Due diligence will last another week as Glazer's bid looks increasingly desperate.
Red Issue has learned that due diligence has been going on for the past week and will, surprisingly, take another full week to complete, at which point Glazer will make another re-jigged approach to the plc – an approach which is not expected to differ much in substance from January’s debt-in-drag abomination.
If the board stands firm and continues to reject him – and there will clearly be no good reason for them to do otherwise – Glazer’s unofficial briefers are claiming that he will seek an immediate EGM to remove Gill from the board and replace him with Joel Glazer. This is a sign of their complete desperation, for such a newly-constituted board will, of course, be completely unworkable. Recipients of these briefings conclude that it is a bluff designed simply to make Gill kowtow, and surely only a coward would do so – something we know that Gill is not.
The board will be fortified by the revelation we make here that, in November after the first bid was rejected, operatives in the pay of Brunswick sought to find possible buyers for Glazer’s entire stake in United, leading many observers to believe that Glazer had either been ‘green-mailing’ all along – as he did when stalking Harley Davidson – or at the very least is quite prepared to cut and run at a moment’s notice should his approaches be obstructed. So much for the Glazer family claims of their devotion to Manchester United and their unshakeable commitment to its capture!
Brunswick, we must state in fairness, have hotly denied to a newspaper who put this allegation to them yesterday that a sale was ever contemplated and claim that Glazer immediately started putting together a new bid team when November’s bid failed. However, the sequence of events at the time – when Glazer’s camp did nothing but sulk and pram-toy-hurl for several weeks – surely fails to support this assertion. Moreover, Brunswick dissembled flat out when the infamous Glazer discussion document was leaked back in November, assuring the Telegraph that the documents were forgeries and that the sale and leaseback of OT option was never on the agenda. These denials were soon demonstrated to be entirely bogus and the Telegraph ran the full leak story, even though the journo involved was a good personal friend and fishing partner of the Brunswick spokesman in charge of the denials!
In light of the above, therefore, it is with some confidence that we prefer to believe the story told to us by longtime trusted sources and friends in the City than that offered by paid corporate lackeys. We say to the board once more: stand firm. You will be offered no acceptable reason by Glazer to change your stance, and the record suggests that if Glazer is knocked back again, he is likely to fold his tent and try to offload his entire stake, given that he cannot go to the Irish without your recommendation. For Cubic continue to make it plain, both privately and publicly, that they are happy to remain long-term investors and it seems inconceivable, given what happened last year over the Rock Of Gibraltar/Cheltenham/Hereford imbroglio, that they would sell out to the hated Glazer against the clearly-expressed wishes of the board, fans and players of Manchester United.
Joel Glazer is currently ill - nothing trivial, we hope – but is apparently planning to come to the UK "within 14 days" to launch a PR offensive in the wake of a second bid approach. Thus it would seem that he has paid no heed to the statements issued by parties who would seek to dissaude him from coming to the country. So be it. Let the end-game commence. All Reds are urged to redouble their campaigning efforts and ensure that the Glazer bid, with the help of the board and the media, is finally pushed over the edge into the abyss below. Oh and hey, good luck trying to find a buyer for your over-inflated and expensively-bought shares, Malcolm: what’s it like to lose your shirt, troll-features?
Finally, look out in tomorrow’s Sunday Mirror for a splash exclusive taster from Wednesday’s RedIssue special edition fanzine on an amazing new development in the fans' campaign - one that will cause Glazer and his backers to realise that all their financial projections are in jeopardy and that will also make Nike, Vodafone and the rest of the already-nervous sponsors shit their pinstriped pants…
***UNITED NOT FOR SALE***