Man Utd takeover: Fans warned ‘competitive tension’ is fabricated as Glazers will ‘drag on’ £6bn sale

Lewis Oldham
Man Utd takeover

Man Utd supporters have been warned that the Glazer family can “drag on” the takeover process “as long as they want until they get their price”.

The Premier League club have been up for sale since the end of last year. The Glazer family were willing to “evaluate all options” with a full sale being one possible outcome.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim have emerged as the leading candidates to buy the club but several more bidders are in the running.

There was a 9pm deadline on Wednesday for improved bids but this has been extended as not all of the offers have been submitted.

Ratcliffe is the chief executive of INEOS. A spokesperson for the company confirmed on Thursday evening that they “have submitted a revised bid” for Manchester United.

Journalist Ben Jacobs adds: “Understand the Ratcliffe bid is improved from first offer and very competitive, based on confidence and positivity from the in-person meetings last week.”

Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan has offered his take on the Man Utd takeover process. He has rubbished suggestions that deadlines for bids have been in place.

“We’ve always said from the get-go, if they [the Glazers] get the price they want – and it’s probably slightly north of £5billion, it certainly isn’t £6billion – [they will sell],” Jordan told talkSPORT.

“There is a lot of misrepresentation in this – no one is getting extensions, because ultimately nobody expected anyone to put a drop-dead deal in place.

“What you’ve got is indicative offers, that’s the first stage. Show you’ve got the money, show you’ve got the means, show you’ve got the will – that gets you in the door.

“That then slims down the list of all the tyre-kickers and you get in a position of competitive tension. The Raine Group are doing their job which is to represent the Glazers and try to jack the price up between the various people who want to buy it.

“It’s not about deadlines, it’s just the process of selling a business.”

Jordan adds that the Raine group (the investment banking firm handling the takeover) are “using the media to create competitive tension”.

“The reason why this is finding so much yin and yang is that the media are pulling at the strings and the Raine group are using the media to create that competitive tension,” Jordan added.

“The truth is, this can drag on as long as the Glazers want it to until they get their price.

“It’s not set by deadlines, it’s set by commercial gain and if it takes six months to sell the business because you’re playing two sides against one another, that’s what it will take.”

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