Journalist Fabrizio Romano has revealed that the Glazer family are prepared to sell Manchester United despite rumours that a takeover may not happen.
What's the latest on the possible Man Utd takeover?
As per The Guardian, there are concerns among those interested in buying the club that the Glazers might have “played them for months” as they don't intend to actually sell the club.
The report explains that instead of sanctioning a full sale, the owners are hoping the recent publicity will help push up the price to create leverage for a loan or offload a minority stake to a hedge fund.
This would tally with what has been said in the Daily Mail – which claims the eldest Glazer, Avram, has always been against a full sale of the Premier League club.
However, while discussing the situation on The United Stand, Romano insisted that if the valuation of £6-7bn is met, Man Utd will indeed be sold.
The journalist explained: "Now they want six, up to seven billion pounds to sell Man United. So we have to see what's going to happen in these conversations with INEOS Group, and of course, with the Qatari group of Sheikh Jassim.
"The conversations, as we know, are still ongoing after new official bids. So these are going to be crucial days to understand more.
“But from what I understand, they [the Glazers] are open to selling Manchester United, but they want that money. Otherwise, they can also stay at the club.
"But the situation is pretty clear, they are prepared to sell. It's [also] up to the groups to decide what they want to do in case the Glazers will turn down the new bids."
Who will buy Man Utd from the Glazers?
Finnish businessman Thomas Zilliacus has also recently entered the race with a bid, which he believes is on "the same level" as the ones that have been offered by the likes of INEOS owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Qatari consortium of Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani.
With that in mind, the Glazers don't seem to be short of potential suitors, but it still remains to be seen how far the bids made so far are from meeting the current owner's valuations.
All in all, it feels as though this debacle may well rumble on for some time yet and it's hard not to wonder if any takeover will happen even with a very clear price tag for Man United publicly outlined.
