RESIGN SIR ALEX: Would Sir Alex lead us us to victory?

This morning while getting my daily dose of football updates I was taken aback by an article calling for Sir Alex to resign!

To common football fans or non-football fans, just reading the title of the said article alone might be a little misleading. Read further and you will see why.

Football clubs are more than profit!

A club of Manchester United (even Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal) is more than a profit making machine. It's a revered as a religion, it's something that connect with the fans and it was put into its current zenith standing by the fans.

Ever since these major buy-outs by foreign owners, experts in the football and business world alike have given their own views about the intentions and viability of such purchases. Not only the top-4 and BPL clubs were subject of these LBO (Leveraged Buy-Out), QPR, Notts County, Newcastle, West Ham, Man City and Pompey and more recently the buzz is even BPL chaser, Cardiff might soon be in private ownership.

The success of these takeover varied, of course, with a change of owner, the fans would be reasonable to expect that these new owners would pump in money, invest in infrastructures, get new players (even managers) and hopefully propel these clubs into greater heights. This is true to some extent for Chelsea and Arsenal, with new training facility (Chelsea) and a new stadia (Arsenal) and a lot of coming and goings in the playing staffs (turnstile managers and countless big name signings for Chelsea and Man City).

On the other end, you have basket cases like Newcastle, West Ham, Pompey and the worse of the lot Notts County.

Basket cases - Who's to blame (Or rather WHO THE HELL ARE YOU???)?

There's lots of finger pointing, the blame game, or passing the buck(et) as they call it in the US - the League admin, the previous owners and of course the new owners themselves, 3 different parties but at the center of this blame game is the issue of transparency of ownership. Take Notts, with Qabak investment listed as their owners, no one knows where the funding comes from nor the ultimate identity of the shareholders of this investment vehicle (an accounting term). Also, the merry go round of owners for Portsmouth, what a pity that a club which as recent as 2 seasons ago lifted the FA Cup only to see it now languishing at the bottom of the table with 7/8th of its Cup winning squad now plying their trade elsewhere!

Let's see what each of the 3 accused above could have done more to avert the current agony:

The League

There is so called 'fit an proper test' which applies to directors of clubs and since owners appoint directors it would be fair to assume that the owner themselves are subjected to such a test. I am not saying that the League failed in applying this rule, but the process could be done in a more transparent manner, with the outcome (not the details) of the assesment to be made public to assure the fans that indeed the owners are reputable and are indeed 'fit and proper'.

The previous owners

They form part of the transaction and to a certain extent should be hold a certain level of responsibility if the club fails after the takeover. Did they dispose off the club to the highest bidder? Or did they dispose the club to the party which serves the best interest of the club? Were there proposals tabled by these parties? Secured financing? I am pretty very sure these were in place when Ken Bates (now at Leeds United) divested his stake in Chelsea to Czar Roman, but what about Notts, Newcastle, West Ham and Pompey?

New owners

You came, you bought and you think you have conquered, but it is far from job done once the ink on the agreement dries. There's still plenty to do, and lets start by revealing who the heck you are and the plans for the club! More often than not, huge promises were made by these owners which they fail to follow up, and when there's trouble, the *poof* and just vanish into thin air (Pompey, West Ham, Notts County and to a certain extent Newcastle)!

Manchester United: What next???

I must applaud the Americans (Notice that I never once call them by name, I shall NOT!) for being transparent, however, loading the club with so much debt will hamper our growth and is no way to run a club. You are basically taking hard earn money, monies paid throughout these honest, hard working fans lives to support a team they love and finance the purchase of the club! The move should have been blocked, just like when Sky tried to purchase us many years ago. NO WAY it should remain in private hands, we were self sufficient, we have success and there was no need for any change, not least to be used as a mortage to finance some silly American dream!

I have a gut feeling that Sir Alex would love to have Tevez in red rather than the blue of the other half of Manchester. I believe the lack of funding was the key issue. Here's how I arrive at my conclusion: Although he tried his best to support the owners and with the the 3 stooges themselves coming out and openly declaring that the 80 million received for the sale of CR7 is still there if Fergie needs it, the recent financial statements of the club reveals otherwise. A loss of 49 million before taking into account the Ronaldo windfall is surely a course of concern. The timing of the restructuring exercise, which is supposed to release funds to Fergie further contradicts the availability of the 80 million war chest. As much as we hate to be compared with Liverfool (intended) we are indeed in a simillar position as they are, chocked out of the transfer market because of some stupid American who came with a LBO (Loads of Bullshit Offer).

United was built by the fans and of course a great manager, we dont need no YANKS to screw us up and impeed our growth now. As a Knight, and a person of which the fans would always associate with United, be it now, be it 100 years to come, I too plead for Sir Alex to resign just like Kevin Keegan did at Newcastle. Let the club take a fall if that is what is needed to drive those profiteering Americans out of Old Trafford.

We could have done it without you Sir Alex, please do not let our dreams fizzle, please lead us to victory over them YANKS!!!

Regards,

Ben Lai