The Manchester United Supporters Trust has urged the Glazers to accelerate the potential sale of the club to ensure Erik ten Hag gets the funds he needs to strengthen the squad in the summer and criticised the American family for leaving United in limbo and “in dire need of investment”.
The Raine Group, who are running the United owners’ search for either a buyer or minority investment, have set a third deadline at the end of April for bids to be submitted. But Finnish entrepreneur Thomas Zilliacus has withdrawn his offer to buy the club and called the decision to extend the takeover process to a third round of bidding a “farce”.
The billionaire United fan Sir Jim Ratcliffe has submitted an offer to buy 69 per cent of the club through his petrochemical company, Ineos, while the Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al-Thani is attempting to purchase 100 per cent of the shares and take complete control. The American hedge fund Elliott Management is also willing to offer financing, including to the Glazers themselves.
But the Glazer family are split on a potential sale and thought to be holding out for higher bids, leading to supporters to urge them to sell and to do so quickly.
MUST said: “When it was announced in November that the Glazers were undertaking a “strategic review” and inviting offers to buy the club, MUST welcomed the news and went on to urge the majority owners to move ahead with the process with speed, so that any period of uncertainty was as short as possible. Nearly five months on, a third round of offers will now be invited.
“With Erik ten Hag having made such great progress in his first season, and with the vital summer transfer window a matter of weeks away, the news of these delays and further prolonged uncertainty are of great concern. Erik needs to know what resources he has to spend so he can make the signings the club needs, and the whole management resources of the club need to be focussed on supporting him in that. That cannot be the case with the future ownership so unclear.
“We are also unable to move forward on major investment projects - not least the stadium redevelopment as we remain in limbo.
“We are in dire need of new investment, which undoubtedly requires new ownership. MUST, along with United fans all around the world, are calling for this process to be concluded without further delay.”
