Manchester United is for sale and is the subject of a takeover at a bargain price of £1.2 million according to The Daily Express. Except that it isn’t £1.2 million, it’s £1.2 billion (they flubbed the headline). And if The Daily Express can’t get the headline correct, how trustworthy is the actual story itself?
You can see the headline flub here (until they correct their mistake).
As for the story itself, the article contains no quotes from anyone about a supposed Manchester United takeover and there’s no attribution about the supposed story of United putting feelers out to Middle East buyers. Typical Express rubbish.
In the meantime, for a serious article by a much more qualified publication, read David Conn’s piece in The Observer in Sunday entitled The Premier League On Borrowed Time.
LOL. I hope this is complete BS the UAE is collapsing under debt with Dubai bankrupt if the Glazers sell it to these morons the club really will be finished in a few years.
Ideally the Club should be British in every sense. We have millions of supporters and if the fans set their minds to it the Club can be theirs. The Glazers are afterall glazers. In any case, a wealthy sheikh, with love for the Club, will be a lot better than even one-tenth or even a millionth part of a Glazer.
This is unrelated to the article but came to mind when seeing the figures. Do you Gaffer, or anyone else reading, feel like following football over the years has numbed you to what, in everyday life, would be an extrodinary sum of money? There are times when I notice myself passing off 5 or 10 million as nothing, simply considering it in terms of what it could buy you in a transfer market with no thought whatsoever to the actual amount / value. Has this happened to you?
Jose, that’s an excellent question and I completely agree. The massive sums I read about each day – whether it’s player wages or club debt – makes 5 or 10 million seem like nothing.
I was having a conversation the other day about how ridiculous the title of a particular TV show from the 1970s sounds today. It was “The Six Million Dollar Man.” Back then it seemed like a massive number, but if the TV show came back in this decade, it would have to be something like “The One Billion Dollar Man” to have the same effect.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Thanks for the link to the Observer article. Sobering reading for all clubs and fans.
2012-2013 is just around the corner. I don’t think the EPL can/will clean up shop by then. So, who’s going to blink…..the EPL or UEFA?
Qatar is NOT part of the UAE and actually owns Porsche and VW…they have the money and no recession worries.