By Kabelo Mollo
The Springboks have done the unthinkable and retained the William Webb Ellis Cup! They are now four-time world champions, making them the most successful team in the competition’s history.
The Proteas are on a stellar run at the Cricket World Cup in India. Any time they bat first they’re going to post a massive total! The winter snap has come and gone and now we’re eating the summer festive. The living is good, unless like me you’re a heart-and-soul Manchester United fan.
I know for certain that I’m falling out of love with football as a whole. The other day I found myself watching YouTube videos of the late 90s early 2000s Man United teams. The Red devils in their pomp! The team played fast, flowing, high tempo football with wings bombing down the touchline and strikers converting opportunities ad infinitum.
Majestic players like David Beckham, and Ryan Giggs at the peak of their powers. A wondrous splendour if ever there was one. All under the hypnotic spell of one Alexander Chapman Ferguson. Even in spite of the restrictions of the Glazers and their takeover, the man performed miracles. That 2009 double season was something else! But already the Glazers had our club hamstrung!
Let’s be clear, Manchester United is the biggest club in England and certainly one of the biggest in the world. Left to its own devices and managed efficiently it doesn’t need an Emirati benefactor. Or an eccentric wealthy Briton as an owner.
In fact, the revenue United generates is good enough to keep it as a juggernaut in world football. Instead, the Glazers have piled on a debilitating debt and then taken annual dividends even when the club were at the lowest ebb. The saga that is the Glazer ownership of Manchester United will go down in history as the darkest times at United, Munich air disaster notwithstanding.
Last season United’s new manager Erik Ten Hag pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat as he won the Carabao cup and then reached the FA cup final, all the while eking out a third place finish in the league. This season, the reality of where United actually is has dawned. Eighth place in the league and summarily dumped out of the Carabao cup.
Back to back three-goal lashings and a team that looks devoid of confidence, playing style and will to win. It’s an all too familiar mess! Many have the knives out for the Dutch manager but really the focus should be sharply on Joel and Avram Glazer who have led the demise of Manchester United. They have overseen the worst decline without any semblance of a clue on how to fix it.
yet, they have greedily turned down the most lucrative (and sound) purchase offer from Sheik Jassim and his Qatari bid seemingly so they can maintain a majority stake in an entity they can’t run but that still has the potential to make them rich. I have the utmost disdain for them, and that’s putting it mildly!
The season will go on. United will continue to flatter to deceive and the Glazers will carry on with their chicanery. Selling then not Selling, then getting the highest bidder to fund aspects that the club, could and should have funded years ago. Fans will continue to shout Glazers out and the world will look on as the once mighty Red devils once again become fodder for online fans to denigrate. I will continue to use expletives whenever I describe the United ownership and opposition fans will continue to make light of the situation owing to the trauma Sir Alex and his merry bunch of men caused them all those years ago.
This situation couldn’t get worse if it tried! But hey, the Boks are four-time world champions, and the sun is out….
