Not a week seems to go by without little snippets of information about the proposed Man United takeover being made available to those with an interest in the immediate future of the Red Devils.
Unfortunately, to this point, all of the updates have been red herrings, and things haven’t moved on at all it seems in the past couple of months.
The two main bidders, Sir Jim Ratcliffe (INEOS) and Sheikh Jassim (Nine Two Foundation), appeared to have followed any direction from current owners, the Glazer family, or their representatives, the Raine Group, to the letter, and yet have still been left high and dry and without any significant information to mull over.
Staying effectively silent isn’t really the way to be doing business, and to that end, one can completely understand the ongoing frustration of the long-suffering United supporters, who have no interest in seeing the Glazers in power for a moment longer than is necessary.
With a week to go until the season starts, there’s still no news to give everyone a glimmer of hope that changes may be afoot.
“Nothing’s been paused, so that’s the first point. The process is still active and multiple groups are engaging,” journalist, Ben Jacobs, told Give Me Sport.
“The situation is that Sheikh Jassim and Sir Jim Ratcliffe are feeling that they are legally and logistically close to being able to enter into the completion process if they’re successful, but the Glazers are yet to show their hand.
“The process is where it’s always been and has been for a while. There is no clear indication yet of the Glazers’ intentions and multiple groups are negotiating.”
The longer this perceived impasse goes on, the more it appears likely that the Glazer family won’t sell the club.
It was believed that they were asking for a mammoth £6bn to sell the club, and even though supposed world record bids have arrived, they don’t meet that figure.
In the current market, the owners are lucky to get anywhere approaching that, but it still doesn’t look to be enough to tempt them.