JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Whether it's a megacity in Asia, a village in Africa or your local supermarket, chances are someone is wearing a Manchester United jersey. The Red Devils are one of the most famous soccer teams in the world. They fielded stars like David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and Marcus Rashford. But Man U is having a tough time lately, on and off the field, which has some fans asking whether their club's best days are over. NPR's Lauren Frayer went to Manchester to find out.
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RICHARD WILLIAMS: Yeah, Paul, we're just going to go into the stadium.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Wow (laughter).
So this is the legendary Old Trafford.
WILLIAMS: The home of Manchester United for just over 114 years.
FRAYER: I've only seen it on TV.
WILLIAMS: It's the largest Premier League ground in the U.K.
FRAYER: Richard Williams has been giving tours here for decades.
WILLIAMS: My very first game was in 1970. Your feeling of when you came out is what we get every single day.
FRAYER: He shows me an old tunnel lined with black-and-white photos of the stadium's 1910 construction.
WILLIAMS: The stadiums were actually built in housing estates, industrial areas, for all the local, you know, people to come and support their football club. But over the years...
FRAYER: Over the years, United expanded its fan base well beyond Manchester. They went global, buoyed by satellite TV and merchandising.
ROGER BENNETT: They saw the commercial advantage of having a Manchester United official airline partner, a bank card. In some areas, they have an official potato snack.
FRAYER: Roger Bennett, founder of the Men in Blazers sports network, says United was first to truly commercialize football. But that may now be its downfall, he says.
BENNETT: Because the footballing decisions are made by the commercial department, it's no longer about what makes a great team. What holes do we need to fill on the field? What do we need to do to win? It's more about which footballers have the greatest Instagram presence? Which assets can make us bigger in Asia? So they built this machine, and then the machine's kind of eaten itself.
FRAYER: United is now in crisis. They haven't won a league title in more than a decade, since legendary coach Alex Ferguson retired. It's been a revolving door since then. The team's American owners, the Glazer family, can't come to games without security to protect them from their own fans, who see them as not putting money into the club, only taking it out. There have been staff layoffs, budget cuts. And Old Trafford - this beloved, albeit rickety old stadium, which survived bombing in World War II - may even get demolished.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Well, we're not over the moon.
FRAYER: At the Old Nag's Head, a Man United fan pub, people slump at the bar, morose, staring into their pints.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: The atmosphere has changed. You know, you've gone from winning everything, and that's tragic.
FRAYER: Dan Hennessey and George Mistiades are a trucker and a railway worker, lifelong fans of this now fallen giant.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: I've seen the heyday - best team in the world. I've seen us win the Champions League as a little kid. And it was the best thing in my life, seeing my dad that happy. But it's digressed. It's been hard to be a United fan nowadays.
FRAYER: And really hard to watch the hometown rivals, Manchester City, swimming in money from their foreign owners and winning the league the past four years in a row.
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #1: There's no stopping Manchester United.
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #2: Now them Reds...
FRAYER: "The Devil's Advocate" is a podcast charting Manchester United's highs and lows, and Gaz Drinkwater is one of the hosts.
GAZ DRINKWATER: When I started broadcasting, Manchester United were just starting on their decline. So maybe it's my fault, actually.
FRAYER: But he sees reason for hope. A British billionaire, Jim Ratcliffe, recently bought a 25% stake in the club, and the Glazers have let him take the lead. Rather than commercial people, he's installed some actual football experts, including a new coach, the sixth since Alex Ferguson. At 39, Ruben Amorim is the youngest coach in the league. A sort of wunderkind, fans hope. And so going forward, Drinkwater says...
DRINKWATER: Have a good ownership structure, with a head coach who understands sport, who understands success, who understand football, where hopefully we will see the comeback of, in my opinion, one of the greatest sporting institutions in the world.
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FRAYER: Back at Old Trafford, my guide, Richard Williams, flips a switch, and the sounds of a match erupt all around us. We walk down through a tunnel and out onto the pitch, into the lights, just like the players.
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FRAYER: And the last stop on our tour...
Three massive silver cups.
WILLIAMS: It's the Premier League, the Champions League and the FA Cup...
FRAYER: And the FA Cup.
WILLIAMS: ...All in one season.
FRAYER: The trophy room - this club has won 20 league titles, three Champions Leagues, 13 FA Cups. Finishing eighth last year was their worst-ever Premier League season. There are only a handful of other teams who wouldn't be thrilled with that. But this team is used to winning everything. They call this stadium the Theatre of Dreams, and they reckon there's more room in these trophy cases yet. Lauren Frayer, NPR News at Old Trafford in Manchester. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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