Manchester United can expect a takeover offer soon. Michael Knighton, a 70-year-old businessman who also made an attempt to get hold of the English club more than 30 years ago, says the current owners should leave. He himself would then be ready to take over the baton at the club where Erik ten Hag is a trainer.
A consortium led by billionaire Knighton is poised to make an offer for Manchester United in the foreseeable future. The seventy-year-old Englishman himself made this known during a broadcast on Man Utd The Religion, a YouTube channel where Man United are discussed. “The club is in crisis and everyone knows why,” Knighton refers to the Glazer family, who the Mancunians now seventeen years in the hands. “They are incapable, useless and have little understanding of football.
The businessman himself says he is ready to take over from the Glazers. “Everyone is aware that new owners need to come and I want to take care of that. I am working on it, talking to people, I have already received promises and know that the finances are in order. Now it is only a matter of to provide the documentation. Officially the club is not for sale, but I hope to convince them with a strong commercial offer. It’s time to go, I want to give them.”
Last Sunday, Ten Hag’s United lost the season overture in the Premier League to Brighton & Hove Albion. The Seagulls took a handsome 1-2 victory to the English south coast and that was the well-known straw for Knighton. “We could also have played against the English women’s team and then we would have lost. The feeling was so good at first, but that is now completely gone. Under the current club board, the club is in crisis and will remain in it. That’s the reality.”
Knighton caused a stir in 1989 by making a £20 million bid for Manchester United, a record sum for a football club at the time. The owners of the Red Devils agreed, of course, but the takeover did not go through. Several investors withdrew at the last minute and Knighton decided to take over the puny Carlisle United. At that club he appointed himself as a trainer and relegation to the third level was the result.