Gary Neville has warned Liverpool’s Fenway Sports Group that Manchester United has more capability to pull any potential consortium.
This month, it has come to light that Liverpool’s American owners are eager to sell and have prepared a thorough presentation for potential buyers. As they gauge interest and receive offers, they have hired Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to help with the selling process.
According to Sam Kennedy, a partner at FSG, there has been a lot of interest in buying Reds stock. However, in an effort to end their contentious 17-year ownership of the club, the Glazer family has since put United up for sale.
The simultaneous sale of the two biggest clubs in English football is unprecedented, and Neville maintains that Liverpool will suffer as a result because the Reds will no longer be the most desirable club to purchase.
While having an interview with SkySports, the former United player said:
“I don’t want to be disrespectful to Liverpool at all because they’re a massive football club. When you look at the height of English football when it comes to viewing figures, fans, and commercial revenues – it’s Manchester United and Liverpool at the very top.”
“Manchester United will be more sought after and will fetch a higher price than Liverpool. Unless Liverpool has got something sorted, I think they’re going to have to wait a little bit because I think the buyers will go to Manchester United first – unless there’s a Liverpool fan who is very wealthy somewhere and has an allegiance to Liverpool.”
“But I think if you were looking at both, as an asset side by side, you’d choose Manchester United and that’s not me being biased as a Manchester United fan.”
“Liverpool are in a better position on and off the pitch at the moment, but you cannot deny the scale of Manchester United. When you look at commercial revenues, Manchester United as an asset are a better buy.”
The glazers were open to the idea of selling the club since last year, however, there was no concrete interest from interested parties.
However, Liverpool’s decision of selling their club triggered the decision of the glazers to immediately make it public that they are looking for investors. United has over one billion fans all over the world and they rank third in terms of financial pull (only losing the top spot to Barcelona and Real Madrid).
It is clear that the Red Devils have a greater capability of attracting the richest owners in the world. The club is showing considerable progress under Erik ten Hag and who knows, it would be an elite force in the upcoming years.
