Spending money for Ten Hag may not revolutionise the United squad if controversial Qatari cash flows into Old Trafford (Picture: Getty)
News that Qatari investors are hoping to buy Manchester United and present Erik ten Hag with a gigantic transfer kitty must be a huge relief to fans forced to slum it watching their club shop in the bargain basement for Casemiro and burning £80million a pop on Harry Maguire and Antony.
A desire to see the end of the Glazers’ ownership at Old Trafford is understandable for many reasons but a desperate need for investment in the squad wouldn’t seem to be top priority at a club with an ageing stadium and whose outdated facilities were one of the many bones of contention Cristiano Ronaldo found while serving his second sentence in Manchester.
Since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 United have lurched from mediocrity to farce with the odd false dawn thrown in but the one constant has been a willingness to back a succession of managers in the transfer market – even if several of those purchases serve as a useful reminder to any future owners that it is not what you spend but who you spend it on that really counts.
Investment in the squad has been substantial, if a little scattergun, so any injection of Qatari cash is unlikely to have the transformative impact seen at Newcastle when the Saudi millions gave Eddie Howe the means to replace Jonjo Shelvey with Bruno Guimaraes.
Indeed the key factor stopping United from attracting the best players for the right reasons has been a lack of Champions League football and with Ten Hag looking perfectly placed to solve that problem in time for next season, the club look well set.
Qatari investment would not so much give United the chance to buy better players as give them the chance to pay more for them – bigger fee, higher wages and bigger cut for the agents. Call it the Boehly effect.
A takeover of Man Utd could bring human-rights issues with it (Picture: Getty)
Of course, certain legal troubles down the road at Manchester City could yet show that all the money in the United Arab Emirates is worth a little less if you are then accused of breaching financial fair play rules.
But, with the Qataris already owning Paris Saint-Germain and persuading Fifa to let them host a World Cup, they are unlikely to see Premier League regulations as an insurmountable trifle.
Any Qatari takeover at Old Trafford would also bring with it the kind of human-rights-ignoring baggage seen at City and Newcastle, and never entirely absent from the background of the recent World Cup. Some United supporters with a conscience have already voiced their opposition to the idea, presumably preferring Britain’s richest man, cuddly plastics billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, as their new sugar daddy.
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Incidentally we’re assured both Ratcliffe and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani – the Emir of Qatar – are huge Manchester United fans. Of course they are.
But, you know, a £300m war chest for Erik and all that. To some modern fans there is nothing else that matters.
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‘Some supporters with a conscience have already voiced their opposition.’
