from Martin Samuels of The Daily Mail:
The Red Knights? Manchester United would be better off being run by the Barron Knights. At least there were only five of them.
There were 40 Red Knights at the last count, or maybe it was 60. The list seems to be growing all the time, because fantasies do. They start small - a seat on the board to represent the supporters, perhaps, and end big - 'Hey, let's buy the whole damn club!'
The idea is to assemble a collection of investors willing to put in between £10million and £15m each to oust the Glazers from Manchester United. We are still at the stage in the relationship where the perfect happy ending is possible, but this is a marriage of inconvenience.
The more Knights, the more potential for conflict if the dream is realised: people with different goals, different expectations, different concepts of how the club should operate, different personal circumstances, different hopes of a return.
Laughable: United's Red Knights are as much a parody of reality as 1960s comedy group the Barron Knights.
I once asked a friend in a Premier League boardroom if a football club was the hardest business to run. 'No,' he replied, 'a football club owned by a consortium is.'
The counter-argument is that Manchester United had 35,000 owners when the club was a plc and still enjoyed many successful years. This is not entirely true. The success was there - but then United have been successful under the Glazers, too - although the harmony was a myth.
As a plc, United had about 34,995 investors who were under the impression they were running a football club and five who really mattered, and by the end it was a bloodbath.
Cubic Expression, an investment company owned by John Magnier and JP McManus, controlled 28.9 per cent and ended up at war with the manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, and the board.
Remember those 99 questions? The club fell into the hands of the Glazer family as a result of the conflict. Now times that by 30 and enter the world of the Red Knights. The idea that 60 investors, who are out of pocket by more than 10m GBP each, will sit idly by while Keith Harris and pals call the shots is preposterously optimistic.
Harris, an investment banker with Seymour Pierce, has been looking to get his hands on United for years. One problem: he hasn't got the money. None of the Red Knights has.
Jim O'Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, was actually on the United board. He advised against the Glazer sale but was powerless to stop it. Sir Roy Gardner, a former chairman of United, is also believed to be involved. The same goes for him.
If these people need 60 allies even to get close and, if everybody is equally committed financially, who gets to play the big boss?
Sorry to be a killjoy. The green and gold protest is admirable and if there is a rock solid Manchester United fanatic out there with £1.2billion to spare, he should get to work immediately. If there is a guy who can walk in, write a cheque, tell the Glazers to clear their desks and begin running a debt-free club that afternoon, oh happy day.
The Red Knights - and how presumptuous is that name, considering the status of the manager - are nothing like that. There is no guarantee that within months, this unwieldy collective will not have descended into a squabbling circus, as egos and personal pressures come to the fore.
What about their Red Ladies, for instance? The 60 wives - or partners - of the Knights, who might have an opinion about £15m going up the wall on a football club when the west wing of the estate needs doing.
What happens if a Lady asks her Knight what sort of return he is going to get on such a substantial investment, only to be told he cannot say for certain and, anyway, he is not part of the decision making process. Might there not be a little tension in Camelot?
This is a genuine sentence from a well-sourced report on the Red Knights proposal. One imagines this information comes straight from the top.
'If they (the Red Knights) succeed, they will also need to create a means of catering for the different requirements of investors, some of whom will want a return, while others are happy to hand over their money in exchange for seeing their name carved on a Knights honours board at Old Trafford.'
You've got to love the optimism in that 'some'. Some of the Knights will want a return. Only some, mind you. The others? They're just the sort of guys who sling £15m at a project and don't care if they see tuppence of it again.
Even if they knew somebody else was making a fantastic living off their investment, and being paid a huge salary, someone like - ooh, name at random, Keith Harris - they wouldn't ask for a penny back. They would just tip their hat, say 'Glad to be of assistance, sir' and trip happily on their way.
Oh yes, the world is full of people like that. The world according to Sesame Street.
Still, what about that honours board? That's got to be a winner, don't you think?
'Honey, I'm home.'
'Hello, darling. Have a good day at work?'
'Wonderful. I gave £15m of our money to Manchester United.'
'Isn't that rather a lot?'
'Well yes. We may have to give up the villa in Porto Cervo and I'm thinking those three weeks in Barbuda at Christmas might take a hit, but it will be worth it. You'll never guess what I get in return: they're going to...'
'Let you play centre forward?'
'No, they're going to...'
'Sack Alex Ferguson and give you the job?'
'No, I'm going to have my name...'
'Tattooed on Bobby Charlton's forehead?'
'No, they're going to carve my name ... on a board.'
Get real. You put your name on a board if you want next go on the pool table, not if you are about to hand over £15m. These people are businessmen. They might talk an idealistic game now, but pretty soon that primal Wall Street instinct is going to kick in and they will be playing hard-ball on returns and dividends. That is if they can get the plan past the wife.
My husband, the director of Manchester United, has a certain ring to it. My husband, the name on a frigging board, not so much. By the time all 60 start claiming proprietary rights you won't be able to get a ticket on match days. They'll have to make the Stretford End the Directors' Guests Suite.
Already, there is trouble in paradise. Sources within the self-aggrandising Red Knights have contrived to alienate a very real Red Knight, Ferguson, by claiming he supports the bid and is willing to invest money in it. Ferguson's angry denial now puts them at odds with the most important man at the club.
Also, the very rich do not haggle if they want a deal done, yet the Red Knights are already adjusting valuations of United, claiming it is worth no more than £800m, a bit of a drop from the £1.2bn, even £1.5bn, that was being quoted at the start of last week. Nobody has had to commit one penny and already the hand seems overplayed.
Now the fantasy is in danger of becoming reality, Manchester United's value would appear to be dropping £100m a day. Give it a week and, at this rate, maybe the Barron Knights really will get to have a go. [end story]
I've been saying this exact thing for a month now. Having that many people run a club will only turn out poorly, especially when they don't agree. Just look at the two incongruous nitwits at Liverpool. They can't seem to agree on a single thing...and there's only two of them, not 60.
If the green and gold United "supporters/fans" think they will have one iota of say in the running of the club, well...they've just proved what monumental gits they are. They are nothing more than pawns in this fiasco. The Red Knights told them to stop buying United tickets, memorabilita, etc. and to turn their backs on the club. I would ask...what kind of fan turns his/her back on the club? Seeing the green and gold in the stands is disgusting enough, especially when the people on the pitch, whom they're supposedly supporting, are wearing red and black. All of this is taking place while United is fighting for the Prem League and Champions League titles. Not going to renew their tickets...great! We don't need namby pamby fairweather freaks like you anyway. Go across town and cheer for the losing side of Manchester!
The Glazers have already said that they're not selling. Finito!
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