On a weekend where the sport had boycotted social media, a real-life public demonstration on such a grand scale seemed very appropriate.
Sure, whether you went on Twitter or Instagram on Sunday afternoon, you would have seen hundreds of messages, several of which were recordings of the dramatic demonstrations outside Old Trafford that caused the postponement of Manchester United vs. Liverpool.
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However, idly posting with the hashtag #GlazersOut hasn't performed with United supporters over the last decade. It has embodied apathy, procrastination, and a stationary trend that was not giving the power-wielding executives within Old Trafford or on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean much worry.
On Sunday afternoon, though, the only ones standing still in Manchester were the squad buses outside the Lowry Hotel, which were unable to transport their passengers to a football match.
A wall of United supporters stood strong outside the hotel, determined that the greatest game in English football not be played.
As the (scheduled) 4.30 pm kick-off time approached, excitement grew down the road outside Old Trafford. The anti-Glazer slogans became stronger, the green and gold smoke dispersed, and the word became clear: an apology will not be welcomed.
That was, of course, a nod to the Joel Glazer apologies, which appeared on the United official website after the European Super League proposals were canceled due to a massive protest from fans of both clubs.
A belated and, honestly, disrespectful apology note was never going to cut it; nor were briefs from Ed Woodward's camp claiming the executive vice chairman's dismissal was motivated by his intention to halt the ESL proposals.
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No, crowds have mobilized as never before, and despite the behavior of a tiny few causing a potentially bitter taste in the mouth by the end of the day — amid one or two arrests after scuffles with police — this can be remembered as a watershed moment for United fans, and even for English football as a whole.
For far too long, the Glazers have been able to survive in their own echo chamber, no doubt muting the hashtag #GlazersOut on their Twitter timelines and shifting their attention to balance sheets rather than the handmade bed-sheets shown by certain fans in the hope of eliciting improvement.
This was something very new. This was front and back page coverage around the world, an elite football match called to a halt because fans have much to tell. They want the Glazers to sell United, so what easier way to do so than to smash them in the pocket and humiliate them on a global scale?
That's the kind of lingua franca that the Glazers can recognize. Not only a few tweets and a couple of scarves. You couldn't turn a blind eye to it.
In the end, it was left to former United captain Roy Keane — who, coincidentally, left the club in 2005, the same year as the Glazer acquisition — to summarize the situation.
Keane, like many United supporters, was upset that a high-quality football match could not be played. No wonder, he, like anyone else, was intrigued by the intriguing battles between great players such as Luke Shaw and Mo Salah, Bruno Fernandes and Thiago Alcantara. Yet Keane saw the larger picture, as do the overwhelming majority of United fans right now.
"People will disagree, but often you have to place a marker down for people to remember," he said. “This will be broadcast all over the country. Hopefully, the owners recognize that the fans are deadly real.
"There will be more, this is only the beginning from Man United supporters, I promise you."
Of necessity, it is important that these demonstrations continue to take place, and that they do so peacefully. You feel sorry for the security guards and police officers at Old Trafford who had to clear up a mess that wasn't their fault. You winced as you noticed that people had been hurt and bombs had been thrown.
But it was in the minority, and it shouldn't distract from the main point, which was that the sheer number of fans outside Old Trafford told its own tale. It's time to stop sitting on social media and watching things drift; it's time to take initiative.
Maybe the Glazers would listen this time. Perhaps they would have to.
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