‘We burned through cash!’: Man Utd CEO tells fans last season was ‘a nightmare’
Manchester United chief Richard Arnold has admitted to fans that the club ‘f***ing burned through cash’ and that last season was a ‘nightmare’.
The United CEO met with supporters at the Boot Inn pub in Cheshire to discuss the club’s situation after finding out they were going to launch an anti-Glazer protest at his house on the weekend.
In his discussions with the fans, Arnold gave a brutally honest verdict on United’s financial situation, Erik ten Hag’s transfer wish-list and the Glazer ownership during the meeting.
In the video, Arnold says: ‘What’s happened is we f****** burned through cash… you can’t go to our training ground and say ‘by the way, show me where that billion pound is here’ because I don’t think we’ve done well with the money we’ve spent historically.
‘We’ve blown through an enormous amount of money. For this summer, the money that the manager and the Director of Football wants, is there. For the future, for investing in new stadium and that sort of stuff, to do a latest and greatest 250m training ground, we’ve got to do something. We’ve got to get investors in.
‘Again, I need that to do what I want for the club. I’ve got to have more cash than we have now. No club in the world has the money to do a new stadium without getting it from someone. You either borrow it or someone invests it.
‘The money’s got to come from somewhere, and you may not like our current owners, I can’t help that. But if you want someone else to come in they have to look and say ‘okay their fans love the club and the love the team, its positive’.
‘I look at last year as a f****** nightmare. it was a nightmare. I was hating every game, it was a couple of things. One of the protests…’ before the video eventually cuts out.
According to fans who attended the meeting, Arnold spoke in detail about the club’s plans to deliver success on the pitch, plans to improve the stadium and the size of the budget that Erik ten Hag will have to work with this summer – but only a short part was caught on camera.
The 51-year-old replaced Ed Woodward at the start of February after the former United chief was subject to a number of protests surrounding the club’s performances on the pitch and their desire to start a European Super League.
Despite Woodward’s departure, fans have remained frustrated with the club’s performances as they fell to a sixth placed finish in the league last year – their worst ever Premier League finish.
United supporters have performed a number of protests over the past year – with a group called ‘the 1958’ being particularly vocal over their disdain for the Glazer family.
Ahead of their home match against Norwich in April, the group displayed banners on the outskirts of Old Trafford while members marched around with signs and flares.
In April last year, a home fixture against Liverpool was postponed after a large number of fans made their way through the stadium and onto the pitch.
The United supporters went even further just a month later, flying a banner ‘£2bn stolen #GLAZERSOUT’ during their game against Leeds.
