It has been an extraordinary 24 hours for this most laughable incarnation of a once-great Manchester United, where Amazon will have been left wishing they’d scrapped all other All or Nothing series and used the money to talk the Red Devils into doing a fly-on-the-wall documentary based just on the past few months.
Just when things seemingly couldn’t get any worse, four days after Erik ten Hag became the first United manager to lose both of his first two games in charge since John Chapman in November 1921, the club’s efforts off the pitch became the stuff of documentary makers’ dreams.
In a summer of transfer market woe, chasing players who have no intention of joining an ailing club in the Europa League, United seemed to have settled on Juventus’s Adrien Rabiot as the answer to their central midfield conundrum.
United’s director of football, John Murtough, travelled to Turin to negotiate with Rabiot’s notoriously hard-bargaining agent – his mother – but returned buoyed that a deal could be struck.
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'I lost £100k on football betting - now I campaign to ban gambling sponsors from the sport'17 August, 2022However, after a price was agreed with Juventus, sources have told i that even though United were willing to make Rabiot one of their highest earners, despite having no other suitors, Veronique wanted more, and thus the transfer has totally collapsed.
Embarrassment No 1 of the day. Murtough has twice travelled abroad to broker a deal after his fruitless pursuit of Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong, and twice he has been unsuccessful.
Then, seemingly knowing the desperation with which United supporters want the much-maligned Glazer family owners out, Space X CEO Elon Musk tweeted that he intended to buy the club, sending fans into orbit, dreaming of a forward line led by Kylian Mbappe, before bringing them crashing back to earth with a bump by insisting it was a joke.
That is what it has come to at Old Trafford – being the butt of the joke. Such a status has not been helped by the other character in the potential takeover drama – Michael Knighton.
Described as a “charlatan and self-publicist” in 1989 as he did kick-ups in front of the Stretford End having supposedly agreed to buy United from unpopular chairman Martin Edwards, before the deal falling through when it became clear he didn’t have the funds, Knighton has reappeared to claim to be putting together a consortium for another takeover attempt.
In an interview with ITV, he claimed to have been speaking to “three billionaires” about financing the deal, given Knighton is worth around £5m, sources have told i, and it would take a bid of around £6bn to make the Glazers even take note. He has twice named Sir Jim Ratcliffe, CEO of INEOS, as a potential option, but sources have said the Manchester-born billionaire has not even been in dialogue with Knighton.
Fans are wary of a man who refers to himself as a “poet and artist” in his Twitter bio. i understands Knighton approached fan groups to garner support, but when he was asked for more details of his investors, he was not forthcoming with much information, so no backing was given.
To make matters worse for fans hoping for change, all of this is ultimately conjecture, because as far as the Glazers are concerned the club is not for sale. They may be open to selling a minority stake should the right investor come along, reports have claimed, but there is no indication whatsoever they would relinquish their control.
Fan group “The 1958” are planning a third protest against the Glazer ownership before Monday’s clash against Liverpool, with plans to #EmptyOldTrafford in place to make a real statement, but not everyone is convinced it can make any difference.
“Everything is rooted in the initial takeover, in that they [the Glazers] didn’t put their own money in,” Ian Stirling, Independent Supporter Liaison officer of Manchester United Supporters’ Trust (MUST), tells i. “There has been underlying animosity ever since.
“Now with the lack of player investment and the performance of the team, not the results, the performance, everything has come to a head. It has been mismanaged for so long and is going down the pan. The manager is probably wondering what he has got himself into.
“We would welcome anyone with the financial means who puts a serious bid in for United, owners with the same priorities as fans. The problem is, the Glazers have ridden out worse protests before, and they can do it again. Even if 10,000 leave Old Trafford, it still won’t look empty.”
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Man Utd willing to offload £15m academy star to fund move for Juventus outcast Rabiot15 August, 2022Never one to miss out on all the fun, Cristiano Ronaldo also took to Instagram around the time Musk logged on, to claim the “truth will come out” on his situation when he does an interview in the coming weeks and liked a post linking him with a move to Atletico Madrid. Just what is needed.
New signings are mooted each day, as things get more and more desperate. Christian Pulisic from Chelsea is the newest target, with Real Madrid anchor Casemiro the alternative to Rabiot.
How will United mess these signings up? Tune in again to make sure you don’t miss anything in this chaotic story.
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