Red Knight Jim O'Neill on Glazers & value of Man Utd
The Athletic FC Podcast
The Athletic
4.0 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 12 May 2022
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mark Chapman & The Athletic's Matt Slater speak to Lord Jim O’Neill, about his role leading the Red Knights campaign in 2010 - an attempt to prise Manchester United from the Glazer family's control a decade ago.
Jim also shares details of his time as non-executive director of Manchester United before it returned to private ownership in 2005. Plus we hear his thoughts on the sale of Chelsea and what that could mean in terms of the value of other clubs including Manchester United.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic |
| 0:02.7 | Hello, I'm Mark Chapman, welcome to the Business of Sport podcast on The Athletic, Matt Slater, with us as usual. |
| 0:19.7 | And our guest today is Lord Jim O'Neill, who since |
| 0:22.1 | leaving government in 2016, having been commercial secretary to the Treasury, moved to the |
| 0:28.5 | crossbenchers of the House of Lords. He worked for Goldman Sachs from 1995 until April |
| 0:34.1 | 2013, spending most of his time there as chief economist. |
| 0:38.4 | Jim also served as a non-executive director of Manchester United |
| 0:41.9 | before it returned to private ownership in 2005. |
| 0:46.8 | A United fan, Lord O'Neill, was one of the architects of the Red Knight's campaign in 2010, |
| 0:52.9 | which was an attempt to prize Manchester United away from |
| 0:57.5 | the Glazer family's control. So first of all, Jim, what were the Red Knights? Apparently, |
| 1:04.2 | the Red Knights were a group of philanthropic-minded business people who wanted to take over Manchester United |
| 1:15.9 | from a profit with purpose perspective or a philanthropic perspective. |
| 1:21.6 | And we failed miserably. |
| 1:25.0 | Why? |
| 1:26.2 | Oh, goodness me. |
| 1:27.2 | I could spend a whole year talking about. Why? Oh, goodness me. |
| 1:31.9 | I could spend a whole year talking about it. |
| 1:34.7 | And as I sometimes joke to many, |
| 1:36.4 | one day when all else fails, |
| 1:39.7 | I'll write a book on a year in the day of a red night. |
| 1:42.0 | I'd say there are three core reasons. |
... |
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