A matter of time does not mean soon. It means the direction of travel is inevitable toward one outcome, but the time is unknown, hence "it's just a matter of time" . If they wanted to imply soon, they'd say soon.
The journalist came on a youtube channel to give proper context on his article too, which you have appeared to ignore.
Whilst I don’t want to interfere in your conversation, there is also matter of the club declaring its fourth periodic financial quarter and the final end of year annual financial report. This really must be done within the 2-3 weeks maximum and if there is a potential sale, then this must also be reported to all NYSE shareholders or at least outlined.
So it could be journalists are just putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5, maybe the chancers on Twitter/X could have actually taken a punt just like Custis and finally they got it right.
Assuming Custis was an ITK, he was once quite close to David Gill but not Fergie, let’s say hypothetically he had some insight and the Qataris have being doing a full due diligence and now things between them and the Glazers have come to a conclusion and a final sale has been agreed .
Even if the paperwork and a full deal was done, initially only the 69% Class B shares would be bought, allowing SJ to become the owner, this would still take 4-6 weeks make payments, pass PL fit and proper test, get an agreement from Uefa.
Then they would probably do a 100 day review, so from December 16th to the end of March. My guess is initially they might only put three or four people in so Arnold gets the boot and SJ puts his man in as CEO and then adds someone like Beckham as a board Director in a more hands on roll than say Bobby Charlton had but similar type lifetime ambassador.
You can 100% bet they will put their own Financial Director in from week one. I think every other decision would be made after the club had a full review, unless Paul Mitchel is a serious option and already spoken too.
If that’s the case they might bring him in above Murtough and Fletcher initially just to see what’s going on in that area. Fletcher will survive because he played for the club but in a different roll.
During that 100 day review, they will also be able to do a full analysis of stadium, training ground, youth and women’s team while at the same time making an enterprise value offer of the remaining Class A shares.
I think after they have settled the £700m debt they might invest £200m into a potential Winter Transfer Chest to give ETH a chance to make CL, but he’ll soon realise what he may have wished for as his dream owners will soon becomes his worst nightmare because after he’s spent more money in January on say Ivan Toney, Antonio Silva and Nicola Barella and still can’t get a tune out of the club he’s gone by March 2024!