Quarterly Quarrel - The Financial Discussion Part 5

There are rumors making the rounds (albeit loose one for the time being: The Sun/DM) claiming that United are close to agreeing a £70mil/yr new shirt sponsorship deal with a Chinese home appliance company, Haier.
That would represent an increase on the current Chevrolet deal (which is for £64mil/yr) which is set to run out in 2021.
Based on their logo, this is what it could look like.

Would be an improvement on the awful Chevy logo at least.

 

A word from one of our sponsors.

It takes more than ambition. It takes belief. It takes hard work. It takes grit.

You Get Out What You Put In. #GulfGetsYouThere pic.twitter.com/RErQLVNQs5

— Gulf Oil International (@GulfOilIntl) November 21, 2019

 

No need to worry lads, its not a ‘process’ or any such garbage meaningless term, we are in fact on Ed’s ‘multi-year squad evolution analysis’ journey.

"It's hard enough to get three players done in a transfer window. To get six or seven done is extremely difficult."

Ed Woodward says it's a a "multi-year squad evolution analysis" for Man Utd.

Read more: https://t.co/tdUJ0dJPEw pic.twitter.com/qx9XPJkVqH

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) December 1, 2019

 

Definitely should include that in our next transfer thread title

 

1201557085164576768 is not a valid tweet id

 

Difficult for him and Judge when it takes them around a whole month to close on deals for some reason (not even sure why that is also, since they invariably end up paying full freight)...

 

Junk electronics company for a junk team.

Fitting.

 

Why would they compare to everyone except similar PL teams?

 

Compared to some other big clubs because we used to be one those

Reminder, we lost 7 players and signed 3 and that was ‘hard enough’ for poor Woody and Judge.

EPL clubs have believe it or not managed more than 3 too ...

 

Yep, its pure BS and smokescreen from Woodward.

James was identified and done, AWB and especially Maguire were identified early and deliberately dragged out. Lukaku was sold late so there was no replacement. There was it seems never any serious intent to sign any MF players.

The plan was pretty clear, with no CL football keep the net spend low so dividends could still be paid without much increase in borrowing.

 

Could be argued too that they knew the likely impact of this on our chances of getting CL football this season - hence why they hedged their bets in Sept and allowed themselves the possibility of getting some of their money out by registering a option for selling 24m shares in this rapidly decreasing asset.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/...239741zposam.htm#dg48002_selling_shareholders

 

Another partnership secured...

Great news for the chap on the investors’ call who wanted to know about the ‘Chinese pipeline’ #mufc pic.twitter.com/CGCVL5J3kO

— Samuel Luckhurst (@samuelluckhurst) December 6, 2019

 

Jobs are Hard - The Woody Transfer Thread

 

Either Woodward is very good or the Chinese love buying crap..... Club content?????? Fcuk me

 

If only he was this good at identifying and getting talent for the club.....

 

Ed does great with the commercial side

he'd be a hero if he just turned the football side over to someone that's qualified

 

SA sports minister addresses takeover speculation.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/man-utd-takeover-latest-news-17373200

Does not look like they're going to be giving up anytime soon on their hope of owning United. Latest reports are suggesting that the Glazers are holding out for £5 billion. Have to imagine that the Saudis will be willing to meet that figure eventually, given what they've already offered, the enormous resources and cash at their disposal (and how United is such a valuable commodity).
Still don't like it (considering who they are/what they've done) but it almost seems like a matter of when (a few years). There is still money to be made at United by the Glazers, thus don't see them selling anytime soon. But the Saudis are patient and they'll bide their time and wait in the wings for the right time to make their move. Unless of course they buy another football club. But the question still remains: which potentially available club out there is anywhere as valuable as United?

 

Old Trafford in bad need of some TLC.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...d-faded-grandeur-tired-worn-tottenham-stadium

The situation already seems to be pretty urgent by many accounts and we can only hope that the Glazers will do something about it sooner, rather than later.
OT is really a beautiful stadium, particularly when seen in person, and it really would just be a shame that it's not properly taken care of. A little cash injection is all it would probably take (certainly cheaper compared to the cost of a brand new facility).
Just add it to the list of things that are simply unacceptable for a club like ours. Even Anfield has seen an expansion and renovation under FSG.

 

The Glazers’ takeover, designed by Woodward to load £540 million borrowings on a debt-free club, has since cost more than £1 billion in interest, fees, refinancing penalties and other dead money.

Liverpool owners have taken out 10 million in 9 years! https://t.co/ZhHvpVekdO

— The United Stand (@UnitedStandMUFC) January 6, 2020

 

#MUFC £332m wage bill is the highest ever reported by a Premier League club. In the last three years it has grown by an incredible £100m (43%). It is worth noting that up until 2012, United’s wages were only the third highest in England, behind #MCFC and #CFC. pic.twitter.com/NhLaNto7Gx

— Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) September 30, 2019

Not commensurate to the squad we currently have on hand. A club like Barca for instance, who I believe have the highest wage bill in the game can justify this with a host of talent up and down their team and the fact they're still pretty competitive in all fronts (both domestically and in Europe). Which is not the case with us.
The Sanchez deal is a big reason for it, but our salaries are inflated pretty much across the board.

 

As this month goes by and we do nothing, remember, Ed Woodward is the highest paid director in the PL.

 

If anyone is on twitter give TFWriter aka Michael Tunstall a follow .

He put together a great thread on the Glazers stating factual information on them and Woodward regarding of what theyve done to the club in the last 15 years ...

It may be difficult to follow because of the length of article but worth a read all the same .

CURRENT DEBT - £511m

As of the latest accounts submitted in June 2019, the debt stands at £511m.

With the majority of repayments barely touching the actual debt, at the current rate, it would take Manchester United over 150 years to be debt free again.

In 2005, The Glazer's leveraged buyout saddled the club with £540m of debt, meaning that the debt has been reduced by just £44m in 14 years.

INTEREST PAID - £806m

In interest alone, Manchester United have spent £806m, essentially just to service the debt that The Glazers placed on the club.

To give this figure some perspective, it took United 13 years under The Glazers to spend this amount on players.

SHARE SALES - £452m

Since Manchester United was launched on the NYSE in 2012, £452m worth of shares have been sold - none of which has been invested into the club.

In September, the Glazers issued preliminary prospectus to sell up to £322m more shares.

GLAZER DIVIDENDS - £89m

In 2012, unlike the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool, Manchester United decided to commence dividends payments.

Since 2012, £89m has been paid to the Glazers, with an additional £21m to other shareholders.

The latest dividend was taken just last week, in the middle of a transfer window where Manchester United are struggling to make any additions to a depleted squad.

A further £9m dividend is expected to be taken in June which will take the total figure to £98m.

DIRECTORS' FEES - £92m

Over the last 11 years, £92m has been taken in Directors' fees of which the Glazers take a significant slice.

Before the launch on the NYSE in 2012, they were also taking £8m a year in 'Consulting Fees'.

The figures are damning. The Glazers bought Manchester United on debt with a personal stake of around just £200m. They currently own 80% of the club, which is now worth billions.

Credit to Red News for putting the hard graft in to collate all of those stats.

UNDERINVESTMENT

Ever since the Glazers set foot in Manchester there has been a mixture of underinvestment and misinvestment.

The best example of underinvestment came under Ferguson. Whilst the recruitment was relatively sound under Ferguson, it was limited.

Since his retirement, the club have tried to play catch-up thanks to 8 years of severe underinvestment.

United had a net-spend of just £158m across 8 years - that's just £19m per season!

During those 8 years, we were fed the 'no value in the market' line. Whilst City were building one of the best squads in the world, United were resigned to signing Antonio Valencia as a replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo

The year City signed Aguero, United signed Young.

those 8yrs encapsulated the underinvestment, the following 6yrs demonstrated the misinvestment.

The wage structure at United is out of control, the transfer strategy is erratic and there’s a feeling that whoever the manager is, they don’t have the final say on transfers.

Ed Woodward, the man largley responsible for this admitted as much in his recent interview with @UWSmag

In Mourinho's final summer, an investment banker with no knowledge of football told one of the greatest manager's in the game that he knew better. The ego is unparalleled.

With Woodward at the helm, United have overpaid for average players and given out ludicrous contracts to even worse ones. Despite having the worst squad in the top six, and with other clubs catching up, United have the highest wage bill in the league.

Almost every transfer window under Woodward has been a desperate scramble. The writing was on the wall in Moyes' first summer when United ended up paying £3.5m more than Fellaini's release clause on deadline day in 2013.

I'll let you make your own conclusions on Ed Woodward, but every decision he makes is for the benefit of himself or the owners - not the club.

He's been unchallenged in his current role for 6 years because he's doing exactly what his bosses want him to do.

Woodward has also suddenly become the owner of 539,000 A class shares valued at a whopping $10.8m.

He will have received a $48,000 dividend a few days ago and the same again in June.

He isn't going anywhere.

Woodward & Solskjaer's "rebuild" has seen United lose Lukaku, Fellaini, Sanchez, Smalling, Herrera, Valencia & Darmian, only to be replaced by a Championship player, a CB a year too late and a RB six years too late.

The "rebuild" is Woodward slang for "save the owners money".

Never forget his infamous quote.

“If I answer that just very simply and candidly, playing performance doesn’t really have a meaningful impact on what we can do on the commercial side of the business" - Ed Woodward

 

So Barney this for me - what is the point of taking on all this debt?