Club Sale | It’s done!

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city-puma

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Are people still thinking that the Qataris are spending upwards of 5bn just to listen to everything ETH says.
No one really knows actually. A PSG supporter just gave his opinion a few pages back that Qatari owner will make manutd a circus just like PSG.
 

Marcus

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I mean the discussions and all are interesting, but at the end of the day, the Glazers are going to sell to the highest bidder and release a statement that the new owners have been chosen because selling the club to them is in the best interests of Manchester United. End of story. Can't wait for this saga to be over.
 

RedRonaldo

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I am in for Qatar. Time for us to outbidding everyone and welcoming the best young players in the world - which means we could also easily outspend everyone and buy the likes of Bellingham, Osimhen etc in the coming summer.

De Gea
Dalot Varane Martinez Shaw
Casemiro Bellingham
Bruno
Antony Osimhen Rashford
I am sick and tired of missing out the likes of Haaland, Tchouameni, Camavinga, Enzo, Felix etc over past few years. Its about time we turn it around.
 
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Wibble

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The US government not buying United is completely irrelevant. I don't know why people keep throwing that argument around. It wasn't even an issue when everyone was against Qatar hosting the World Cup. Why do people keep saying that Qatar is buying United anyways? That's just BS. And seriously when you're talking about any kind of money at that level, it's all going to stink, whether it's from owners running sweatshops in China, bypassing all kinds of tax laws that regular people have to comply with, non-ethical companies, state-sponsored....they're all just different kinds of shit as I've said before. The moral gymnastics is just incredible.
We are discussing the sale of United who are not the US government. So of course the actual bidders are under discussion and non-bidders aren't. In any case who wants the US government to buy us? Nobody.

Qatar are of course the bidders. To.think otherwise is terribly naive.
 

Wibble

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I mean the discussions and all are interesting, but at the end of the day, the Glazers are going to sell to the highest bidder and release a statement that the new owners have been chosen because selling the club to them is in the best interests of Manchester United. End of story. Can't wait for this saga to be over.
Agreed. Unless the FA decide to oppose it. Which I doubt.
 

pratyush_utd

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Someone would need to be quite naive (to use a kind word) to think a bid fronted by a member of the extended royal family, son of a former PM and Chairman of the Qatar Islamic Bank (whose main shareholder is the QIA) is actually financed from personal wealth and not state-backed. But then I'm sure there are still Newcastle fans trying to claim PIF isn't a proxy for the Saudi government either.

But in reality it doesn't really matter if people generally don't believe the fiction, as long as it passes whatever official tests are in place.

This is the tweet i am referring to.

Newcastle is false equivalency as PIF is Saudi government investment fund which they have admitted in US court. ADUG had released a statement when they bought Man City and QSI have publicly mentioned their investment in PSG. So state backed funds have no qualms in showing their involvement when they are involved. What is stopping QIA from coming out and mentioning the same? QIA and QSI can easily get around UEFA considering how Red Bull does it with their teams.

Anyway it was just a question and no one has any idea right now what exactly is the structure of the investors in Qatar bid.
 

pratyush_utd

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Yeah can see Whitwell & Crafton writing articles very anti-Qatar if their beloved Ratcliffe bid doesn't win which is sad really
Laurie will lose the access to the club so i dont think he will write any article which will be unfairly critical of the ownership. Crafton on the other hand has nothing really to lose as he hardly gets any scoop from the club these days
 

Bert_

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I am in for Qatar. Time for us to outbidding everyone and welcoming the best young players in the world - which means we could also easily outspend everyone and buy the likes of Bellingham, Osimhen etc in the coming summer.

De Gea
Dalot Varane Martinez Shaw
Casemiro Bellingham
Bruno
Antony Osimhen Rashford​
We already (or have been at least) outbidding other teams for the biggest players for years. And that's under the fecking glazers. We've just bought the wrong players. If we'd gone for cheaper/younger options then we might have not spent the last decade looking like a shambles.
 

Marcus

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I have an idea. Why not support the Qatar bid to buy United and they revamp the Stadium, training facilities and clear the debt. Then after all this is done, fans can protest their ownership and force a sale to Ineos? Win-win? Then we don't have to worry if Ineos will clear our debt or have enough money to put into infrastructure. They use us, we use them? All's fair?
 

Rolaholic

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Agreed. Unless the FA decide to oppose it. Which I doubt.
They allowed takeovers from direct sovereign funds, they have little to no grounds to oppose or reject a sale especially after the Newcastle sale.

The time to regulate or clamp down on this sort of takeover with foreign government ties was back in 2004 with Chelsea or 2008 with City. They decided to get in bed with that money instead so they opened the sort of pandoras box that has led us to now.

They've created this reality, it's far too late now.
 

AlPistacho

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Radcliffe is the least worst option for me of the realistic bidders (if he can be classed as realistic). We have a better chance of him staying out of the footballing side of things and letting Ten Hag do his thing without interference.

And, if it all goes belly up then at least he will be more likely to sell up. If Qatar get us then we are theirs forever more, regardless of how it's working out.
An article about Ratcliffe at Nice

Sir Dave Brailsford, the former Team GB cycling coach who now serves as the Ineos director of sport, acted as Nice’s de-facto director general in the summer. He conducted an audit of the club and then set about overseeing their transfer policy. That audit dragged on and – combined with a spectacular falling-out between Galtier and Fournier – the club wasted weeks of valuable time in the transfer market and were left scrambling.”


Nice were considered the best-run club in France in the 2016-17 season, when they challenged for the Ligue 1 title under manager Lucien Favre, president Jean-Pierre Rivère and transfer specialist Julien Fournier. They were top of the table at Christmas, lost just four games all season – fewer than PSG – and gathered an impressive 78 points on their way to finishing third.
Jim Ratcliffe, the owner of the Ineos chemical company who says he is in the running to buy Manchester United, bought Nice in 2019.
Despite his vast wealth, and input from Favre, Rivère and Fournier in recent seasons, Nice have been unable to replicate the success they enjoyed before Ratcliffe’s arrival.”

Not surprised. When you let a cycling coach become the general director I’m not surprised. Nice became such a crap show, seems worse run than United. Also concerned about how people move across his businesses. The cycling coach was also director at Nice and INEOS.
 
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croadyman

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You do realise that every football club is rooted in its locality? That’s the literal heart and soul of the club. So depressing how many fans don’t get this.
That was the old days but think that kind of romanticism died when Premier League endorsed foreign takeovers
 

Cantonagotmehere

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I keep reading this and I'm genuinely interested what the importance of someone visiting the middle east before they can criticise a gulf state is, most of the organizations that report on human rights issues in those countries do visit and investigate.

Would you need to visit Russia or North Korea to be aware that they are repressive dictatorships that trample on their own citizens rights?
Good luck with this mate.
 

croadyman

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I think it is important. If he turned the fanbase against all other bids it could have an impact. Only way he can win. Not going public with his intentions is a missed opportunity in my eyes. The Qatari bid has been leaking PR gold for the last week - if he’d got ahead of that he could have turned people against it. It’s a shame as I think his is the only bid that could have unified everyone. He needs to get a proper statement out there.
He could have unified if he talked about his plans for the club with the same confidence as Qatar. There wasn't anything about wanting to make us the best team on and off the pitch for a start.
 

Ahmer Baig

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Radcliffe is the least worst option for me of the realistic bidders (if he can be classed as realistic). We have a better chance of him staying out of the footballing side of things and letting Ten Hag do his thing without interference.

And, if it all goes belly up then at least he will be more likely to sell up. If Qatar get us then we are theirs forever more, regardless of how it's working out.

He's just a British version of the Glazers. He hasn't invested in Nice since he took over.
 

Bert_

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An article about Ratcliffe at Nice

Sir Dave Brailsford, the former Team GB cycling coach who now serves as the Ineos director of sport, acted as Nice’s de-facto director general in the summer. He conducted an audit of the club and then set about overseeing their transfer policy. That audit dragged on and – combined with a spectacular falling-out between Galtier and Fournier – the club wasted weeks of valuable time in the transfer market and were left scrambling.”


Nice were considered the best-run club in France in the 2016-17 season, when they challenged for the Ligue 1 title under manager Lucien Favre, president Jean-Pierre Rivère and transfer specialist Julien Fournier. They were top of the table at Christmas, lost just four games all season – fewer than PSG – and gathered an impressive 78 points on their way to finishing third.
Jim Ratcliffe, the owner of the Ineos chemical company who says he is in the running to buy Manchester United, bought Nice in 2019.
Despite his vast wealth, and input from Favre, Rivère and Fournier in recent seasons, Nice have been unable to replicate the success they enjoyed before Ratcliffe’s arrival.”

Not surprised. When you let a cycling coach become the general director I’m not surprised. Nice became such a crap show, seems worse run than United. Also concerned about how people move across his businesses. The cycling coach was also director at Nice and INEOS.
Yes I know about all that. That's why I said "least worst option". Still the more likely to let Ten Hag carry on as he is as long as we are moving in the right direction. The Qataris aren't going to take a back seat.
 

L1nk

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I was adamantly against the Qatar bid if it was a state funded bid. However - it seems to be from an individual and their own private wealth and the individual just happens to be from Qatar, i’m not saying he won’t have links to the state and we have to be careful and above all I want the club to be a welcoming place for all supporters. But If their statement is to be believed and they are genuinely a long time supporter of the club (and judging from pics of him in our kit on social media, he is.) then I like the sound of this bid. Investing in the infrastructure, in both squads, and investing in youth. But other than that I would like Ratcliffe, though we don’t know who the potential others are yet either
 

Vapor trail

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He could have unified if he talked about his plans for the club with the same confidence as Qatar. There wasn't anything about wanting to make us the best team on and off the pitch for a start.
Ratcliffe at this point is not going to have the clubs best interest at heart. His statement all but confirm so. Does anyone care about feeling Manchester in Manchester United. Can you imagine if the owners that purchased Chelsea said they wanted the club to feel London. We'd be in stitches. I'm unsure if it's a dig at foreign investment but it's such a poor metric when all fans will be concerned about from a club perspective is success.
 

Bert_

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I was adamantly against the Qatar bid if it was a state funded bid. However - it seems to be from an individual and their own private wealth and the individual just happens to be from Qatar, i’m not saying he won’t have links to the state and we have to be careful and above all I want the club to be a welcoming place for all supporters. But If their statement is to be believed and they are genuinely a long time supporter of the club (and judging from pics of him in our kit on social media, he is.) then I like the sound of this bid. Investing in the infrastructure, in both squads, and investing in youth. But other than that I would like Ratcliffe, though we don’t know who the potential others are yet either
:lol:
 

Rolaholic

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Let's also look at PSG before the Qataris. Why does no one ever talk about that ?
They were nowhere near the stature they are now.

Marseille were Kings in France with the likes of Monaco, Lyon and even Saint-Etienne and Bordeaux being bigger clubs than them at the time.

I remember visiting Paris years before the takeover and almost nobody I ever met supported the local club :lol:

Now they're the main continental giant in France after the last decade. For whatever circus buying big names has brought, they've firmly established that club as a giant from almost nothing pedigree wise.

You have to wonder just what they could achieve with an already well established behemoth in United.
 

RedRonaldo

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We already (or have been at least) outbidding other teams for the biggest players for years. And that's under the fecking glazers. We've just bought the wrong players. If we'd gone for cheaper/younger options then we might have not spent the last decade looking like a shambles.
Not really the same. Although we have also spend alot under Glazer, most of the expensive players we've bought over the years weren't really most exciting options in the market everyone wants, except only Pogba maybe.

Maguire 80m - we seems to be the only club really interested, and he is never worldclass anyway
Sancho 85m - although he is one of best young players in the game, it seems we are the only club interested in signing him for big money
Antony 85m - same as Sancho situation. We are the only club seems interested, he is not even the hottest young player in the market
Lukaku 80m - its us or Chelsea. He is not really a top player isn't he, its not like City, Real, PSG would be interested to go for him

Now during those same period could you imagine we could outbid those mega rich club to sign the genuinely best young players in the world everyone wants? Such as Mbappe, Haaland, Tchouameni, Camavinga, Felix, Enzo? But lets say if we have Qatar money maybe we could nick some of those names.

I believe with right manager (ETH) and full backing of the club (Qatar), we can most definitely back to the best club in the game.

Remember ETH under Glazer, in summer because originally we have to work on a budget, we are actually missing out on Haaland, Osimhen, Tchouameni, Enzo etc because we need to reserve money for De Jong pursue all summer? Not to mention January window we are missing out on Felix, Enzo and go for loanees like Weghorst, Sabitzer instead. With Qatar this won;t be an issue at all. This is the main difference.
 

Tarrou

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How can I debate when you’re just giving Ratcliffe a green pass. £5b debt? Ohhh INEOS will cover that no biggie. People don’t seem to realise that INEOS has investors and bond holders.

Or they assume INEOS will continue to make the same money? Not realising the industry it is in and extreme price volatility of things like petrol. I wonder how many people have actually checked to see what INEOS makes and it’s core ingredients?

Considering most people assume Qatar gets most it’s money from oil when it actually makes most its money from gas, I think not many people would have bothered checking on INEOS.
just respond to my point instead of creating straw men?

I don’t know why you think I like ratcliffe or Ineos or I’m defending their bid? I couldn’t give a feck about them or him - he’s a cnut

my only point was that Ineos will service the debt, which is the only thing I can see at this point that makes them a better option than the Glazers..
 

croadyman

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To Quatar. To nation states generally. To money dope sports washers in general; feck off. Go away. Hands off Manchester United. The club doesn’t need you. You will always be hated. Don’t invest. Go away. Goodbye. If you have anything to do with this club I’m out, and I can guarantee that thousands of fellow reds feel the same. Can’t use expletive here. But F off,
Who were you hoping was going to bid that would stop you walking away from this club
 

DevilRed

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We're already fighting the free press, that's kinda pre-emptive.

Keep the insults easy. She's just doing her job.
Not her job to be asking non-football related questions. Especially to the manager.

Plenty of Journos have been banned for far less in the past. Its nothing new and needs to be brought back to the club.

feck all to do with "free press".

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/may/24/fergie-orders-giggs-reporter-banned

 
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Bert_

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Not really the same. Although we have also spend alot under Glazer, most of the expensive players we've bought over the years weren't really most exciting options in the market everyone wants, except only Pogba maybe.

Maguire 80m - we seems to be the only club really interested, and he is never worldclass anyway
Sancho 85m - although he is one of best young players in the game, it seems we are the only club interested in signing him for big money
Antony 85m - same as Sancho situation. We are the only club seems interested, he is not even the hottest young player in the market
Lukaku 80m - its us or Chelsea. He is not really a top player isn't he, its not like City, Real, PSG would be interested to go for him

Now during those same period could you imagine we could outbid those mega rich club to sign the genuinely best young players in the world everyone wants? Such as Mbappe, Haaland, Tchouameni, Camavinga, Felix, Enzo? But lets say if we have Qatar money maybe we could nick some of those names.

I believe with right manager (ETH) and full backing of the club (Qatar), we can most definitely back to the best club in the game.

Remember ETH under Glazer, in summer because originally we have to work on a budget, we are actually missing out on Haaland, Osimhen, Tchouameni, Enzo etc because we need to reserve money for De Jong pursue all summer? Not to mention January window we are missing out on Felix, Enzo and go for loanees like Weghorst, Sabitzer instead. With Qatar this won;t be an issue at all. This is the main difference.
The players you have mentioned, we have missed out because they didn't want to come here generally (a lot to do with us being crap) no matter what we bid. Only Chelsea are stupid enough to pay the money they did for Felix and Enzo.
 

Rocksy

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“Putting the Manchester back into Manchester United” is utter cringe, isn’t it? Not that it means he’d definitely be bad, but I get the sense he hardly gets football, having his brother and Dave Brailsford run Nice at certain points.
 

DevilRed

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Shows how huge we are. Not just us but Madrid and Barca but only one can be bought
Reminds me of when marca had to photoshop a picture of the stadium in a preseason match against us, because most of the crowd in Michigan were in red.

Manchester United are still the biggest global draw.
 

city-puma

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They were nowhere near the stature they are now.

Marseille were Kings in France with the likes of Monaco, Lyon and even Saint-Etienne and Bordeaux being bigger clubs than them at the time.

I remember visiting Paris years before the takeover and almost nobody I ever met supported the local club :lol:

Now they're the main continental giant in France after the last decade. For whatever circus buying big names has brought, they've firmly established that club as a giant from almost nothing pedigree wise.

You have to wonder just what they could achieve with an already well established behemoth in United.
That’s true. PSG made name then by acquiring Rai.
 

marktan

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Ratcliffe is very much in the Boehly school of things, Ineos has been built from buying things at value and then increasing the value of said asset through various means. Which is exactly what Boehly will try to do. Both are no strangers to finance and debt.

It'll likely be the Qataris that win though. They may get a former prime minister's son to bid to make it look like a different organisation.. a Qatari rags to riches story he is not. It's just a sign of the times, assets all over the world have inflated to ridiculous, and combined with the premium sports bubble the only ones that can afford to buy assets like these are multi billionaires who specialise in financing or literal states. When you're buying the affection of hundreds of millions of people from every corner of the globe.. the price is not cheap.

When I say the Qataris owning United seriously dilutes my interest in United, I'm not saying it as 'oh I dislike the Qataris', it's really just what it represents as a whole. I in fact like the Qataris, Al Jazeera has long been a great open voice in the middle east, and Qatar has been a good counter balance to the Saudi stupidity in that region. It could be the Qataris, it could be Abu Dhabi, Saudi, whatever, they'll all spend ridiculous sums in the name of winning on the field and thus winning affection. The game has changed. At least with Boehly you sort of respect it, the man's gambling but he doesn't have a bottomless pit to fall back on.
 

Jam

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Interesting there’s only two announced bids. Thought there would be more, expected a US-controlled management firm or such like Liberty.

Albeit the real “cost” of a bid is probably closer to the 7 billion mark (4.5 billion is taking into consideration initial debt and investment required).
 

DevilRed

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Laurie will lose the access to the club so i dont think he will write any article which will be unfairly critical of the ownership. Crafton on the other hand has nothing really to lose as he hardly gets any scoop from the club these days
Nothing new. We've banned anti-united journos from the club in droves before. Especially those who ask off topic/off limit questions which they were told not to beforehand.
 
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