It’s complicated being a Manchester United fan right now. Poor results, injuries and a series of off-field issues involving players all sit under the cloud of the Glazer family’s attempt to sell the club they have owned since that controversial takeover in 2005.
The situation took a twist on Saturday evening when news broke that Sheikh Jassim was withdrawing from bidding for United and that a deal with Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS group is close to happening.
Yet even if this is the end of the takeover saga, it will still come too late for the liking of a lot of the club’s supporters.
When the Glazers announced a strategic review of Manchester United almost 11 months ago, fans were happy as they thought it would lead to a quick sale and their departure. This hasn’t happened.
GO DEEPER
Manchester United takeover: The 12 who will decide on Ratcliffe bid and the voting rules
Bids led to many more rounds of bids as the Glazers, a family of disunited siblings with differing interests and motives, wanted more suitors and more money.
Only two solid ones ended up coming forward — from Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim and Ratcliffe’s INEOS. Beyond getting rid of the Glazers, United fans were immediately divided as to what they wanted next and they still are.
Manchester-born Ratcliffe (Valery Hache/AFP via Getty Images)
In open online polls, the majority of fans preferred the Qataris to Ratcliffe. Yet in polls behind paywalls such as on The Athletic , United We Stand fanzine or United’s vast Scandinavian Supporters Club, the opposite was true.
Views on sportswashing are a big reason behind the divided opinion among the fanbase. Some aren’t bothered by it and as a result are happy to turn a blind eye, whereas others do not want their club in the hands of the Qataris as a result.
The inactivity and stalemate affected everything and United became stuck in a swamp of delays. The club’s 1,000 full-time employees want clarity about their futures amid cutbacks in different departments made by a company that is heavily in debt.
It is the same with the players. They won’t say it publicly, but several have sought more information about United’s ownership situation.
Richard Arnold, the current leading executive, has long told staff that it is business as usual and not to believe everything they see in the media, but he is also an employee without the final say on the major issues which matter most to fans: the team being one of the best in the world, the development of Old Trafford and the value of the dividends the Glazers take.
GO DEEPER
Explained: Man Utd to vote on selling minority stake to Sir Jim Ratcliffe as Qataris pull out
But now, finally, after almost a year of purgatory, is the end in sight?
Ratcliffe’s offer — which would see his party own 25 per cent of the club — is not ideal, it must be stressed. However, Britain’s second-richest man is clearly a highly astute businessman and unlike Sheikh Jassim he actually visited Old Trafford during the bidding process.
At 70, has this childhood United fan decided he wants to make a positive contribution to the city where he was born and that one foot in the door is better than neither?
Fans have so many questions.
Is Ratcliffe’s move a prelude to a full takeover? He certainly hopes so, but nobody can force the Glazers to sell completely and the businessman feels this is the only deal he can do.
Is Ratcliffe simply betting on United’s value increasing (which has happened consistently over the past three decades) and therefore acting purely out of self-interest for his and his company’s finances?
He has to get it right at United, otherwise his branding, his company and his personal fortune will all take a hit.
Will Ratcliffe and his people have full control over recruitment? An area in which United have regularly messed up — despite spending a fortune — in the decade since Sir Alex Ferguson left the club.
And if they do, is that a positive given INEOS’s patchy record with Nice in Ligue 1, Mercedes Formula One team and the INEOS Grenadiers cycling team?
The takeover process might be almost over, but there is still so much to be resolved.
United fans want to see the back of the Glazers. Of that they are clear.
But is this really the beginning of the end and the start of a completely new era? And if it is, what will the new dawn look like?
The optimist in me hopes this is the end, but the realist in me knows nothing has ever been straightforward when it comes to the people who have held Manchester United in a straitjacket for so long and fears this will be no different.
(Top photo: Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)
