20 Oct 2019 10:23:31
More chat today in the media of a Saudi bid, could we see the 2020 sale ed alluded to years ago? My guess is that's it's more than likely rubbish reporting.

1.) 20 Oct 2019
20 Oct 2019 11:09:48
When someone has that much money, I don't think you'd be hearing of a bid from the rag news papers. It would just be done if the interest was proper, you wouldn't hear about it until the day it was completed.

{Ed004's Note - I say a deal thats happening for over 3 billion will take months of drawn out conversations to happen. Therell be a tonne of finer details to iron out}

2.) 20 Oct 2019
20 Oct 2019 12:22:32
There appears to be interest from the Saudi royal family, whether that come to anything is anyone's guess.

I am no fan of the Glazer's, yet I do feel the phrase "better the devil you know" might have some baring on this.

The Debt the Glazer's have place don the club is clearly a bad thing, yet we still have one of the highest spends on both transfer fees and wages world wide, which suggests the real issues with our club is on how we are spending the money rather than whether we have it to spend. There will be times when the debt might impact our ability to bring in a player or two. Yet overall that impact appears to be quite limited.

Any takeover bid should be viewed with a level of suspicion by fans. Rather than jumping to the conclusion of "good riddance to the Glazers". We should be considering WHY? someone want's to buy our club and what is in it for them? No one spends 3-4bn for the benefit of others, and certainly not to make football fans happy.

That's not to say that we wouldn't benefit from any potential takeover. It's likely we would. Or we could end up in the hands of asset strippers. Naming rights to the stadium could be sold or the stadium itself.

Ultimately we can do very little if the Glazers decide to sell the club, and probably even less when it comes to who might buy it. They will have their own motives and that may or may not benefit us fans in either the short or long term.

What we should probably avoid though is falling into the belief that someone will come waltzing in buy our club and solve all our problems in one fell swoop.

Often takeovers can be a poisoned chalice.

3.) 20 Oct 2019
20 Oct 2019 13:25:30
I agree wholeheartedly with you Ed but I think that this has been recycled in the press too many times at this stage. If the Saudi's interest in United is real, then I don't think it would take them this long to stick or twist.

{Ed004's Note - Last time they appeared interested that scandal broke out regarding the murdered journalist. Its plausible they would have delayed any discussions until their public image improved. I think since then, Joshua and Ruiz jr has been announced etc}

4.) 20 Oct 2019
20 Oct 2019 15:04:13
Its a smoke screen along with all the transfer rubbish that has come out the past few days.
They are getting all the excuses and fan appeasement as possible in, before Liverpool wipe the floor with us at our home patch today.

Do people not seriously see that whenever there is a bad result or something like today coming up the PR is out in force to calm the fans and delude them into thinking better times are coming.

Like why would it be revealed that Utd are buying 5 players next summer? And how many times before have we heard that we are having a clear out in the summer and nothing ever gets done. Wake up people!

5.) 20 Oct 2019
20 Oct 2019 13:58:29
And let's not forget the multi year WWE deal.

6.) 20 Oct 2019
20 Oct 2019 15:22:29
Dan, or alternatively the press focus more on United stories around the big games?

Plus with how the fans have reacted previously to managers getting bad results can you blame the club for attempting to put as much good PR out there as possible in the build up to such a game?

Why have a public relations team if they aren't going to attempt to appease the fans and keep public image up?

That is there job and it would be the same regardless of who owned the club or who was managing the side.

7.) 20 Oct 2019
20 Oct 2019 15:46:31
When its all lies Shappy its a different story. If it was true I would agree with you.

8.) 20 Oct 2019
20 Oct 2019 16:19:21
But Dan, without in depth actual working knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes at Old Trafford you can't actually know if it's lies or not?

9.) 20 Oct 2019
20 Oct 2019 21:12:50
No smoke without fire. I think they are planning on selling.

10.) 20 Oct 2019
20 Oct 2019 22:42:31
My take is that after the Ashoggi affair they dialed back any potential moves. It's clear the Glaziers after the father's death want to start looking at an exit and it's equally clear the club/ business needs investment both in players and stadia. Commercial growth has slowed so there's not much left for the Glaziers but ball ache with fans and spending cash.

I guess they need to weigh up the benefits of hanging around until the next TV/ streaming rights windfall and how much that will cost in terms of investment Vs cashing out.

Not sure if anyone saw but MBS (Saudi Prince) did a very polished interview about the murder of Ashoggi which has got to be about improving global PR.

We then have one of the Glazers selling up the other week.

Joshua Ruiz will be the next step in 'rebranding' Saudi Arabia plus all the other recent concerts and events. The washing process has worked very well for UAE and Qatar.

So there's a few indicators already but it will be a long drawn out process and the numbers are going eye wateringly high circa £3.8-4.2B

Personally I think football is a merky world and many good and bad owners have been from questionable backgrounds from Ken Bates to Roman Abramovic, Shinawartra, Abu Dhabi.

As we have seen with the Glaziers we have no input or say in who owns the club so I'm not even going to bother worrying.

I actually think an owner who will invest and develop the stadia will be a good thing and I'm not particularly fussed where they are from and how they got their money and would hope going global with a club of our stature would ultimately benefit the people of RSA and improve human rights.

Multi Billionaire's tend not to get so rich painting rainbows and fluffing kittens' pillows.

11.) 21 Oct 2019
21 Oct 2019 09:18:42
Comparing Ken Bates to Mohammed Bin Salman is a bit of a stretch to put it mildly.

12.) 21 Oct 2019
21 Oct 2019 14:53:40
Nikko you are certainly correct in terms of levels but without dropping and liable bombs all I will say is i know of Ken Bates from the inside via my Dad and it could be said he is lucky (or smart) not to be wearing her majesty's special PJ's.

A quick perusal of his biography leaves in enough smoking guns for you to join the dots.

Imo not a nice fella.

13.) 23 Oct 2019
23 Oct 2019 16:34:53
Utd is all ready in the process of being sold . Its been going on for months . The glazers will not have the club in 2020 either a Middle Eastern set up or a Chinese mega deal will be running it. Heard it from a city trader in July . I saw it as bs but now i'm begining to believe everything might come true😀😀.