A simple look at Manchester United’s Twitter feed over the past 24 hours shows you exactly what the club value more between their winning pedigree and their contentious current-day direction.
On this day in 1968 we were crowned European champions for the first time after beating Benfica 4-1. #mufc pic.twitter.com/1MhNl4Qiwd
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) May 29, 2014
We’re sad to learn former player Stan Crowther, a member of #mufc‘s 1958 FA Cup final team, has passed away. More: http://t.co/P5GZPokKru
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) May 28, 2014
There is no mention, however, of former owner Malcolm Glazer, who bought the Old Trafford club in 2005 but suffered a severe stroke in 2006 and died yesterday, aged 85.
United instead opted for a brief statement on their website.
He was a figure who divided opinion. Most despised him, he never set foot in Old Trafford and under his direction he has lumbered the club with debt.
The other side of the coin, is that in 2008 United clinched their third European Cup and won three consecutive Premier League crowns from 2007, perhaps a defining factor in keeping long-term boss Sir Alex Ferguson in management, given the Scot had first hinted at retirement in 2001 only to do an about turn.
United also won two further top flight titles (2011 and 2013) and three league cups since the change of ownership, in 2006, 2009 and 2010, to make it their second most successful period behind a six-year spell in the 90s.
There they also claimed five league crowns and a Champions League but added three FA Cups to their trophy cabinet and capped a superb decade by winning the treble in scintillating fashion against Bayern Munich.
This is a club, after all, that likes winning. United are used to it. They have more league titles (20) than any other club in the country, rank joint first on the FA Cup list with 11 and trail only Liverpool (five) in European titles.
This is what makes United loathed around the country, other fans are jealous of their success. But for the best part of a decade it is United who have done the loathing, unhappy at the fact the club has seemingly sold its soul by allowing an overbearing American influence.
Unsurprisingly ‘Glazer Out’ banners have adorned Old Trafford since the controversial move by the 2003 Super Bowl winners’ (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) owner, especially as it has left United facing debts of around £80million a year since the takeover.
Yet big money in football is all too prevalent nowadays and those behind the Glazer era will quickly point to the countless trophies won in recent times.
Nonetheless, there is an unwillingness and a flat refusal among most United supporters to go down the ‘spend big, win big’ route, the approach that has lifted neighbours Manchester City from one of the mediocre pack to Premier League champions and big players in Europe.
United’s appointment of Louis van Gaal, the man who worked wonders with youth players in the 1990s, like Ferguson, to land Ajax the 1995 Champions League title, would suggest the Red Devils want to hark back to those days.
Despite the death of the Glazer patriarch, his family will remain very much in control of United, though yesterday’s sad news may well be the first step in the gradual overhaul of any American influence inside Old Trafford.
The sooner it happens, the quicker United can get back to what they do best: winning.
Main image courtesy of Widow maker via YouTube, with thanks.
