Fabrizio Romano has revealed that the main priority of potential Qatari investors for Manchester United is to make serious improvements to the playing squad.
What’s the latest with Man United’s takeover?
The Glazer family is set to sell the club amid years of protests against their ownership, and bids have now come in from a Qatari consortium led by Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani from Qatar and British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Both bids are on the table, and both parties have expressed their desire to bring the glory days back to United, who have not won a major trophy since 2017.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Romano claimed that the main priority of the Qatari investors is to improve performances on the pitch, which would see them invest in the first-team squad to help manager Erik ten Hag succeed.
He said: “They will look to invest in some key areas. The first one – the football team. So the Qatari group is really prepared to invest big money in the transfer market to help the football team.
“It’s not just about the signings, but it’s about the contracts, it’s about making sure Man United have an important and fantastic squad. So this is the full priority.”
What could a Qatari takeover mean for Man United?
United have spent a lot of money in recent years, with an outlay of over £1bn on signings since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson a decade ago, and a lot of these signings proved to be failures.
A lack of direction from the top regarding recruitment, as well as managerial appointments, has landed United further in their mess, with their wage bill soaring as players arrived on huge contracts which proved to be poor decisions.
Big-money flops such as Romelu Lukaku, Angel Di Maria and Harry Maguire have shown that their poor squad building stemmed from misdirection at the top, with previous executive Ed Woodward coming in for heavy criticism over the years.
We feel United finally have a manager who is instilling his style at the club, and with potential extra investment, if the new owners – be it from Qatar or elsewhere – implement a strong recruitment structure, they could be well on their way to success at the top level again.