Why the go (all) around the houses approach to the sale?
Why not say this price is XYZ and that is it?
Raine, technically act on behalf of the club, but clearly under the instructions of the Glazers.
They have deployed an assortment of techniques to create an auction.
I would have assumed that with these blue-chip outfits things would be more sophisticated and less crude when negotiations took place, obviously I know nothing.
They have used the silent treatment to create uncertainty and to unnerve the bidders. Jassim having to reach out to the Glazers directly.
They have cultivated an atmosphere where no party fully knows where they stand. There is, I imagine, a playbook for such things.
Sir Jim's, nuanced Glazer retention offer, would have required more communication with Raine and their lawyers because you would need to draft out some sort of working arrangement to ensure it worked for all parties otherwise why bother.
That necessary communication was then being portrayed as significant progress with one party making the other feel that they were being overlooked/losing. Raine simply didn't bother to communicate much to Jassim.
Raine recognised that both main bidders were in the process for the long haul and have effectively played each party off the other.
Neither Sir Jim's and Jassim’s teams are stupid but their instructions are to purchase the club and that creates its own pressure, even where you try and remove emotion from the process.
The more recent drip feed of information seems to suggest that Sir Jim's team have recognised a shift in the nature and quality of communications between their team and Raine indicating that something unusual is taking place and perhaps Sir Jim's is now coming to the conclusion that he is being edged out?
What surprises me, a veteran of failed low level negotiations - car boot level, why have Raine not been more direct and just said to each party we are looking for this and your bid is here and theirs is there, however, whoever gets to XYZ, or above, will win otherwise don't bother.
Did they really need to make the process this mysterious? Were the bidders so switched on to the exact minimum figures required that the only way to make them jump was to create an aura of uncertainty.
I think the tortured strategy was used because the Glazer's need to sell. They could not afford to lose leverage. They did not want to lose any serious contender and had to keep them in the process but knowing when to prod or not.
Raine could never declare that it is this price or bust because they were always looking to sell. If they said it can only be sold at XYZ then we would have finished this process long ago? So why have Glazer’s not withdrawn – because they want to sell.