Every day, Manchester United’s many followers wait for an update on the takeover situation at Old Trafford. And every day, there are plenty.
Many are inaccurate and poorly sourced but fans still click to read, usually in the hope of several things: chiefly that the Glazer family who took over the club in a controversial highly leveraged buyout in 2005 will no longer be in control.
Then there’s the small matter of what comes next and a club under new ownership, be it from one of the two confirmed bidders: British chemical company INEOS, headed by Britain’s richest man, Manchester-born Sir Jim Ratcliffe, or a bid led by Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani.
Who fans want depends on who you ask and where you ask it. On the Twitter social media platform, support overwhelmingly favours the Qatari bid.
On polls carried out behind pay walls for The Athletic, the United We Stand fanzine (71.94 per cent, last polled on Friday) or the club’s vast Scandinavian supporters club, the support is strongly in favour of the INEOS bid. Fans don’t know the detail of what either bidder plans beyond an eye-catching one- paragraph statement.
United fans have become even more divided (in 2005, a few thousand fans set up a breakaway club FC United of Manchester) and entrenched on their positions, the online mood toxic and intolerant. Protagonists are abused, falsehoods pedalled.
The atmosphere is completely different in real life at games, but all 99 per cent of fans agree on one thing, they want to see back of the Glazers. That the Glazers are taking so long to decide to whom they sell the club only adds to the frustration.
Both bidding parties have signed non-disclosure agreements, allowing even more room in the vacuum of idle talk. Both have employed London PR agencies to do their bidding and briefing, but even they can say nothing on the record, allowing for more misinformation.
Both sides have become frustrated with the bidding process, which started after the November announcement that the Glazers were considering selling the club and sought to “explore strategic alternatives”. And both will agree that the process is deeply frustrating and should never have taken so long.
Both, too, have expected to hear news on their bids at various stages, only for nothing to happen. Last week was supposed to be significant, yet Ratcliffe clearly thought otherwise and took a trekking holiday. Next week never comes.
Man United player ratings for 2022/23 season
The Glazers can afford it to take as long as there are still people who will pay billions for their shares, but it’s not infinite. United shouldn’t do, but now need capital.
The irony is that United are the one club that shouldn’t need a deep-pocketed owner. The business supports the club (that’s what made it so attractive to the Glazers) and the cost of investment in the stadium could be spread out over multiple years and does meet Financial Fair Play rules.
United need a new stadium or redevelopment of Old Trafford, plus the training ground. Both are excellent facilities, they’re just not the best any more and Old Trafford, especially, has not been developed as it should have been since the Glazers took over. United, so long, England’s biggest club, need investment to remain so.
False news flourishes when there is no news. Add in the end of the football season when there’s nothing happening on the pitch, or the club being able to confirm or deny stories as usual and tweaks to social media algorithms that amplify the most engaged posts – whether true or not.
Anonymous aggregator accounts fan the flames – and do so again when various "updates" are discounted as untrue. It’s all about engagement, a bluffers’ bliss. And if they’re wrong? Well nobody was taking them seriously anyway; they just wanted to.
Journalists are rubbished if they bring news that different groups of fans don’t want to hear and are accused of being part of the rival bidding, but it’s not only United fans who want clarity.
United’s 1,000 full time staff do. Imagined deadlines come and go. Fans who’d otherwise obsess over possible player transfers now try to decipher financial information from the New York Stock Exchange where United’s shares are publicly listed.
Actual deadlines for bids matter little beyond ushering in a new round of bids. This is the auction the Glazers wanted to maximise their sale price.
They’re ponderous decision makers at the best of times. There are decisions relating to middle-ranking members of staff that have to be approved by the Glazers. These processes have deeply frustrated previous United managers; it is not a dynamic, front-footed, business.
Witness how long United took to establish a women’s team, to properly fund the youth system, to do even some piecemeal improvements to Old Trafford – and the Glazers have no need to rush since the price being bid keeps going up.
It makes United more attractive that Erik ten Hag’s side will play Champions League football next season, yet the Dutch coach needs to plan for that season. United insist it is business as usual in their recruitment of players in the summer transfer window, yet how can it be usual with the huge elephant of the future of the club in the room?
The Glazers would like more bidders but two genuine ones are enough to play one off against the other. The gatekeepers to the bidding are the Raine Group. One person familiar with the bidding process described it as: “Tacky. Grubby.”
There are six Glazer siblings who are entitled to what would be a vast profit from the sale of a club that costs £790 million – and is now attracting bids of around £5 billion 18 years later.
The INEOS position has not changed for months. They are quietly confident. The Qatari position is similar. One group is going to be left disappointed. But not as disappointed and frustrated as the United fans, who deserve much better, are right now because after the Glazers, United need an owner who is buying the club for the right reasons and who understands and respects the fan culture and the history.
