Mark Goldbridge has spoken out to address concerns his Manchester United channel produces ‘toxic’ content, also responding to Marcus Rashford’s accusations of ‘malicious rumours’ targeting players.
The United Stand – founded by Goldbridge – is one of the most popular football fan channels with close to two million YouTubers subscribers. While one of the biggest contributors to United content with club rants often compulsive viewing, the content can be divisive with Goldbridge himself often a polarising figure.
This week, Goldbridge sat down with Tony O’Neill of Webby and O’Neill to discuss issues across the United fan community, delving into some of the controversies that have emerged in recent years.
During the grilling, O’Neill described United Stand’s ‘fan cams’, content zoning in on match reaction just after the final whistle, as ‘one of the most toxic things United fans have seen’. In the wide-ranging interview, Goldbridge admitted mistakes have been made.
The subject of The United Stand’s clash with Rashford also arose. In November 2023, The United Stand shared a video titled ‘Rashford Future in Doubt?’ discussing the forward’s form and whether the presence of Amad Diallo could limit his game time.
Rashford’s personal Twitter account responded to the post, writing: ‘Please stop spreading malicious rumours’.
Goldbridge explained in the interview he has never had any firm exchanges with the agents of United stars, but did share they approached Rashford’s representatives after that Twitter exchange.
‘It’s disappointing, Ultimately I would love for Marcus Rashford to play football for Manchester United and score goals, that’s all that matters,’ Goldbridge said.
‘I don’t really care what he is like as a person, that’s the bottom line. But in relation to that situation, we did try to reach out to his agent but got nothing back.
‘This is a guy getting book deals and doing charity work and replying to something out of context and look at the s**tstorm it caused. Alright, 75 per cent of people are going, “Go on Rashford, well done”. But the other 25 per cent are saying “what are you doing?”
‘We’re not The Sun, were not talkSPORT, have you looked at what they are saying today? The thumbnail [for the video] was “Marcus Rashford future in doubt?” Is that malicious? He was playing awful at the time. Why go after The United Stand, not another YouTube channel or another website?
‘It was either really naïve which is really concerning for a United player or it was calculating to try cause us trouble. Either way, this is one of the biggest earners and reputation players at Man United and you are getting involved in a Twitter thing like that. And if he is bothered that’s even more concerning about the mentality of the modern player.’
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