Manchester United is a polarizing brand, just like any other big, rich, powerful and successful sports franchise. For those who hate United, a big reason is the club’s financial power, and their practice of exploiting in the transfer market.
A lot of people have no interest in rooting for a sporting enterprise that is always splashing the cash, buying up other team’s best players, because they feel MUFC are playing with an unfair advantage. Obviously, most clubs do not have the financial resources that United do, and now, in these unprecedented times, the fiscal disparity is made even greater.
The coronavirus pandemic is adversely affecting everyone and anyone, in different ways, but it’s a lot harder on the smaller clubs. Shutting down football hurts everyone, but it hurts the teams with less money a lot more.
With that in mind, United and clubs of similar wealth are in a more advantageous position; especially so when the summer transfer window opens. United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer knows this and admitted as much.
“Football is going to get back to normality at one point, and it’s very important we’re ready when that happens,” the Norwegian said in an interview with Sky Sports.
“Then, the market, who knows how the market is going to react to this? Who knows which clubs need to sell players?
“There might be just a situation there where you can exploit, and I know that we at Man United we are one of the biggest, and the biggest, financially well-off.”
When you take his comments at face value, there is nothing inherently offensive about it. He’s just saying what his bosses are all thinking, and United are poised to do what any club in their position would do. That’s sports and that’s big business- everyone uses whatever advantages they have as much as they can.
While the comments made by Solskjaer could inspire a backlash, it’s probably going to come from the people who already hated United before this.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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