When you’re spending north of £5bn on a business deal the need to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s is obvious, though the Man United takeover talks are already taking on farcical proportions.
Perhaps we shouldn’t have expected anything different given that the selling party are the Glazer family. An owner that appears to have shown nothing but contempt for the club and its fans in the entire time they’ve owned this great football club.
Despite long since having passed the third and supposed final deadline for bids, with a preferred bidder than expected to be announced, senior journalist Ben Jacobs noted via his Twitter account that the Qatari delegation still believe that they’re in the race, even though it was thought the bid from Sir Jim Ratcliffe was more likely to be the one accepted.
Should Qatar increase their final offer it is not expected to be disclosed. Talks are more fluid and the formal offer deadlines are gone. Nine Two Foundation remain confident they are not out the race.
— Ben Jacobs (@JacobsBen) May 15, 2023
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is "cautiously optimistic". But until a preferred bidder is named, and with neither group in an exclusive period, there is plenty of competitive tension.
— Ben Jacobs (@JacobsBen) May 15, 2023
With just a fortnight left until the end of the season, and the process for new ownership starting late last year, the situation any new owner is likely to find themselves in will surely impact heavily on first-team manager, Erik ten Hag.
The Dutchman needs to find out how much money he will have available in the summer transfer window as a matter of urgency, and he’s unable to do that if no new owners are in place.
Even if this does get decided in the next few days, there’s still a period of exclusivity that needs to be gone through and that too will likely affect any timescales.
It isn’t really a surprise that things have ended up like this, and the sooner the Glazers move on, the better for all concerned.
The Glazers should just sell the club 100% to the Qatar soon as possible for the best of the club’s future.
Glazer out and let the qatar lead united to the next level
Thay other vuy will ruin this club we won’t win nothing if he take over glazers just sell the club so we beco.e great again this is our chance to become a team
it is crystal clear that the Americans do not care about the club all they want is money being the reason for deterioration of the club performance, while delaying it sales after the deadline had been annouced. the transfer windows is few weeks closer, The squad needs to be reconstructed to prepare for next season. They are bastards for doing that. They should just remove thereself completely from the club.