With just under two hours to go until the Glazers’ soft deadline on bids for Manchester United, there was the second hard development in this process - and one that should be very difficult for the wider game to register. Qatari businessman Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani confirmed his interest in buying 100 per cent of the club, to go with that of Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Connected sources and reports in France indicated that the Al Thani offer is around €5bn (£4.45bn). That would leave it short of what the Glazers want, which was expected at this point, a stage described by insiders as “barely the opening salvo”. There was naturally chatter of a third bid, close to the 10pm UK deadline.
