Glazer ownership of Manchester United explained: debt, blame, what next
Web StoryWatch this story in 15 seconds →Key takeaways
- ESPN's Mark Ogden splits the blame for the crisis. Glazers 50%, Ratcliffe 20%, players 15%, bosses 10%, Carrick 5%.
- The Glazers bought United for £790m in 2005 with £600m of borrowed money; more than £1bn has since left the club in repayments, interest and dividends.
- The club's debt still stands at £1bn, and fan protests against the ownership are flaring again.
Fans are pointing at the Glazers for Manchester United's crisis. Searches for Glazer ownership are rising in Britain. The family bought the club in 2005.
Mark Ogden of ESPN gives the owners half the blame for the current mess.
What happened
United lost 4-1 to Como in the Champions League this week. The club has no win in seven games in all competitions. That run has put manager Michael Carrick under heavy pressure.
He is the seventh full-time manager since Sir Alex Ferguson left in 2013.
The dressing room is boiling too. Captain Bruno Fernandes questioned Carrick's tactics after the Como game. "It was a decision from the staff to not press man-to-man and sometimes leave space behind and try to get the ball, wait for them, but sometimes when you give space to these teams they get confidence," Fernandes said.
BBC chief football writer Phil McNulty called it an open challenge to the manager.
Defender Lisandro Martinez took aim at director of football Jason Wilcox. This came after United's 2-0 Champions League defeat at Atletico Madrid. "I expect more [investment], 100%," Martinez said.
"You can't keep changing, changing, changing." Old Trafford is now tense. United host Bournemouth at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon in their next league game.
Meanwhile the search data tells its own story. British fans are typing "glazer ownership of manchester united" into Google. They are not asking about the manager.
They are asking about who owns the club.
Why it matters
The Glazers bought Manchester United in 2005 for £790m. They borrowed £600m to do it. The club itself was the security for that loan.
That kind of deal is called a leveraged buyout. The buyer uses the club's own money to pay for the club.
Since then, more than £1bn has flowed out of United, according to ESPN. That covers debt repayments, interest, refinancing costs and dividends to the owners. Dividends are payouts to shareholders.
Fans say that money could have gone into players and the stadium instead.
The debt is still there. September figures showed the club's overall debt remains at £1bn, the BBC reported. Old Trafford is described as decaying in the ESPN piece.
Gulf News analyst Robert Ilsley wrote this week that the blame sits above the manager. He pointed to failing infrastructure and ongoing fan protests.
Fans have protested the Glazers since the 2005 takeover. That anger never fully went away. The new bad results have lit it again.
The Ratcliffe part of the story
Jim Ratcliffe bought a minority stake and took charge of football operations. He is 74 and founded the chemicals giant INEOS. He was born less than ten miles from Old Trafford.
He is a lifelong fan.
His part-ownership has not calmed the protests. Ratcliffe cut more than 500 jobs at the club. "Without action, the club would go under," he said in March 2025.
He fired sporting director Dan Ashworth after less than six months in the job. Ticket price rises have angered supporters. Ogden gives Ratcliffe 20 percent of the blame.
Still, the club is pushing a big building plan. United spent £64m buying land for a new stadium. Chief executive Omar Berrada said the club stays on track for a 100,000-capacity stadium.
Money for bricks while the team struggles is another sore point for fans.
What happens next
The players share some blame. Ogden gives them 15 percent. The squad was built by six managers over 12 years.
United's summer signings included Carlos Baleba, Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos. The team's running numbers are among the worst in the Premier League.
The attack is misfiring badly. United scored 10 goals in seven league games, Jamie Jackson wrote in The Guardian. In the Champions League, they scored five in three games.
Four of those came against Sabah. In seven of 11 games this season, United scored one goal or none.
Jackson's five-point fix starts with the captaincy. On Friday, Carrick refused to deny he may strip Fernandes of the captaincy. He also refused to deny he may drop him.
Jackson suggests selling Fernandes in January for around £40m. Both Fernandes and Martinez are out of contract next summer. The club holds an extra-year option on each.
He also wants the kids to play. Young names mentioned include Shea Lacey, Harry Amass, and the Fletcher twins Jack and Tyler. They are 19 years old with 22 senior appearances between them.
The ownership question will not fade. A June 2026 report said some Glazer family members were studying a possible sale. They were looking at selling their stake.
Nothing has been confirmed since. Como's European form shows where power is shifting in Europe. United's fanbase is done blaming only managers.
The search trend is their message: fix the ownership, fix the club.
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