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WHAT YOU CAN DO

Last updated : 06 October 2004 By Editor
Obviously we’d all like to know if Murdoch is in league with Glazer, so who better to tell us than Brunswick, Glazer’s London-based PR firm.

Clearly it would be highly irresponsible of United fans to repeatedly bombard the company with hundreds of emails, calls and faxes as this would prevent them going about their daily business but one or two of you making enquiries surely can’t do any harm.
 
brunswick
16 lincoln's inn fields
london
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Meanwhile here’s an example of what Brunswick have been up to, from today’s Independent, making Glazer’s bid appear far more advanced than it actually is. A nice plant folks:

By Damian Reece City Editor

Malcolm Glazer, the US sports tycoon trying to buy Manchester United, has begun talks with the club's biggest shareholder and plans to tell investors that the club's performance on the pitch will be significantly enhanced by being a private company, free of the distractions of public company status.

The Glazer camp has opened talks with Cubic Expression, the investment vehicle of JP McManus and John Magnier, the Irish racing tycoons. Cubic Expression owns 28.9 per cent of the Old Trafford club.

It is thought that Mr Glazer and his family, advised by JP Morgan, intend to tell Cubic Expression and Manchester United's fans that the club will be more stable financially as a private company and will still receive the necessary investment funds to compete in the transfer market.

City sources say Mr Glazer believes that Manchester United can be an even more powerful force in football if free of the need for half-yearly reporting and the financing constraints that public companies must observe, and that the club can benefit in a similar way to Chelsea, owned by the free-spending Roman Abramovich.

Mr Glazer also believes there is potentially substantial future value from the club selling its own media rights. The Glazers' bid will be funded by the family's equity and debt provided by a banking syndicate led by JP Morgan.


Elsewhere, the Guardian reports:

Malcolm Glazer, believed to be behind a preliminary approach to take control of Manchester United, is currently presiding over one of the worst teams in American football.

Less than two years after winning the Super Bowl, Glazer's Tampa Bay Buccaneers have lost their first four games of the present NFL season and their hopes of returning to the play-offs have been dashed.

Worse still, their last two defeats have been inflicted on them by teams with former Bucs players who left because Glazer refused to pay them what they felt they were worth.

When John Lynch, a key member of the Super Bowl-winning side, was introduced as a Denver Bronco at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday afternoon, the Tampa fans cheered wildly. Last March he had been released by the Buccaneers after 11 years in order to make room in their salary limit.

Although he wanted to finish his career in Tampa where the fans regarded him as the cornerstone of the franchise, the management felt that, at 33, he no longer deserved to be paid $5m per season. Lynch has starred for the Broncos so far in this campaign, and supporters now regard his departure as a serious error of judgment by the club.

A week earlier, the Buccaneers suffered at the hands of another high-profile casualty of cost-cutting. The controversial defensive tackle Warren Sapp marked his first game against his old team by saving a touchdown with a crucial tackle and contributing prominently to the Oakland Raiders' 30-6 victory. His departure from Tampa as a free agent last March was less lamented than Lynch's but the reason was the same: to cut back on salary.

As the team lurches from one disaster to the next, it does so without the highly rated wide receiver Keenan McCardell. He has refused to train or play so far this season as he waits for the Buccaneers to almost double his salary to $4m per year, the going rate for a receiver of his calibre.

Penny-pinching at the cost of on-field success - hardly the sort of reputation the Glazers want to bring with them to Manchester.