Mike Keegan gives Manchester United takeover update amid Glazer ‘pause’ claims
The potential takeover of Premier League giants Manchester United has not been ‘paused’ with both Sheikh Jassim and Sir Jim Ratcliffe still in discussions with the Glazer camp, according to the Daily Mail reporter Mike Keegan.
If anything sums up the relentless, painful uncertainty that continues to swirl around the future of Manchester United, it’s the events of the last 24 hours.
On Tuesday, the iNews claimed to have been told by a source speaking on behalf of one potential bidder that the takeover process had essentially been placed on ‘pause’, with the Glazer family yet to come to any decision over whether or not to cash in their chips.
Cue, a social media meltdown, and the tumbling of Man United’s share price.
READ:Confirmed Manchester United transfers in, out, loans, releases, youth for 2023/24
Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images
One day later, the Daily Mail’s Mike Keegan – who has been at the front of the coal face throughout this twisting saga – gave an update of his own. One which serves to almost directly contradict iNews’ own findings, and adds another of confusion on top of an already mind-boggling situation.
“Mail Sport understands that the current situation is that discussions are continuing with a number of groups with a view to a full sale or partial investment,” Keegan writes, insisting that nothing has been, to borrow the iNews’ phrase, ‘paused’ as things stand.
What’s more, Jassim’s camp remain ‘confident’ that they will eventually secure control of arguably football’s greatest asset from under Ratcliffe’s nose.
MORE UNITED STORIES
Sheikh Jassim camp confident
Of course, this doesn’t tell us much. Keegan might as well have copied and pasted that very same paragraph from an article he published around April or May, frustration growing among the United fanbase about the Glazer’s typically snail-pace approach to negotiations.
But it will come as a considerable relief to learn that the Glazers appear to remain what some have labelled ‘determined sellers’. At the right price, of course. So far, despite huge, world-record offers from both Jassim and Ratcliffe, neither party has matched the Glazers’ £6 billion asking price.
The Mail add that potential buyers received a ‘bullish’ insight into the state of Manchester United’s finances from the Raine Group; hired by the Glazers to preside over talks. Any potential new kit deals – such as the record-breaking, 10-year, £900 million deal signed with Adidas this week – will have featured in discussions.
Amid all the uncertainty off the pitch, Erik ten Hag, John Murtough and co have done an excellent job strengthening United’s squad in the market, the takeover saga not – as some had feared – preventing the big-money additions of Mason Mount, Andre Onana and Rasmus Hojlund.
Hojlund arrived in Manchester for a medical on Wednesday. A Premier League debut beckons against Wolves later this month.
