Then, quicker than a line of dollar signs coming up on a Vegas slot machine, he stole off into the night to Stamford Bridge. So much for his loyalty to United, then. So much for that little ruse. Exposed as a sham. Exposed as a pragmatist's masterstroke. It's not that I'm against ambition. It's not that I'm against moving on if a new challenge comes along. I've done it. Most people have done it.
I wouldn't feel quite so strongly if Kenyon had left the club in rude health but that is quite patently not the case. It's like the Emperor's New Clothes. Everyone keeps telling us that United are the biggest, boldest, brashest club in the world but as far as I can see, they are pretty much skint.
So desperate for cash, they are already accepting less from Real Madrid for
David Beckham just as long as they can have the money now. If he has turned
them into such a profitable brand why did they have to haggle so much over the price of Ronaldinho that they blew it? Why couldn't they even think about buying Damien Duff, who Sir Alex Ferguson had admired for many years? Why has Ferguson been forced to scavenge among the left-overs in his transfer dealings this summer?
I will tell you what Kenyon's legacy at Old Trafford is. It is the legacy of a man
who whored a famous club around the world. He treated Manchester United like
a blousy tart, his personal courtesan. It is the legacy of a man who jumped at the idea of selling a club's soul and made it a laughing stock by attempting to ally it with the New York Yankees. A man who organised exhausting summer tours even though anyone with a modicum of common sense must have known the players needed rest more than anything else. A man who sanctioned spending £30million on Rio Ferdinand when Leeds were so desperate for cash they would probably have flogged him off for a bag of fish and chips a few weeks later.
I wonder how United fans feel now about the fact Kenyon flogged off Juan
Sebastian Veron to Chelsea, his new employers, for half the sum they paid for
him. I know a few stories about the way Kenyon treated players who have been loyal to United all their careers, too. He tried to short-change them. He impressed those negotiating with him only as a naive cheapskate without any class. If Kenyon was a pioneer, it was only in the art of making football second to commercialism, turning Manchester United into a brand, not a band of brothers.
A man who turned the club's name into a byword for greed and exploitation of its own fans and who was so blatant about it the club was hammered with a price-fixing fine from the Office of Fair Trading.
And whatever the truth about the sale of Beckham, how hollow do all Kenyon's
holier than thou statements about loyalty to the club at that time seem now?