Recent reports that Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the emir of Qatar is keen to invest £250m in United were backed up by an article in the Express:
'City financier Keith Harris is in negotiations with a Middle East government to buy out the Irish stake of 29 per cent in Manchester United from John Magnier and JP McManus for £250million and effectively save the club from a takeover by Malcolm Glazer. An insider said: "They would be seeking some sort of sponsorship link with United although naming the stadium is not on the agenda." Harris’s master plan is to ensure that United are safe not just from Glazer, but any future predators."
United's share price took a slight drop on opening this morning, giving an overall fall of six per cent since the Glazer-fuelled high of a month ago.
The fall is not as steep as some had predicted in pure cash terms Glazer's shareholding has been devalued by over £11 million in one month. With the cost of his borrowings mounting up he will be looking for an exit before further losses on the share price seriously damage him in the long-term.
In developments elsewhere Glazer has asked his American PR firm to handle his United 'account'.
Battered and bruised he may be but this is not the time to allow our guard drop. Glazer can no doubt off-set his losses against the devaluation of the US dollar but the appointment of a US-based PR consultancy is being interpreted in some quarters as further evidence of a man in retreat.
What is needed now more than ever is a strategy to lift United out of the constant speculation that has dogged the club ever since that unholy trinity of Edwards, Watkins and Sir Roland Smith led us into plcdom.