Manchester United cannot seem to stay out of the headlines for the wrong reasons. In the past two years alone, the club has fired two managers, sold off beloved players to balance the books, watched its on-pitch results collapse, and faced a fanbase that has gone from frustrated to genuinely furious. But here is the thing: from a public relations standpoint, none of this is an accident.
This blog — The United Narrative — exists to examine something that sports coverage rarely focuses on: not what Manchester United does, but how it communicates about what it does. Because the gap between those two things is where the real story lives.
United is the most valuable football club brand in England and one of the top five globally. It has over a billion social media followers across platforms. Its commercial partnerships span everything from team kit sponsors to a deal with a cryptocurrency exchange that lasted about as long as the last manager. The club knows how to sell. What it has consistently failed to do is communicate honestly with the people who care most — its own supporters.
The Glazer family’s ownership, which began in 2005, was funded by debt loaded onto the club itself. For nearly two decades, fans have watched ticket prices rise, transfer fees squandered, and the club’s infrastructure crumble — all while dividends flowed to ownership. The PR response to fan protests? Largely silence, occasional carefully worded statements, and the periodic deployment of club legends to calm the waters.
In 2021, United was one of the founding clubs of the ill-fated European Super League — a proposal so badly communicated that it collapsed within 48 hours under the weight of fan fury across the continent. United’s players distanced themselves from it publicly. The manager at the time said he found out through the news. That is not a communications strategy. That is a communications catastrophe.
In late 2023, Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS group purchased a 27.7% stake in the club and took operational control. A new era began — or so the messaging went. Since then, there have been sweeping structural changes, high-profile departures, a manager sacking, and a cost-cutting exercise that has generated as many negative headlines as the Glazer era it was meant to replace.
This blog will track all of it. Each week I will examine a specific moment, decision, or strategy through the lens of public relations: What message was the club sending? Who was the audience? Did it work? What would a competent communications team have done differently?
Manchester United is, somewhat accidentally, one of the greatest ongoing PR case studies in sport. We might as well learn from it.
What do you think has been United’s single biggest communications failure in the past five years? Drop your thoughts in the comments.
