A morality play at the Theatre of Dreams: Manchester United fans can’t agree over their new owners

The club’s worldwide fanbase looks set to pull it away from its roots. Is that such a bad thing?

Dear members — happy Friday, we hope you have lots planned for what’s meant to be a beautiful weekend. Summer seems to have officially arrived, but we can’t shake the feeling that, in Manchester, making full use of public space is low on the agenda. You’ll remember our campaign surrounding the wooden platform that covered (and continues to cover) Piccadilly Gardens. Well now we’re looking closer to home — our office in the Royal Exchange — and asking why St Ann’s Square is so quiet. We think we might have the answer, nay, we might be the answer. More on that below.

Today’s story looks at the much-covered sale of Manchester United. But instead of wondering how many zeroes can be added to the price of the club, our reporter Jack Walton has been speaking with the fans — and the influencers, vloggers and experts they follow — about what the sale of Manchester’s biggest piece of cultural capital, and who it is sold to, means to them. And, what the debate around the sale says about a city that has long struggled to stay true to its roots while trying to establish itself as a global player.

Our latest podcast just came out and it’s a great one. Joshi, Mollie and Darryl discuss our recent investigation into the secretive animal testing flights landing at Manchester Airport, the demolition of a much-loved pub and an awkward moment for Manchester United Women star Alessia Russo. Listen here.

And some exciting news: it’s our third birthday this month! We’re celebrating with a members event on Tuesday 13th June at Mirage Bar in Islington Mill, and we hope to see many of you there. It’s £7.50 to attend, and you’ll get to be part of an open discussion about a big story we’re working on and meet legendary actor and longtime Mill member Julie Hesmondhalgh, who has kindly agreed to host the night. Plus, she’ll be interviewing founder and editor Joshi Herrmann about why he started The Mill, and there’ll be plenty of time to mingle and have drinks. You can book your tickets by clicking this link, and please do mention the event to your friends, family and fellow Corrie enthusiasts.

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Are we making the most of St Ann’s Square?

We set off a Reddit discussion about St Ann’s Square yesterday. Right on the doorstep of Mill HQ, it feels like the square doesn’t get as much use as it could. And there’s a conspicuous lack of independents, especially disappointing seeing the number of empty units that face right on to the square. There is untapped Parisian café potential here. It’s a travesty. 

Many agreed, and it was the most-discussed Reddit item of the day. “You’re absolutely right,” replied one Redditor. “I was killing time around there at the weekend, and you’d think there’d be somewhere there to sit and have something, and there just isn’t.” Others referenced Pot Kettle Black in Barton Arcade as a solution, which is great but it’s too far from the square to solve the problem at hand. Some went on a 15 minute city tangent that became too tedious to explore here. 

Rent loomed large (when doesn’t it?). One prospective deli owner said: “Had a look at St Ann’s Square as it would've been ideal. The unit rent being asked was extortionate; on top of fit out, business rates and all that fun stuff it just wasn't viable.” And as with most things in Manchester since forever, the weather was unavoidable. “We have a drinking, not a cafe culture and mostly grey skies,” replied Nigel Sarbutts on Twitter. “The two things are probably linked.”

The responses that most piqued our interest were the ones suggesting we fix the problem ourselves. “The Mill coffee shop has a lovely ring to it I’d say!” In fairness, this isn’t the first time we’ve got on our soapbox to bemoan Manchester’s lack of characterful cafés, so maybe it is about time we just did it ourselves. What do you reckon? It would be very Viennese, and all of Europe’s newspapers would be available on wooden handles. Meet us in the comments if you’d be up for it.

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Your Mill briefing

Andy Burnham is asking Metrolink workers to suspend a strike planned for next weekend. It’s set to be one of the biggest weekends for events this year: Parklife Festival at Heaton Park, Soccer Aid at Old Trafford, The Weeknd at The Etihad and Roger Waters at the AO Arena. Talks between Unite and Metrolink operator KeolisAmey have stalled over a 5% pay rise that the union calls a “very significant real terms pay cut.” Burnham says the 5% pay rise is “not bad” and that Metrolink drivers have received above inflation pay rises in recent years, but lower passenger numbers since the pandemic and government funding issues has hit the service’s budget — more on all that here. A Unite spokesperson said: "Metrolink has failed to make an improved offer and therefore the strikes are set to go ahead as planned."

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Officers responding to reports of a disturbance at a house in Old Trafford found a 21-year-old man dead. GMP’s Jane Higham said the force was in the “very early stages of a murder investigation” and are still trying to “piece together what happened.” Higham said the incident will likely cause concern across the city region, and that there would be an increased police presence in the area surrounding the murder scene in the coming days.

Rochdale’s Lib Dem leader has said that the local council is “facing a record number of complaints about councillor conducts”, but those being complained about are facing no consequences. Andy Kelly highlighted the hypocrisy of “code of conduct” training being made mandatory by the Labour group that controls the council. “It’s a long-standing bugbear of mine that councillors across the board — elected members — don’t observe the code of conduct.” Last week, we reported on a complaint made against Rochdale’s current deputy mayor, with some suggesting the subsequent investigation into the complaint was delayed for electoral reasons.

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A morality play at the Theatre of Dreams: Manchester United fans can’t agree over their new owners

By Jack Walton

I had to wait for the full-time whistle for the first chimes of a very familiar chant. On the final day of the season, with Manchester United having wrapped up their Champions League qualification a few days prior, the 90 minutes against Fulham felt strangely serene. The bloke one seat below me and a few to the right spent most of the second half flicking between BBC Sport and a hotdog the length of a toddler’s arm. He seemed to be enjoying his oversized snack: perhaps the one positive effect Americanisation has brought to this now-shabby Quayside cathedral. As soon as the whistle had blown, that chant began to ring out again: “We want Glazers out, We want Glazers out”. And on and on.

To most of the 76,000 fans packed inside Old Trafford every other week, the Glazer family have achieved a status of near-cartoon villainy. Since they bought the club in 2005 via a leveraged buyout, loading it with debt while failing to invest, then proceeding to reign over a spectacular fall from grace, they’ve endured more than their share of angry chanting. Outside the ground and before the match, a fan called Faisal Qaderi tells me that the Glazer brothers, Joel and Avram, are a pair of “horrible rats” who have “ruined the club”. At last, their numerous critics look to be getting their wish: the Glazers are selling up. 

Rivals fans will say they’re being spoilt: United have blown big cash on acquiring an international cast of duffers with almost ruthless efficiency over the past decade, during which time their neighbours, Manchester City, have applied a similar ruthless efficiency to compiling the best team in the world with the best manager, facilities — and probably toilets. They’ve also rebuilt vast swathes of East Manchester, for good measure. But the question hanging over City’s success — at what cost? — now also lingers over United as they prepare to choose a new owner. There are two candidates in the running; INEOS billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, and Qatari royal Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamid Al Thani. And beneath the issue of where allegiances lie lurks a deeper question: who should a football club, or indeed a city, belong to?

Sir Jim Ratcliffe at Old Trafford. Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty.

In a statement after his first bid went in, Ratcliffe pledged to “put the Manchester back into Manchester United”. Born in a Failsworth council house, the son of a joiner and an accounts office worker, Ratcliffe now runs a petrochemicals empire with a turnover of £65 billion in 2021. But his pledge to put Manchester back in is a clear play on what he claims he can do that Qatar can’t, and it isn’t to everyone’s taste. Taking the Manchester out of United would be more attractive to some. The local and the global don’t always sit in harmony.