Kieran Maguire: Glazers ‘tricked’ by Chelsea as £6billion news baffles Man United buyers
The Glazers have been “tricked” by the sale of Chelsea and gotten “giddy” with their £6bn asking price for a Man United takeover.
That is the opinion of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about the unrealistic takeover terms from the Glazer family.
Both Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s consortium and Qatari investors have submitted official bids for a majority stake in the Red Devils since the club welcomed investment back in November.
But the Glazer family’s price tag for the club is reported to be around £6billion, with both bids so far falling short of that asking price.
Chelsea’s sale to Todd Boehly last year was worth £2.5billion – a fee that would be dwarfed should the Glazer’s asking price be met.
Maguire believes that United could be worth more than the £4.5billion bids currently on the table, but only if owners found a way to monetise the club’s global fanbase.
“The bids for Man United are below the Glazer’s expectations, but they’re not below market expectations from any traditional valuation metric.
“I think the Glazers have got a bit giddy following the Chelsea sale and been tricked into thinking that Manchester United is worth three times the Chelsea price.
“And while Man United is more valuable for a variety of reasons – strength of the brand, matchday benefits and so on – their asking price is high.
“If somebody can manage to monetise the relationship between fans and club, then Man United at that point will probably be worth more than £4.5bn.
“But nobody has achieved that to date.
“Everybody in the football industry has been scratching their heads as to how they can monetise a global fan base.“
In other news, Kieran Maguire makes Man United takeover claim after source’s Qatari bid news today – ‘only one reason they would pay that price’