Man Utd takeover: Supporters' Trust urge Glazers to speed up sale

The Manchester United Supporters’ Trust (MUST) have penned a letter to the Glazer family imploring them to speed up their sale of the club.

A deadline for bids was initially scheduled for March 22 but was soon extended to encourage further offers, before being stretched out once again to create a second, and eventually third, round of bidding – something Finnish businessman Thomas Zilliacus branded ‘a farce’ as he withdrew from the running.

The remaining bidders, including Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, will now have until April 28 to submit their latest offers.

Delays to the takeover process have created significant uncertainty for the United first team, with summer transfer plans all on hold until the future of the club is decided, and the MUST have urged the Glazers to speed things up.

“When it was announced in November that the Glazers were undertaking a ‘strategic review’ and inviting offers to buy the Club, MUST welcomed the news and went on to urge the majority owners to move ahead with the process with speed, so that any period of uncertainty was as short as possible,” a statement from the MUST read.

“Nearly five months on, we read speculation that offers from prospective buyers remain below the Glazers valuation, and that a third round of offers will now be invited.

“With Erik Ten Hag having made such great progress in his first season, and with the vital summer transfer window a matter of weeks away, the news of these delays and further prolonged uncertainty are of great concern. Erik needs to know what resources he has to spend so he can make the signings the Club needs, and the whole management resources of the Club need to be focussed on supporting him in that. That cannot be the case with the future ownership so unclear.

“We are also unable to move forward on major investment projects – not least the stadium redevelopment as we remain in limbo.

“We are in dire need of new investment, which undoubtedly requires new ownership. MUST, along with United fans all around the world, are calling for this process to be concluded without further delay.”