How the Glazers sale timeline at Man Utd may have leaked the Man City punishment
Only Manchester United could lower the mood of their supporters on the day that news of their successful bid to land their long-term managerial target dropped.
Some believe him to be a ‘fraud‘, but most we suspect will be pleased by the imminent appointment of Mauricio Pochettino. He’s certainly better than this club – or more accurately, the people who run this club – deserve.
The revelation that they’ve reached a ‘full agreement’ with Poch has been tinged somewhat by the mistreatment of incumbent manager Michael Carrick, who took training on Wednesday as he waits for the sack.
That’s because director of football Jason Wilcox, CEO Omar Berrada and whoever else is involved in the decision had to fly to Monaco to ratify the decision at their regularly scheduled meeting with Sir Jim Ratcliffe, as a zoom call apparently wouldn’t suffice.
After calling out Wilcox at their pre-season training camp in Dublin over a lack of signings, Carrick has every right to feel aggrieved for being dealt a duff hand by the Old Trafford hierarchy, who are now prolonging his misery in a fitting show of “disrespect” to a manager who should never have been appointed but also wasn’t given a fair shot.
But hey, at least the Glazers won’t be around much longer.
After Avram Glazer broke cover to confirm – not that we needed any such confirmation – that he doesn’t give a shiny sh*t about what United do on the pitch as long as they remain a commercial giant, it was reported that Manchester United are “for sale”. Praise be.
That dream has lasted less than a day thanks to a bubble-bursting report from our friends at TEAMtalk.
Sources close to Man Utd have revealed that ‘the Glazer family are unlikely to sell their controlling stake before the club’s their new stadium is completed’.
The report adds:
‘Joel and Avram Glazer, who retain majority ownership, are understood to believe that a new ground will lift the club’s overall value into the £8-10billion range, maximising the return on their long-term investment.
‘With plans for a new home ground progressing, they are understood to be happy to wait rather than accept a lower valuation in the current market.’
Plans may indeed be progressing, but they’re yet to break ground on the new 100,000-seater stadium, which they want built in time for the 2035 Women’s World Cup.
That’s nearly a decade more of the Glazers, who have been told to “stick your new stadium up your arse” by fans at the end of their tethers.
And there’s a hidden sting in the tail of this report of protracted and no doubt increasingly damaging Glazer ownership. It hints at United fans being dealt indirect pain through inadequate punishment for their noisy neighbours.
Manchester City have been found guilty of 114 breaches of Premier League rules and an appeal is ongoing before they appeal whatever sanction is handed out ahead of a trip to the High Court as Lord Pannick and co. explore every avenue to kick a punishment down the road.
Still, whatever punishment would surely arrive before 2035, which suggests – through conflating the TEAMtalk report with the claims of ESPN at the end of last month – that City are set to avoid relegation.
ESPN sources claimed there are ‘two potential sale triggers’ for the Glazers: The construction of their new stadium and Man City being relegated from the Premier League and removed as a major rival.
Therefore the Glazers are waiting for the stadium because City aren’t going down?
We know, we’re reaching. ‘Potential’ is doing some heavy lifting and in truth the thought of the Glazers putting the club up for sale on the day Man City are relegated from the Premier League always felt too good to be true for a fanbase that evidently isn’t allowed nice things.
The stadium was always the more likely sale trigger, if indeed the Glazers ever decide to stop milking the thinning Man Utd cash cow.
But it will be hard for disconsolate United fans to imagine anything other than an insufficient Man City punishment in a modern football world where even glimpses of positivity can’t be allowed to endure or even take hold without being swallowed by the all-encompassing misery hole that is theirs and their football club’s existence.
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