It’s not something I was expecting, but Gary Neville’s company, The Overlap Network, has acquired Mark Goldbridge’s Youtube business, The United Stand and That’s Football.
This is an interesting situation, because it’s the first time to my knowledge that a fan channel like the United Stand has been given any sort of legitimacy by what might be considered mainstream media connections.
Goldbridge is well known among the fan base as a loud, opinionated, slightly comical club commentator, but nevertheless, he built the biggest Manchester United fan channel in the world. Well, if it was difficult to write him off as a joke before, it’s impossible to do now.
For me, the deal is interesting, but it’s not my main concern. It’s what this turns into.
Because on the face of it, you might just think The United Stand will get more viewers and subscribers, the content will improve, and the guests will be bigger. But actually, the connection to Gary Neville, a United legend whose words carry weight, brings the United Stand much closer to the club itself, even if there is no official connection.
Is that a good thing for Manchester United?
The Deal: Bringing You Up to Speed
Here’s what has actually happened.
Gary Neville co-founded The Overlap, which is a football media company that produces some of the most watched football content online. ‘Stick to Football’ is one of their channels, for example. Earlier this year, Global bought a majority stake and the plan is to create a much bigger multi-platform football media network.
Mark Goldbridge owns a football media business too. His biggest Youtube channels are ‘The United Stand’ and ‘That’s Football’. Well, The Overlap has acquired those channels, bringing them into the same network.
Goldbridge has a combined 3.7 million very engaged subscribers on his channels, so the appeal from Neville’s side is obvious. Whereas The Overlap produces top quality studio content with huge name guests on a weekly basis, Goldbridge’s channels produce constant, live reaction videos several times a day. It’s a complimentary pairing.
For Mark, well, he says it’s about taking The United Stand to “the next stage”, making it bigger and better, but many think it’s more about the money. He is getting a 7 figure sum plus ongoing earnings.
As part of the deal, Goldbridge retains creative control of his channels and he gone out of his way to assure his ‘community’ that nothing will change. He even says he has done this for the good of his ‘community’.
His community seem to disagree.
Mark has built his brand on being independent. On being different to the mainstream. Being a voice of the everyday fan who will say things that others won’t. Now he has sold out to the very people he claimed to be nothing like.
Why This Could Be Bad News For United
Goldbridge’s style is why The United Stand has grown to the size that it has. But that style isn’t exactly ‘professional broadcaster’.
He’s a ranter. He makes bold claims, is quick to judge, and throws negativity at the club when things don’t go well. Sometimes he gets things right, sometimes he doesn’t, but he never holds back.
Someone like Mark Goldbridge can say whatever they like when they are clearly in ‘fan channel’ territory. It doesn’t matter. The players won’t hear about it and the mainstream media won’t usually report on it.
But now Gary Neville is involved, people will listen differently.
We already know that what former players say can cut through. Just look at what happened when Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt made comments about Lisandro Martinez’s height before the derby. They did so on a podcast/Youtube channel called ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Football’. It was everywhere. The story spread so far that Martinez himself hit back at them, and they had to clear things up.
In other words, it had an impact on the player, who then had to go and play the game with this on his mind. Therefore, Butt and Scholes’ comments had a direct impact on the club.
The Mark Goldbridge brand is built on noise, speed, and big reactions. If that noise is now legitimised by his connection with Gary Neville, some of his more reactive or exaggerated talking points may carry more weight than they did before. More heat, more pressure, more noise in the player’s ears.
No club in the world is more heavily scrutinised than Manchester United. Do we really need someone like Goldbridge, who lives or dies by his likes and subscribes, getting into the minds of the team?