Haha. Sounds about right.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe: I want to buy Manchester United | Will make a bid for the club [Telegraph]
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You're not wrong.
Then again, a decade of poor managerial appointments, a horrific transfer market strategy and Philip Jones knee injuries are bound to negatively affect one's brain.
It didn't
Of course not, the Glazers will never see us as a football club first and foremost
Well, I'm holding out hope for this one. Whether that's positive thinking or complete and utter desperation talking here is unknown, I couldn't say, but the hope remains.
Jim Ratcliffe, the hero we want and need.
Jim Ratcliffe, the hero we want and need.
If he starts with a minority stake, I wonder how long it could possibly take before he gets full control. Doesn't look like he'd have a lot of issues fronting the money (his or through a consortium). Only worry is the leeches continue to run the club into the ground and Ratcliffe gets fed up, sells his stake and walks away before he gets full control.
Hopefully this is just years of pessimism talking and the ownership change goes through and this nightmare ends.
Hopefully this is just years of pessimism talking and the ownership change goes through and this nightmare ends.
you’re picking at the wrong poster here. I’m generally one of the optimists on here, but I just don’t see these leeches letting go any time soon. They are looking to raise money for themselves to support their other failing US businesses. I think they will sell eventually but it will be a few years yet.
My own uniformed opinion, for what's it's worth, is they're counting on the super league being resurrected. Trouble is, for a seat at that table, we'd have to be consistently in the top 4. They haven't got the bread necessary to do the upgrades, so they're looking for cash from another source.
What investor do you think will give the Glazers money for a minority stake, without having guarantees on where the money will be spent?
Do you really believe a private investor will hand over money for the Glazers not to spend on the club, but fot their own private ventures elsewhere?
Where do you even get this source of thinking from?
They know United fans will eat up any stories about potential new owners. They've identified someone who can afford us and got someone to say 'that person who could afford to buy the club could definitely afford to buy it'
Probably got a few thousand extra in subs to read the story.
Probably got a few thousand extra in subs to read the story.
Yeah there’s no reason for them to sell. They know if they make us challenging again our price goes up and they are making money on us as is.
I see the stubbornness of them believing they can then it around
Besides owners interested in buying multi billion pound assets don't leak the news as usually news of interest pushes up the price. It's an article written because the newspaper astutely identified there was a few quid to be made from writing it
What doesn’t make sense in your tale is why Ratcliffe made that weird late bid for Chelsea, and also why he immediately released a statement last night confirming interest, with the newspaper he’s renowned for getting stories on him and his businesses leading the charge. In fact said newspaper even had an article headlined “Sir Jim Ratcliffe has money and nous to rescue Manchester United from the Glazers” last Friday.
There is undoubtedly concrete interest. The questions are all on the Glazer side, and those kids have never seemed to agree on much at all regarding United.
It's a complete pipe dream. The club looks good on the Glazer's Balance Sheet, and that is all that really matters to them. They don't want/have to sell, but they know that if they did, there would be a queue round the block of potential buyers.
His net worth is twice that of the guy who bought Chelsea. If he was serious and he wasn't just attaching his name for publicity and raising his profile, why doesn't he now own that football club?
Why do you need to release a statement signalling your intentions to buy something?
He's now probably the most spoken about billionaire on the planet right now. It's naive to think he's hasn't achieved all he intended to here.
Serious acquisitions of this magnitude don't start with a press release
You’re making a bold assumption that this is the start, and not some point late in act 1 or even act 2.
He’s stoking the fire that was already there against the Glazers, wherein he handily offers them a get out of jail free card while the heat is on.
It's the Richard Branson trick. In the 90s that beard cnut was never out of the paper claiming interest in buying whatever business or franchise that was the flavour of the month.
Elon Musk was never interested in buying Twitter as you don't make any acquisition on anything close to that scale by Tweeting about it.
He bid for Chelsea was so serious that he lost out to someone literally with half the resources he has. If I would hazard a guess the guy who ended up buying it probably spoke to the media a lot less before bidding, after he'd made an offer and since having that offer accepted then this guy
If you want to buy a football club, a house, a car or a Twix you make an offer to the person you want to buy from. You don't release a statement.
Next month he'll be about to buy NASSCAR or EastEnders or the National Lottery or something.
Elon Musk was never interested in buying Twitter as you don't make any acquisition on anything close to that scale by Tweeting about it.
He bid for Chelsea was so serious that he lost out to someone literally with half the resources he has. If I would hazard a guess the guy who ended up buying it probably spoke to the media a lot less before bidding, after he'd made an offer and since having that offer accepted then this guy
If you want to buy a football club, a house, a car or a Twix you make an offer to the person you want to buy from. You don't release a statement.
Next month he'll be about to buy NASSCAR or EastEnders or the National Lottery or something.
This thread is going to go as quick as the FDJ thread and have 4k posts in a few days and sadly end in the same way 
He didnt personally release a statement. The journo contacted Ineos his company and a spokesman when asked the question, confirmed that he would be interested in acquiring a minority share of United with a view of taking over full control.
Also Jim Ratcliffe has been known to be quite elusive and not as someone who just goes about spewing BS to get in the news. I dont think thats his thing at all.
No, I think you are being overly negative here. Its okay to be cautious, of course, but I think Ratcliffe definitely has an interest in buying the club and all we can do is wait and see if the Glazers are willing to jump from this sinking ship or try and ride it out on the hope of the Super League. They are definitely too far gone now to want to throw in what would have to be hundreds of millions just to get them near the CL spots. They are skint.
Of course if the Super League does rear its ugly head again then thats pretty much the end of football as we know it (and certainly I would not have an interest in it) so all we can do is wait and see. Jim Ratcliffe and his consortium comes in and brings back an institution or the club goes for good into the ESL US-model franchise.
They will if it's a more of a secured loan using equity in the club as the collateral. They won't give a feck what they do with the money as long as they pay interest on the money... which will come directly out of United's revenue streams.
That's what kind of thinking it takes and it's hardly out of left field. It's what they did to buy the club in the first place.
I'm the biggest cynic going, but there has to be more to this than just a passing story, and then we all move on.
It could be something as little as Sir Jim finding out about the Glazers wanting to sell a minority share a while ago, and then catching them on the hop by announcing his interest in buying all/part of the club on the same day, knowing the fans will be right on board with him, and putting big pressure on the Glazers, as there is no excuse to sell to some random asset manager in America, that has no right to be near the club, if Sir Jim will pay the money instead.
That is the worst case scenario as to where we are with things for me, and it's still alot better than where we've been for a while, but I'm clinging onto the hope that Sir Jim knows for a fact that they want to sell, and is positioning himself as the one the fans will get behind, and hopefully the FA will approve.
It could be something as little as Sir Jim finding out about the Glazers wanting to sell a minority share a while ago, and then catching them on the hop by announcing his interest in buying all/part of the club on the same day, knowing the fans will be right on board with him, and putting big pressure on the Glazers, as there is no excuse to sell to some random asset manager in America, that has no right to be near the club, if Sir Jim will pay the money instead.
That is the worst case scenario as to where we are with things for me, and it's still alot better than where we've been for a while, but I'm clinging onto the hope that Sir Jim knows for a fact that they want to sell, and is positioning himself as the one the fans will get behind, and hopefully the FA will approve.
I worked under various CEOs and GMs in my life. I assure you that the 'spokesman' would not come out with that statement unless he had the go ahead of his boss. I dare to say that such statement would have come out, word by word, by Ratcliffe himself as no 'spokesman' would commit to paraphrase something which can lead to a 4.5B investment.
The club is for sale. This minority stake stuff is horseshit.
So, the Glazers had to take out a loan last year to pay for their daily operations.
However, what you are saying now, is that the Glazers would take some other investors money, use it for personal use, and let the club to continue go down a downward spiral and not reinvest in the club, even though that is the reason they are looking to sell a minority stake in the club? How does that even make sense?
And what do you mean by "that's what they did to buy the club in the first place"?
Didn’t take long to un-unite the posters in this thread
I'm not getting my hopes up at this stage. Keeping my fingers crossed there is something in it; let's hope there are developments soon. We desperately need someone to come along who can at least begin the process of removing the Glazers. I don't think the fans are capable of forcing them out, as we lack the common purpose to get ourselves organised.
I reckon he’ll sign for Chelsea
Haven't looked but how is United's share price doing since all this came out?
Yep- if they sell in the next 10 years it will be just after a serious title challenge or a major cup, when positivity at the club is at its highest. No way I can see them selling at one of your lowest points since they took over. They’re businessmen first and foremost.
Went up 7% over night
gone up, supposedly thats a known trend in this situation
Nah. They’ll be gazumped by Barca
Up 25% in the last month too, which proves to me that I can’t, and never will, be able to predict markets.
alternatively, insider trading!
I'd be inclined to take it at face value, as in the intention is to sell a minority stake.
There seems to be some confusion as to who would be selling what. The glazers have been selling their own (preexisting) shares sporadically since 2012. They were the selling shareholder and the proceeds went to them. In this case, the seller (through newly issued shares) would be the club and the proceeds would go to it.
The size of the minority stake for a given level of investment would imply an overall value for the club as a whole, and that may attract other bidders.
This is also true!
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I do think the Glazers will sell to the highest bidder. And it wouldn't surprise me to see offers arrive from the middle east/Asia and elsewhere in addition to a offer from Jim Ratcliffe. I think a consortium from Dubai could come in for United to challenge their geographical neighbours the Abu Dhabi guys. Zayed Al Nayan is another name who is from Abu Dhabi and has been strongly linked to football clubs in recent years and has a family feud with the owners of Man City going back decades from what I've read.
I don't think this is as simple as the Glazers wanting to sell, and Jim Ratcliffe being ready in waiting to takeover. I think we will see many other potential buyers step forward in the event of a sale.
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