Former Man Utd director 'making good progress' in 'hostile bid' for club

Former Manchester United director Michael Knighton – who famously nearly bought the club in the 1980s – says he is making good progress in a ‘hostile bid’ for the Red Devils.

The long-standing anger from fans towards the current ownership of Manchester United is only getting worse as their struggles on and off the pitch continue.

Opening weekend defeat to Brighton in the Premier League and a bizarre approach to the transfer market has seen frustrations felt even more sharply.

Knighton is hoping to ride to the rescue and buy the club from the Glazer family and reckons things are going well in a ‘hostile bid’ to takeover.

The 70-year-old memorably had a bid accepted for the club in 1989, promising huge investment and even appeared on the pitch at Old Trafford to celebrate his impending takeover, but it never came to pass.

However, he believes he can finally get hold of the club he supports, explaining that he is working to find partners to finance a deal.

‘We are a club in crisis and we all know the reason why,’ Knighton told Man Utd The Religion. ‘We have an inept and frankly useless ownership who know little about this game of football.

‘Everyone knows that we need new ownership of this football club and that is my aim and those are my objectives. I am making good progress, continuing to talk to the people, I have got some good pledges and good finance.

‘We are now working on the offer document. Remember, it is a hostile bid – that simply means that the club isn’t officially for sale. But my intention is to present these owners with a legitimate, potent and commercial offer to say: “You have run out of road, it’s time go, because your time is up”.

‘The club is in crisis and it will remain in crisis while we have this current ownership.’

Going into further detail on what needs to change at United, he said: ‘It is time for them to go.

‘They have to stop drawing these huge dividends out of the club. We have to stop paying these huge debt servicing costs. It is time for them to sell.

‘Putting this bid together, I don’t need to be the front person, I don’t need to be the spokesperson. I just want to see our Manchester United Football Club in the hands of proper football people with proper vision.

‘We need to repair our stadium and put our club back where it belongs. We are in crisis and it won’t alter until they go.’

United fans will want to see some actions rather than words from the businessman, who has never been shy to talk himself up.

His website reads: There are those in the sporting world that say Michael Knighton was the very man, indeed, they say he was, in fact, the “Big Bang” in professional sport.

‘He was the catalyst that triggered the race for all sporting entities to pursue a radical business model ( the same model he gave to Manchester United when he joined the board of directors on 25th October 1989) which encompassed, as its principal raison d’etre, the drive towards pure naked commercialism as a means of increasing revenue.’

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