utd were a plc first and did the best at it, they sold up for a fortune and have the biggest revenues and biggest profits... ferguson is buying younger players as his strategy for quite some time given how chelsea forced them out of bidding for bigger stars. I firmly believe FSG want to go do the exact same thing. I can't believe you can't see that they are trading their way out of glazier debts, making the glaziers a fortune and still buying good players
Equally, I can't believe that you are taken-in by the chin-music regarding United's strategy. Ferguson's concentration upon younger players is not the norm throughout his stewardship - nor the fees that United are prepared to pay. In reality their approach to purchase and style of play has been pragmatic for at least the last 3 seasons. Nobody can deny that United's corporate management have maximised their commercial opportunities. However, you then have to look more closely as to where that profitability is being directed. Sure, they have made a start of paying down their enormous debts but they are prejudicing their own future in so doing. Even if they manage to pay them off (and the time scale for that is very long term) they are still not free of the Glazers. Now, I fully expect a blast from the Mancs, but the side that they have and their present strategy looks a lot to me like an organisation that is hunkering-down rather than pursuing an aggressive development strategy. This is certainly NOT the pattern that FSG are pursuing.
I can see that both you and Dave are right on this subject MITO. You're right that United have a model based on buying players young and selling at around their peak. Ditto Arsenal. Ronaldo, Fabregas anyone? But FDD is also right that this model is being forced on them - if you look at the years before Chelsea and then Citeh were spending money like water, United were the big money team - Veron, Sheringham, Stam, Van Noodlesoup etc. We are in the same position as United and Arsenal, but we're handicapped - our stadium doesn't generate the gate receipts theirs does. So we're automatically playing catchup on wages and transfer fees we can afford over the longer term. We need to level the playing field by increasing our capacity, and capitalise on SirExLax's retirement to take the best young talent. When (or if) Citeh and Chelski are FFP banned from Europe, we need to be positioned to take advantage.
