Gutless yet expected: The Glazers will hand Man United one last blow before takeover

Manchester United fans have become accustomed to the incompetency that the Glazer family have brought upon the football club since their takeover in 2005.

Whether it be their lacklustre strategies in transfer windows – where they put an investment banker in charge of directions for the majority of their tenure – or their severe lack of investment in any part of the club, most notably the stadium and training ground, however.

Yet, even in their seemingly dying days at the club, the American family are still ensuring that if they leave, it’s done with the lack of class that they have become associated with in the last two decades.

After announcing their intentions to “explore strategic alternatives” in November, not many people would’ve thought that we’d still be in the dark about the takeover process in late June. That is, however, how the Glazer family operate.

A smooth transition is hard to come by when dealing with astronomical fees like those involved in this process. Yet, after everything in the last seventeen years, maybe some believed that the Glazers would at least give the potential new owner a chance to come in ahead of one of the club’s most important transfer windows in recent memory.

Instead, we are continuing to see reports of United’s interest in players but which depend on the ownership situation. Erik ten Hag admitted last week that he’s in the dark and is unsure about his budget to improve his team.

The Dutchman has made large strides in his debut campaign at Old Trafford, winning the club’s first trophy in six years with a victory against Newcastle at Wembley in February – a game that Avram Glazer made a rare appearance at – but the need for reinforcements in the squad is evident. If Ten Hag is going to be successful at United, this window could be pivotal.

Yet, it could all be impacted by the leeches at the top in their last efforts to have negative impacts on the club.

Perhaps this is what we all should’ve expected. The family is still yet to invest a single penny of their own money into the football club and are still aiming to drag the price higher, or even worse, feel like they still have a part to play after smelling the smallest of successes under new management. A couple more billion quid by waiting a few years? We would not be surprised. Thankfully, the likelihood of them leaving seems more than likely, but the way in which it has been handled is through the pure greed that we are now used to.

Their tactics to increase the price remain classless. Avram Glazer appeared at the Women’s FA Cup final earlier this month to watch the team that he and his family scrapped shortly after joining the club because it was not in their “core business” interests. Maybe The Reds could’ve overcome Chelsea in the final if they had not needed to start from scratch again when the team was re-established in 2018.

His reported £250,000 jet across the Atlantic pond to watch the game is not far away from the £2.1 million that the Women’s team can spend on player salaries for a squad that has multiple top-quality talents entering the final months of their contracts.

As the title says: Gutless yet expected. This entire situation could lead to issues for the club in the next season. In the end, it’s businessmen trying to get the best deal possible. But when you take everything into context, you would’ve hoped that the Glazers would spare their only act of class in their 17-year tenure for now. We’ll still be waiting for that long after they’ve exited the club.

Their last form of action will come as a blow for Ten Hag’s side through the prolonged exit strategy they’ve taken. It will give the new regime a difficult situation to take over into and Chelsea’s actions this term have shown how a lack of quality transfer planning when coming into a club can easily backfire, in the short term at least.

Luckily, the club should be rid of the ownership that has sunk them into mediocracy. That does beat any other blow that the Glazers could produce.