This month marks the eighth year anniversary since the Glazer family made their first real steps to owning Manchester United. In this relatively short period of time United have won five Premier League titles, one FA Cup, three League Cups and of course that famous Champions League trophy. So after all the protests and hatred toward them, the question has to be asked has their time as owners really been that bad for Manchester United?

Under the ownership of Malcolm Glazer and Red Football Ltd, Manchester United have become a club carrying the biggest debt in global football, currently standing at £716m. They have also recently posted a record annual loss of £83.6m, taking into account the club’s £40m interest charges per year. United fans have demonstrated vigorously against the club’s current owners and the amount of debt they have placed on the club since their takeover in 2005.

The American owners have always been disliked in Manchester after taking on huge amounts of debt so they could buy the club outright in 2005, placing the club under great financial strain for many years. However in comparison to the former owners at Liverpool, United seem to have got a reasonable deal with the Glazers spending large amounts on world class players throughout the last eight years and over the past two seasons the club has decided to invest wisely in talented youngsters and the future.

The Green and Gold protests proved that the majority of United fans are against the Glazers ownership of the club but despite this there have been some positives to take from their involvement. They have overseen arguably the club’s most successful period on the pitch; secured record breaking sponsorship deals and expanded the stadium to pretty much full capacity while also increasing the Manchester United brand abroad. The expansion into the American market has been a success and selling out 92,000 seater stadiums for pre-season friendlies proves this point.

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The most important thing that the Glazers have done is to let Sir Alex run the football club as he desired and instead of Chelsea where top players are forced on managers, Ferguson has been given a budget to spend each year with the aim of continuing the success at the football club. This sort of back-room ownership is rarely seen these days and all too often owners want to be hands on which normally has a negative influence on the side.

Last season United regained the title while income and, more significantly, profits leapt to record levels with the club reducing the debt the Glazer incurred when purchasing the club. With the delayed £1 billion flotation on the Singapore stock exchange still a possibility next year, the club could easily be clear of debt and be ready for the UEFA Financial Fair Play rules which tie the clubs expenditure to income. This could make United a relentless force in the transfer market and then it could be difficult for fans to protest about the club’s ownership in the future. However there are no guarantees that the Glazer's will put this money back into the club and they instead may use it on their other business asses which would go some way to frustrating United supporters some more.

There is no doubt that there time as owners of the club has been triumph on the pitch but with United now moving into a transition period, I think the ownership needs to change hands in the near future so this continues. In a football sense it has worked well but off the pitch the club is still saddled with an enormous long-term debt that they have to pay off. Was the investment really worth it United fans?

Let me know your thoughts below and follow me on twitter @aidanmccartney for more discussion about the biggest issues in the game.

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