It’s been roughly a week since it’s believed that Sheikh Jassim and Sir Jim Ratcliffe tabled updated bids for the ownership of Manchester United, however, neither are likely to succeed unless the Glazer family lower their asking price for the club.
According to The Guardian, the current owners of the club value it at £6bn, and whilst it isn’t know exactly how much the potential purchasers have bid, it’s not thought to be close to that figure with Financial Times putting Ratcliffe’s bid at £5bn+.
That would suggest that the parties are poles apart in terms of valuation, and given that new figures were released earlier this week putting the club’s actual debt at £969.6m (per BBC Sport), it’s safe to say that no one in their right mind is going to fork out £6bn and then take into account almost another billion pounds worth of debt.
To that end, the Glazer family are walking a tightrope at the moment. The fact that they were even prepared to get around the negotiating table suggests that they’re willing to finally hand over the reins of the club after what has been a frankly disastrous time in charge of the Old Trafford outfit.
They’ve never really shown any desire to be the populist choice and appear to have only ever been in it to see what they can get out of it.
United’s long-suffering fans arguably can’t wait to see the back of them, however, it may be some time before that occurs unless they see sense sooner rather than later.