Man Utd takeover ‘next step’ revealed amid claim key bidder has ‘won’ race to oust the Glazer family
According to Ben Jacobs, the “timescale” for the Man Utd takeover is “less urgent” as a new owner would not be able to “influence” this transfer window.
The Man Utd takeover process has been dragging on since last November. At the time, the Glazer family announced that they would “evaluate all options” and that a full sale was on the table.
INEOS’ Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim have since emerged as the leading candidates to oust the Glazer family but it remains to be seen whether Man Utd’s current owners will sanction a full sale.
Ratcliffe has reportedly offered the Glazers a deal that would see them remain on board with a reduced stake of around 20%, while Sheikh Jassim is only interested in a full takeover.
It was initially hoped that the takeover process would be concluded during the first quarter of 2023 but has dragged on into the summer and it is unclear if the end goal is in sight.
Conflicting reports have emerged regarding the takeover in recent months. Over the weekend, The Sun claimed that Sheikh Jassim is ‘set to win’ the fight to buy Man Utd, with a ‘done deal’ to be announced in November.
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Jacobs has regularly reported on the saga over the past nine months and he thinks the main bidders are “less panicked about a specific timescale” now that the summer transfer window is coming to an end.
“I think that the next step in terms of timescale is less urgent in some ways because this window is not going to be possible to influence and once you can’t influence the summer and because the Glazers have actually spent bigger than expected, whether the groups now we’ll get in this month, next month, the month after, it doesn’t quite make as much difference now,” Jacobs told Football FanCast.
“Summer is the best time for transition. But, if they get in, in September, October, or November, because the season planning is all done now, bizarrely, time is less important because the time was all dictated and the urgency was all dictated to get in for the summer.
“The fact that the groups can’t get in for the summer if any of them are successful now means that they’re almost less panicked about a specific timescale.
“It’s more about just understanding who is genuinely a front-runner in all of this and dropping the games and having the Glazers finally communicate whether they’re going to stay or go and that’s where we’re at.”
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