LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 21: Avram Glazer, Executive Co-Chairman of Manchester United, looks on from the stands during the Emirates FA Cup Semi Final match between Coventry City and Manchester United at Wembley Stadium on April 21, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
Stan Collymore could hardly believe what he had heard when Tim Howard rose to the defence of the widely unpopular Glazers.
Manchester United supporters have been protesting against the club’s majority owners for almost 15 years, but to no avail. The Red Army blames the American businessmen for the club’s shambolic freefall. The organised supporters will also be making another stand this Sunday when they host Arsenal at Old Trafford.
Therefore, Tim Howard’s recent statements left many fans both confused and irritated. The former United goalkeeper argued in the Glazers’ favour, noting that the owners backed the club by providing the necessary funds to build a strong team, so it wasn’t their fault that large sums of cash went down the drain.
Nevertheless, Collymore is having none of it. The former Aston Villa and Liverpool striker refuted Howard’s ‘shocking’ arguments, while struggling to understand the reasons behind his unexpected stance.
The English pundit insists that United’s hierarchy is the ultimate responsible party for all decisions taken at the club.
“I think Tim Howard’s comments on the Glazers are shocking, and completely tone-deaf,” wrote Collymore in his latest column for CaughtOffside.
“I don’t know whether he has any relationship with them – I suspect not – or maybe it’s to do with him being an American speaking on American owners on an American show. Maybe he is trying to play Devil’s Advocate, but over here, it is playing awfully.
“The Glazers have leveraged debt on Man Utd year-on-year, to the point that they were seeking investment from billionaires. Sir Jim Ratcliffe has done that, and there are also interest from Sheikh Jassim too. Howard’s argument that the Glazers spent money, and that it wasn’t their fault that Jadon Sancho was poor, that Cristiano Ronaldo’s second spell was a circus, does not stand up.”
Stan Collymore berates Tim Howard for defending the Glazers
Collymore offers a half-hearted defence for the club’s minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe who has implemented a host of cost-cutting procedures to counter Man Utd’s miserable financial situation.
“As owners of the club, they employ everyone involved, and they are responsible for those decisions. Personally, I am not a fan of the way that Sir Jim Ratcliffe has gone about things with the staff cuts et cetera, but in terms of the Glazers, they spent recklessly, they recruited recklessly, they didn’t hold people in important positions to account.
“And I think Howard’s comments as a former Man Utd and Everton player, who has seen the Glazers’ role in the demise of Man Utd, for me it came across as bewildering. Let me be clear, the decline of Manchester United post-Sir Alex Ferguson came from the stewardship of the Glazer family.”
