Red rebellion will take some stopping
AS the Glazer family watched United labour to defeat at a rapidly emptying Old Trafford on Wednesday night, to the soundtrack of protests against their ownership of the club, they could have been forgiven for thinking they’ve been here before.
The Glazers weren’t in attendance for the defeat to Burnley, to hear the Stretford End in mutinous mood against their regime and the work of Ed Woodward, but they won’t have escaped the feeling that Old Trafford is turning on them in numbers once more.
The first chants of protest began midway through the first half, when the game was goalless. By the time Burnley had gone 2-0 up ‘We want Glazers out’ and ‘Stand up if you hate Glazers’ were reverberating around Old Trafford.
For the second home game in succession match-going supporters were making their feelings clear. They’ve had enough.
Dissent on this level hasn’t been heard inside the ground for a decade, since the green and gold campaign that built up such momentum during the 2009/10 season, reaching a crescendo when David Beckham picked up a protest scarf and left the field wearing it after returning with AC Milan in the Champions League.
At that point Reds fans might have felt the campaign to oust their despised owners was becoming an unstoppable force, but the Glazer family rode out the storm. They will probably back themselves to do so again.
But the landscape has changed in the previous decade. Those protests of 2009/10 – inspired by the Glazers issuing a controversial bond deal in the autumn of 2009 – came at a point of dominance for the club. The US owners had been in place since 2005 and crucially had the backing of Sir Alex Ferguson.
The mutiny at the end of the previous decade came during a spell of four Premier League titles in five years, successive League Cup triumphs and in the middle of a run of three Champions League finals in four years.
When the Glazers refused to be bowed the protests began to run out of steam. Ferguson continued to back his paymasters and United continued to win trophies.
Many of those protesting didn’t go away, or give up on the cause, but much of the dissatisfaction has occurred away from M16 in the previous 10 years. Last summer there was a groundswell of antiGlazer sentiment and protests on social media, but hashtags can be ignored and plenty of those venting frustration had never set foot inside Old Trafford, but were angry at a lack of transfer activity and looking for someone to blame.
The temperature of the fanbase can best be gauged inside the ground, which is why these chants in the win over Norwich and the defeat to Burnley will be far more of a concern than any attempt to get #GlazersOut trending.
This time the owners might find that the dissent doesn’t settle as easily either.
Many of the same issues that were causing angst a decade ago remain, in fact most supporters who protested then would say these were the long-term consequences they feared back then, when the star names were still being signed and the trophies still being collected.
Those days are gone now. Success on the pitch looks a long way away now and it requires a significant rejuvenation of this squad, yet United’s failings in the transfer market – for which Woodward gets much of the blame – do not inspire confidence that the transformation can be quick.
The owners also lack a powerful figure in the mould of Ferguson in their corner.
His strong-willed comments on the owners he once described as ‘great’ played a part in quelling some of the unrest, even if his legacy is tarnished in some quarters by his close association to a regime many United regulars simply cannot stomach.
Typically of the Scot, Ferguson refused to yield once he nailed his colours to the Glazers’ mast. It was a brave United fan who continually contradicted Ferguson’s stance when he was the leader around Old Trafford, on and off the pitch.
Now that void is empty. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer retains the support of match-going fans but doesn’t have the cache of Ferguson to talk down the dissenters, while he probably also knows attempting to do so know would not be a wise move.
Solskjaer again called for unity after the Burnley defeat. It’s a wish he’s unlikely to get.
When United return to Old Trafford against Wolves on Saturday it would be no surprise to hear more protests fill the air.
Momentum is gathering again and this time it might take more stopping than it did a decade ago.