The Daily: Friday 16th June 2023
Manchester United's ownership (I know, I know), Arsenal's fixtures, and a derogatory nickname
How much damage is the sale of Manchester United doing to the club’s fanbase?
The extremely protracted sale of Manchester United seems likely now to stretch into the month of July, and it’s starting to feel as though it’s starting to have an extremely negative effect indeed on the club’s supporters. The club yesterday announced the passing of defender Gordon McQueen, who made 184 appearances for the club over seven years and who was a member of their 1983 FA Cup winning team. He was just 70 years old, yet another victim of football’s industrial-scale dementia problem.
Within minutes, the replies were being peppered with shouts of “ANNOUNCE QATAR”, quite monumental acts of basic disrespect which can only lead to the conclusion that those making them care substantially more about that country than they do about that club. If this is how toxic Manchester United are going to become under Qatari ownership, the name of the club itself may well end up desecrated.
There are no ‘good guys’, here, just a triangle of groupings that make your face curl, involuntarily. In one corner, there’s the characters from Succession the Glazer family, who nobody believes for a second care a jot for Manchester United for any reasons other than their own enrichment. In the second corner, there’s INEOS, the caustic sod-releasing, would be shale gas-drilling chemical company, whose bid might not even entirely get rid of the Glazers.
And making up the three there’s Sheikh Jassim and the Qatari bid. It’s strangely silent and faceless in itself, a vast, looming cloud of invisible money, money that we have paid them to continue to mine the world for fossil fuels as we sit here in 90 degree heat failing to do anything about the reasons why these temperatures are continuing to rise, money which is intended to make you shut the hell up and keep focusing on the very shiny things, all ‘fronted’—if that can be considered the word—by two or three photographs of a man who seems to bear a strange resemblance to Sir Keir Starmer.
While they are silent and simply continue to loom, their online supporters are noisy, although it’s highly likely that, if anything, stunts like the replies to the Gordon McQueen tweet from Manchester United can only do their cause damage. There will certainly Manchester United be supporters who want that Qatari money. They hate the fact that City have done the treble, and they believe that only oil money can get them close again, or who just want the Glazers completely out. But they also love United and may well close ranks over this sort of behaviour. There will also be waverers, who didn’t care that much before but bloody well do now.
But there are also those for whom ‘winning the transfer market’ is the most important thing, or for whom the actual well-being of the club is an irrelevance in terms of what they want. They may be a distinct minority at Old Trafford, but on social media their voices are just as loud. The ‘Very Online’ fans for whom the deep sense of emotional attachment is simply missing. Those for whom this is all a game show in which their voices will be heard, so long as they shout loudly enough.
The Glazers certainly cannot be relied upon to make anything like an ethical decision, but again it should be recalled that there are no good guys in this fight, though INEOS feel like the least worst option.
The new fixtures are out, so let the conspiracy theories commence
At this time of the year, it’s possible for hope start springing again. Maybe next year will be better than previous years. But then you look at the reaction to just about anything, and you remember exactly what sort of world we’re living in, and you remember that the conspiracy theories are going to continue exactly as they have done, with increasing monotony, over the last few seasons. And then there’s the media, sitting in the corner and prodding them at every opportunity.
The release of the Premier League fixtures yesterday brought a piece of prodding from the Daily Express—no, obviously I’m not linking to it from here—worthy of a mention. “Mikel Arteta may feel hard done by when reading how the Premier League fixtures coincide with the Champions League schedule”, they wrote, with their explanation being that, “The Gunners have been done a favour by the Premier League as they are at home after all of the European matchdays, but their fixtures prior to each match are far from easy - with some nightmare away trips to come before big ties on the continent.”
Well, they’ve got to play all 19 other teams at some point, both home and away, but the prodding towards trying to get fans angry about the release of the fixture list is very much a sign of the times. Relax, Arsenal supporters, there’s no conspiracy against your team. Nor any of the rest you. Except for you, [-redacted].
Derogatory social media nickname of the week
“Interested FC”: Manchester United
The older I get, the more infantile I often feel my sense of humour is getting. Memes about Pep being bald, Pessi and Penaldo, I lap it all up. And fortunately, the creativity of those who love childishly insulting football clubs seems pretty much boundless. Last night, the guru of transfer-rumour-to-transfer reality Fabrizio Romano tweeted that the Korean defender Kim min-jae had agreed personal terms with Bayern Munich, although Manchester United were still “interested”. Within half an hour, “Interested FC”, a withering statement upon United being connected with just about every player but acting with the speed and precision of a three-toed sloth, was trending on Twitter. Bravo, everybody concerned.