Michael Knighton preparing a hostile bid to remove the Glazers

What percentage of the club is owned by non-glazers? It’s not much is it?

I think something like 40 percent, maybe a bit more these days. Then there's the whole special class of shares the Glazers own that give them more voting rights than all the other shares combined.
 
I think something like 40 percent, maybe a bit more these days. Then there's the whole special class of shares the Glazers own that give them more voting rights than all the other shares combined.
I know very little about these things, but is a hostile takeover even possible with these Glazer specific shares?
 
Alright, with Knighton, Knightly, Keaton and Keating on board, that's $150m-ish secured. Just need the other 4.5 billion now.
 
I know very little about these things, but is a hostile takeover even possible with these Glazer specific shares?

I don't know to be honest. In essence the set up is pretty standard with class A and class B shares but to get a majority of the class b shares any buyer would probably need to offer triple the current share price and then even more for the Glazer's class a shares. You'd need 6-7 billion to pull off a hostile takeover of the club, maybe more.
 
If people think transfers are slow now, his attempts to buy United started 30 years ago, we'd have to sound out targets as they're being deposited inside their mums.
 
Alright, with Knighton, Knightly, Keaton and Keating on board, that's $150m-ish secured. Just need the other 4.5 billion now.
To quote the great man himself - “we have everything sorted - we just need Jim Ratcliffe on board” - I’m guessing he’s covering the other 99.9% of the funding. Everything else Knighton has sorted :drool:
 
To quote the great man himself - “we have everything sorted - we just need Jim Ratcliffe on board” - I’m guessing he’s covering the other 99.9% of the funding. Everything else Knighton has sorted :drool:
He’s probably in it for the 5% broker fee on the £4.6B valuation. I know I would be!
 
Who is he? Can someone give me a quick summary? Would this be a good thing?


He tried to buy us when the price was 10 million came on to the pitch before a game scored a goal then we discovered he had no money
 
He’s probably in it for the 5% broker fee on the £4.6B valuation. I know I would be!

Got to be more lucrative than his current grifting attempts:

640px-Michael-Knighton.jpg
 
What is actually a lot worse than the Glazers is fecking crazy owners or fan owned. That would really destroy us.

There is a common misconception about fan owned clubs that it means random lunatics fans are making all the decisions, or that fans end up running the day to day business of the club.

In reality, a supporters group or trust would exist, containing it's own board members or trustees. These would be separate to club board members, as the supporters group/trust would be distinct from the club, in the same way that Manchester United football club is distinct from Manchester United limited. The club board would in turn contain a % of representation from the supporters group/trust, depending on ownership % the supporters group have (and/or any additional allocation of independent board members). Members would vote on candidates to the supporters group board, and the supporters group board then vote on which of its own should serve on the club board.

The club board then appoints football people to football positions who do the day to day running of the club (as they do now). The football people answer to the club board, who answer to the supports group board, who answer to fans (paid up, registered members, not loonies on RedCafe).

In practise it means people who have the interests of the club as a whole as their incentive end up on the board, as opposed to board members who make decisions based on their own financial interests (which of course are somewhat tied to the interests of the club, but as we know from the Glazers, not always the case).

It's more boring than people think really. But more effective, potentially.
 
There is a common misconception about fan owned clubs that it means random lunatics fans are making all the decisions, or that fans end up running the day to day business of the club.

In reality, a supporters group or trust would exist, containing it's own board members or trustees. These would be separate to club board members, as the supporters group/trust would be distinct from the club, in the same way that Manchester United football club is distinct from Manchester United limited. The club board would in turn contain a % of representation from the supporters group/trust, depending on ownership % the supporters group have (and/or any additional allocation of independent board members). Members would vote on candidates to the supporters group board, and the supporters group board then vote on which of its own should serve on the club board.

The club board then appoints football people to football positions who do the day to day running of the club (as they do now). The football people answer to the club board, who answer to the supports group board, who answer to fans (paid up, registered members, not loonies on RedCafe).

In practise it means people who have the interests of the club as a whole as their incentive end up on the board, as opposed to board members who make decisions based on their own financial interests (which of course are somewhat tied to the interests of the club, but as we know from the Glazers, not always the case).

It's more boring than people think really. But more effective, potentially.

I know that. I said crazy owner and fan owned. I don’t like either. Crazy owners for obvious reasons and fan owned because I don’t think that type of model is the best for growth. Owners with skin in the game is more powerful. That said, it can work much better than Barcelona tbf.
 
I know that. I said crazy owner and fan owned. I don’t like either. Crazy owners for obvious reasons and fan owned because I don’t think that type of model is the best for growth. Owners with skin in the game is more powerful. That said, it can work much better than Barcelona tbf.

True, I'd rather have an owner who can invest heavily themselves and seeks to increase the success of the club. Downsides of that being with a club of United's size you're fairly limited to wealthy oligarchs who can afford that kind of investment. Even very wealthy businessmen tend to buy clubs, make big initial promises and investment, and then a few years down the line start trying to recoup their investment/losses. Given they're competing against oligarch clubs, it needs serious investment to compete. I'd be wary if I was a Chelsea fan about their new owners, especially when it's a consortium, as there will always be competing interests where some wish to invest, and others want to withdraw some funds.

The ideal owner would be an independent billionaire who can self fund, and isn't crazy. My second preference would be fan owned (the model I describe, others exist). Third preference a consortium of wealthy investors. Fourth preference, independent owners who try to balance the books but have some capability for investment. Fifth and final preference is what we have currently, owners who saddled the club with huge debt and take revenues out of the club.

United is so big, so well supported, and pre Glazers was debt free and generating huge revenues, if any club could be fan owned and compete with oligarchs and oil clubs it could/should have been us. What hurts is that we didn't even need big external investment, we just needed revenues to be invested back into the club. A fan ownership model could have overseen that.

Also, didnt mean to suggest you weren't aware of how club ownership model functions. I wasn't sure, but gave a generic explanation as it's also useful for other posters to read. I've seen a few posts before on here that associate fan ownership with fans voting on transfers and stuff over twitter.
 
Jesus wept. As shit as the Glazers are, I'm glad that didn't happen.

United signing announcements would be interesting.

"Manchester United is happy to announce the sponsoring of a new immigrant.

Welcome Lisandro!."
 
This club will be sold one day but I can almost guarantee it won't be to this guy.
 
For those of us who were in the Stretty, August ‘89, cheering as he scored, I’ll never believe another word that falls out of his lug hole.