This is how modern authoritarianism dresses itself, not in uniforms, but in spreadsheets that turn people into 'headcount' to be erased. You tell supporters that Manchester United lost £300m and must therefore sack two hundred workers and strip perks from the lowest paid, while the owners and agents remain short of nothing. You cut the paid role of a man like Sir Alex and call it symbolism, yet the real symbol is the message to everyone below that loyalty is worthless once the numbers wobble. When a club that trades on myth and community treats staff meals and Christmas as dispensable luxuries, it is announcing that the only story that matters now is the quarterly report. Of course a business has to live within its means, but who decided that the only remedy for years of mismanagement should be taken out of the hides of ordinary workers? If you can raise billions for a new stadium yet claim you cannot afford the people who keep the lights on at Old Trafford, the problem is not cash, it is conscience. Call it restructuring if you like; to those being marched out of the door, it will feel a lot closer to being written out of history.