Manchester United fans have been protesting against the Glazers for a long time and their protests grew even stronger after the club lost their second consecutive game in the new season, a 4-0 loss to Brentford, which left them to the bottom of the table on Saturday. The fans of the team are planning a mass protest in the upcoming fixture against Liverpool on August 23 at Old Trafford, United’s home stadium.

#EmptyOldTrafford is trending in the wake of the team’s dismal performance, with the hashtag being retweeted more than 90,000 times, a number greater than the stadium’s capacity. 

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Supporters are outraged over the club’s decline in the years since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, as the team has only won three trophies since then — the FA Cup in 2016 under Louis van Gaal and the League Cup and Europa League the following year under Jose Mourinho.

Manchester United have held the position of being in the top three most valuable football teams ever since Forbes released its first list back in 2007. Most of this has to do with the ownership held by the Glazer family.

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The Glazer family owns the majority stake in Manchester United Football Club. It is divided equally among the six children of Malcolm Glazer, who died in 2014 due to a longstanding illness. His sons, Joel and Avram monitor the day-to-day operations at the club while Kevin, Edward, Bryan and Darcie Glazer hold the positions of director within the club. 

In the 17 years of owning the franchise, the Glazers have cost the club well over £1 billion in salaries, Old Trafford maintenance, and training facility upgrades. By the end of the 2021-22 season, net debt had risen 11% to £496 million.

Since taking over in 2005, The ownership of the Glazers and leadership under Sir Alex Ferguson have led the team to five Premier League wins to go with the Champions League triumph in 2008 among other league victories.

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But since his retirement in 2013, the Red Devils have enjoyed exponentially less success across all competitions, while their rivals such as Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea have been throbbing in the league as well as in Europe also.

United have appointed eight different managers since then, namely Louis Van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and former players Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Michael Carrick and Ryan Giggs. David Moyes, Ralf Rangnick have also managed the team at some point over the past eight seasons while Erik ten Hag is the team’s latest appointment prior to the 2022-23 season.

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Fans are protesting against the team’s ownership as they feel they don’t have a highly competitive squad despite having Cristiano Ronaldo at their disposal. Ronaldo has been performing up to his standards but on the contrary, the results have been disappointing. The team is also marred by the inability to sign quality players in the previous years. They were heavily linked to sign Erling Halaand this off-season, but the player ultimately moved to their rivals, Manchester City. 

Manchester United is one of the richest football clubs in the world and they have been a self-sufficient club for many years. However, when the Glazers bought Manchester United in 2005, they took a loan against the club and have put it in the club’s debts since. This resulted in the club’s loans rising exponentially.

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The American owners have also taken out dividends out of the club regularly. As of the 2022, the amount comes close to a billion pounds, however, according to several reports, they have not invested any money in the club. In layman’s terms, the Glazers have only taken money out of the club but have not put in.

Several former Manchester United managers, including Jose Mourinho and Ralf Rangnick, became outspoken in the media, criticising the Glazers indirectly for their approach towards the club. Soon after these comments, they were sacked from the club, something that the fans did not take well.

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The fans have often alleged that the club is run by people who are loyal to the Glazers and not the right people for the job. For an instance, Manchester United needed a football director for a long time and had the opportunity to sign Luis Campos (current PSG DOF), but they did not.

While they signed Rangnick, who is an experienced DOF, he was forced to become an interim manager with the club. The Glazers instead hired John Murtough, who became the football director and does not have much experience in the same.

They have also continuously signed marketable players on high fees, who have often not performed at the club, i.e. Alexis Sanchez. Mourinho was vocal about this and so have been the fans for a long time.