The Glazers: Will the family sell Manchester United with Sir Jim Ratcliffe waiting in the wings? - The Warm-Up

FRIDAY’S BIG STORIES GOODBYE TO THE GLAZERS? Ad Faced with a season which is already threatening to unravel in front of their eyes and more angry protests from supporters, it seems like the Glazers have finally decided that the milk of the Manchester United cash cow has gone sour. Following murmurs that they could be open to selling a minority stake in the club, a spokesperson for Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire Ineos founder who was once the UK’s richest man, told The Times: “If the club is for sale, Jim is definitely a potential buyer… if something like this was possible, we would be interested in talking with a view to long-term ownership.” TransfersCasemiro tells Real he wants to join Man Utd, Ten Hag lines up Carrasco — Paper Round11 HOURS AGO Ratcliffe is not the only interested party.

Assuming the Glazers are serious about selling up in the long term and this isn’t a misguided deflection tactic, United’s next owners would be hard pressed to be as exploitative. While rival fans may have limited sympathy with United owing to them being, well, United, bad ownership is the blight of English football and affects clubs big and small across the league pyramid.

Contrary to the superficial reading – still remarkably widespread – that supporters are disgruntled because the Glazers haven’t spent enough money in the transfer market, United fans have consistently pointed towards the nature of Malcolm Glazer’s leveraged buyout in 2005 as a far greater factor in their disillusionment. The club has shouldered an enormous mountain of debt ever since, with net debt standing at just under £500m at last count.