The FA are looking to punish Pompey for their poor housekkeping re wages etc. His point was that the FA have twice given the green light this season to new owners for Pompey, who could not have passed that 'responsible owners' test that the FA have. So where does the fault lie?

Take that to the next level and you ask how can the FA give the nod to two of the league's biggest clubs being taken over by cowboys.

I think the answer lies in the fact that the FA have little or no power, and are all mouth.

[mountainboii]

Vidic out for another wee spell. He's hardly played more than two consecutive matches since September.

[orangeman]

Vidic out for another wee spell. He's hardly played more than two consecutive matches since September.

Bad blow.


It's a real crisis now at Man U.

[StGallsGAA]

Keeping a clean sheet against Birmingham without him will be very very difficult.

Many thought that the 4 in a row wasnt possible due to the loss of Tevez & Ronaldo.  Looks like it will be down to United' however if Chelsea win the lague.

[Minder]

Keeping a clean sheet against Birmingham without him will be very very difficult.

Many thought that the 4 in a row wasnt possible due to the loss of Tevez & Ronaldo.  Looks like it will be down to United' however if Chelsea win the lague.

They have scored 8 goals in 10 home games so it's not as if they are banging them in.

[full back]

Keeping a clean sheet against Birmingham without him will be very very difficult.

Many thought that the 4 in a row wasnt possible due to the loss of Tevez & Ronaldo.  Looks like it will be down to United' however if Chelsea win the lague.

Birmingham dont score many but have a good defence & unless Rooney plays well I cant see Utd scoring
0-0 will be the bet tomorrow if the game goes ahead