Peter Doherty (AGAIG) wrote:The rags became a PLC before they got into bed with Sky? I thought it had been the other way round. This makes the Sky take-over even more sinister. I wonder if any guarantees were made to the rags before it happened? Mmm.
They suddenly went berserk signing players round about that period if you remember ?
Ron Atkinson replaced Dave Sexton as manager in 1981. He in turn was dismissed in 1986 and replaced by Alex Ferguson, a successful Scottish manager. Initially, his hands were tied in acquiring expensive players, although in the summer of 1989 Ferguson got approval to spend £8 million on transfer fees. (Martin Edwards had found a buyer for the club in August, Michael Knighton, who was, however, unable to raise the £10 million to complete the purchase.) Despite the spending, the club fared poorly in 1989-90, and Ferguson's job seemed in jeopardy until the next year, when his expensive team started winning.
n the 1990s, Alex Ferguson's teams managed to recapture some of the glory of the Busby days. Manchester United won the championship of the new Premier League in 1993. (This league was formed by top clubs to give them a larger share of TV revenues.) At the same time, football popularity was at an all-time high worldwide.
When Martin Edwards could not sell the club, he recruited executives who made it the most profitable team in the U.K. It began trading on the London Stock Exchange in 1991. In 1992-93, Manchester United Football Club plc had an operating profit of £7.3 million on a turnover of £25.2 million, thanks largely to merchandising and brand extensions such as Champs Cola, which were worth £5.3 million, up from just £828,000 five years earlier. Besides soda, the club was soon branding lager, wine, even champagne. Selling the brand seemed to observers a more stable source of income than relying on winning games week after week. The club opened a Megastore at Old Trafford in 1994 and spent heavily (£13 million) to upgrade Old Trafford. In July 1993 the club paid a record £3.75 million transfer fee for midfielder Roy Keane.
AND just at the same time as Utd were spending all that money: The competition formed as the FA Premier League on 20 February 1992 following the decision of clubs in the Football League First Division to break away from the Football League, which was originally founded in 1888, and take advantage of a lucrative television rights deal.
AND: The UEFA Champions League, known simply as the Champions League, is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Introduced in 1992, it replaced the European Champion Clubs' Cup, or simply European Cup, which had run since 1955.
Why it's almost as if Utd had been involved in negotiations for both & KNEW that if they spent shitloads on players & got themselves into the top places, the money would then roll in & they & their chums would be able to keep pushing up transfer fees & wages leave the rest behind.
Strangely enough, they are doing exactly the same thing now with the help of FFP. What an amazing coincidence.