Jubilant Man Utd fans should celebrate Glazers looming exit with caution
If Cristiano Ronaldo was expecting a period of mourning he had a shock coming.
Not because there was little time to digest the news Manchester United had terminated his contract before the second bombshell hit the world of football.
Ronaldo will find this fact rather difficult to digest or accept. But it was because there was something far more important and significant happening than Ronaldo's departure – and it had United supporters braving the cold to celebrate in the streets of Manchester.
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Those despised owners the Glazers want to sell United. And it's a measure of how hated the American billionaires actually are that social media sites dictated United fans didn't care less about Ronaldo – the big news lay elsewhere for once.
Christmas has come early for all those who love the club. Ronaldo and the Glazers have a few things in common. Both milked the club for a fortune, gave little in return and will care nothing about what happens to United in the future.
Prospective buyers will now fall over themselves to become the new owners of a commercial monster so prolific at generating profits, it's difficult to fathom how the Glazers are willing to give it all up in the first place.
But those who want them gone need to be careful what they wish for. It's true the Glazers used United like their own personal cashpoint.
The Floridians borrowed more than half a billion quid to purchase United in the first place, then spent the thick end of the next two decades charging the interest on the loan back to the club, while trousering jaw-dropping sums of dollars in dividends in the meantime.
This act of self-serving indulgence has been on an industrial scale. And to add one final insult to all the injury, the Glazers will no doubt ride off into the sunset with several billions more in profit should someone meet the asking price of around £6 billion.
But the real scandal here is how this scenario was ever allowed to happen in the first place. And whose to say the same thing won't happen again when the new owners cruise through the Premier League's 'fit and proper persons test' to get their hands on one of the biggest clubs in the world?
Could the Glazers' successors be Saudis? Or Chinese, or tech giants Apple, who have no experience of owning and running a football club?
Would these people still want Erik ten Hag as manager, or be willing to spend what is needed to see United capable of competing with Manchester City and Liverpool for the major trophies? Would points and prizes be more important to them than pound notes?
And the worst scenario of all. Do the Glazers genuinely want to sell up? Mike Ashley first said he wanted to flog Newcastle in 2009, but didn't do so until 2021.
Supporters will obviously hope the intentions of a new regime are the right ones, because it is almost a decade now since United were last crowned the champions of England. And United haven't won the Champions League since 2008.
But the fact is those people who have suffered the most from United's demise are the same people who have no control whatsoever over who the next kingmakers will be.
So feel free to celebrate the impending exit of the Glazers. Then keep everything crossed that those who seize control next are worthy of a club with the heritage and tradition of United.
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