One year on from the Glazer takeover of Manchester United, various journalists have had a go at assessing its impact and the mood of United followers.

Most appear to have taken the lazy and sardonic attitude that ‘nothing has really changed’.

Luckily I learned a long time ago that reading something in a newspaper should not be a sign of it’s accuracy, but I’m surprised how many half-truths some people will swallow and how readily they will latch on to a bland one-liner and accept it as fact without looking into it for themselves.

Normally it doesn’t matter, people can believe what they want to believe, but when it regards Manchester United, and more specifically the Glazer situation, people need to be set straight.

Take Gill’s bundle of spin that he produced on the takeover anniversary.

Remember, this is the man who called the Glazer’s plans ‘damaging’ when they weren’t paying his wages, who offered money to SU, and who proclaimed he would be ‘manning the barricades’ with the fans at a time when their opinion mattered to him for once.

‘There is clearly more debt than before’ would have anyone who hasn’t followed the whole episode thinking that United were in debt before the Glazers, and that it has just been topped up. The truth being that £1 of debt would have been ‘more debt than before’, as United had millions in the bank. Hundreds of millions of debt are therefore glibly glossed over as though it’s almost a healthy position that is in no way affecting day to day matters on and off the pitch.

But Gill didn’t just buy his bucket of whitewash last week.

When questioned over the 16,000 empty seats at the Debrecen Champions League qualifier, Gill offered the England cricket game down the road later in the week as an excuse. No, seriously, he did. Given that the home of LCCC holds 19,000, we were being asked to believe that every empty seat for the Debrecen game was because they would’ve normally been filled by cricket loving England fans who couldn’t afford both. Oh, and that despite this not being a problem for United’s attendances since 1878, it was now.

We also hear how United’s cheapest tickets after the price rises are still among the cheapest in the country, and they are. They are also only somewhere between 5 and 10% of United’s capacity, the remainder being priced among the top 5 in the country. Those dearer include Arsenal, Chelsea, and Tottenham, where the earnings of the match going fan bear about as much resemblance to the average United supporter as mine do to Gill’s.

We are told that the Glazer’s have brought ‘stability’ to the club. I would imagine that the 25 people made redundant by Gill would beg to differ. Maybe even the countless reserves and youths now being coached and developed away from Old Trafford to get them off the wage bill may feel the same. This is probably the easiest example of a financial decision being made without regard to the footballing side of operations – will the lads out on loan get the same level of quality coaching and development at places like Watford, Antwerp, Walsall, Brighton, Crewe, Chesterfield, and others as they should, in theory at least, be getting at Carrington? With the exception of Beckham, can you name a United player who has gone out on loan and come back better? In fact, how many have ever played for United at all once sent out on loan?

We are told that the Glazers backed Sir Alex Ferguson when sanctioning the purchases of Vidic and Evra, as though providing around £12m was some sort of white knight act of generosity that proves their credentials. We are also told by Ferguson himself that the Glazers are ‘excellent’ when it came to the purchases, as he didn’t have to wait for plc approval. Well, I didn’t hear any complaints in all the plc years, for all the plc’s faults, about delays while funds were approved, and certainly some purchases seem to have been made with plenty of haste. Gill himself declared years ago in a sly dig at Forlan that ‘last minute purchases haven’t always worked out well’. The money was found quickly enough then Sir Alex, so sorry, that one doesn’t wash either.

We are even told that AIG was a preferred option as a sponsor, as they are ‘blue chip’. This is the same AIG that was recently fined millions for malpractice.

It would be nice if the insults to our intelligence were only coming from Old Trafford, but too many statements like the above are accepted by people who really ought to know better, and even garnished by the radio phone-in and message board ‘look at me’ brigade.

How many times have you heard ‘they are businessmen, they wont let it fail’ from some smart arse who knows nothing about United, or, worse, a United fan who just over a year ago was singing ‘Not For Sale’ but who now has shrugged his shoulders? They of course ignore the fact no mainstream banks would touch the Glazer business plan, that the Glazers have had failed businesses, and that believe it or not, United was run by businessmen before (and very profitably thank you).

‘No shareholders to pay dividends to now’ is offered by the bloke down the pub who wants to look clever (having heard the same from Gill) as a benefit of private ownership, overlooking the fact that dividends were a fraction of what is now having to be paid out in interest.

The dullest of all the short sighted sound bites is the one about Old Trafford still selling out. For those nice, easy for Johnny Megastore weekend games, more often than not it does. It used to be the case with every game that it was sold out weeks in advance. This season the ‘apply now’ button on the ticket application website stays up days, sometimes weeks longer than before, with some tickets even being available on match days. We’ve been harangued by post and email to apply for season tickets, where before, there wasn’t even a waiting list. Every existing book holder who wanted an extra season ticket, got one, no ballot needed for them. In a true act of spin, some declared attendances, where empty seats have been dotted around the ground, have been laughable. I guess the key word there though is just that – attendance – the Glazer’s don’t care if you turn up or not as long as the seat has been paid for.

All we can do is not take anything coming from Gill at face value (him being two-faced doesn’t help for a start) and ignore the know-nowts, United supporters or not, who think the Glazers are ok. They’ll all be gone long before we are.

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