TLC, not plc:
Fergie knows only private owners could nod through Rooney's new
£200k-a-week contract
It took one telephone call to one guy
and the deed was done. Nobody defends the debt the Glazer family
have attached to Manchester United, but the speed of the Wayne
Rooney deal showed once again what can be achieved when a club are
in private ownership.
Rooney's contract saga could
not have concluded as swiftly as it did in some golden age when
Manchester United were run as a plc. And, whisper it, but a
disparate consortium of wealthy fans like the Red Nits couldn't
have got their act together in that time, either. The saving grace
of the Glazer administration is that it allows for no-fuss
decision-making in times of crisis. The steer comes from Sir Alex
Ferguson, the manager, is relayed by David Gill, the chief
executive, and a voice in Tampa, Florida, says yea or nay.
There is no board to be
convened, no shareholders to be taken into consideration, no
collective of 10 or 60 global investors who must be counselled in a
process that could take weeks. It is now believed Rooney talked to
a member of the Glazer family personally to receive his guarantees
of ambition, and that could not have happened under a plc,
either.
When United were publicly
owned, the board were responsible to shareholders and the chairman
could not even speak for his fellow directors without a meeting
being held. And what if investors controlling a quarter of the club
did not think £200,000-a-week, with bonuses, such a good idea?
There could have been arguments behind the scenes, disruptions,
delays that took an age to resolve, and all the time with
Manchester City waiting and the January transfer window
looming.
As the Red Knights could not
get the money together to buy the club in the first place, it seems
fair to presume annual contracts measured in the tens of millions
might not be waved through like a handful of luncheon vouchers from
petty cash, either.
And if what Rooney required
was a guarantee of investment and love from the man at the top, the
whims of individuals within a consortium would only dilute the
message. There will always be one man who wants to sell, one who
wants to buy; one who wants to forgive and forget, one who bears a
grudge. Remember how Liverpool ended up under Tom Hicks and George Gillett,
and there were only two of them.
Ferguson is no fool. There must be a reason why he
defends the current owners, despite the undoubted damage to the
financial health of the club. Could it be because he has known the
other side, too, and it was certainly not the vision of utopia
conjured up by today's revisionists?
Say Manchester United had
still been a plc when Paul Stretford, Rooney's agent, notified the
club that his client would not be signing a new contract. When any
circumstances occur that may have impact on the longterm economic
future of the company, the Stock Exchange must be
informed.
Rooney is an employee, yes,
but a significant one. The breakdown of his contract talks would
have been treated the same way as the serious injury to Roy Keane,
sustained in the infamous tackle with Alf Inge Haaland of Leeds
United. That match took place on September 27, 1997 and on September 30, the club suspected Keane
would not play again that season. There was an important fixture
against Juventus in the Champions League on October 1, and the club
were in a position to inform the Stock Exchange about the extent of
Keane's injury on October 2.
This was the proper plc
response to a player with a temporary fitness problem, so imagine
how correct the club would have needed to be in dealing with
Rooney's rejection. Ferguson says he was informed of it on August 14,
which was a Saturday, so the announcement would have had to wait
until Monday, August 16, the date of Manchester United's first
match of the season, against Newcastle United. That would have been
a happy occasion.
The fall-out from that
statement would almost certainly have sparked a downturn in the
price of Manchester United shares, causing ripples of panic among
major investors, the very people who would later in the week be
asked to approve a contract worth £200,000 a week.
This is why
Ferguson is in the Glazers' camp. Like any sane person
he must be concerned at the level of debt, but he will also recall
the alternative, and wrinkle his nose at the memory just the
same.