Several thousand Manchester United fans staged a protest against the Glazers and Sir Jim Ratcliffe before the 1-1 Premier League draw with Arsenal at Old Trafford. Those taking part expressed anger at the direction the American family and the Ineos co-owner are taking the club.
The club has lost £300m in the past three years and faces a severely constrained summer transfer budget. The team, under manager Ruben Amorim, climbed one place to 14th with the point, but remain 21 points behind Arsenal, who were once close rivals.
The protest began at the Tollgate pub at about 3.15pm, with supporters asked by the 1958 fan group to wear black to mark the club “slowly dying”. They marched the mile to Old Trafford along Talbot Road, Warwick Road and Sir Matt Busby Way, arriving 20 minutes later. The route was blocked off to traffic by a sizeable police presence.
Some protesters held placards reading “death by 1,00 cuts” in reference to Ratcliffe’s cost-cutting measures, which include up to 450 redundancies and the closure of the club canteen. Chants included calls for the Glazers to sell and “Your debt not ours”. Red, yellow and green flares were set off, the latter colours being those of Newton Heath.
Steve Crompton of the 1958 fan group said: “This club is on its knees, the Glazers have put us there and Ratcliffe isn’t helping. These fans are angry, they hate what’s happening to our football club.” Ratcliffe watched the match from the directors’ box, sitting behind Edward Glazer.
