Manchester United prospective buyer makes rallying call to fans

Manchester United’s relationship with its own supporters has rarely felt as strained as it does right now.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s tenure since INEOS took its 27.7% stake in 2024 has been defined by cost-cutting, including 450 job losses across two rounds of redundancies, the closure of the Old Trafford staff canteen, and lunch options at Carrington reduced to soup and bread for non-first-team staff.

His comments on immigration have added a fresh layer of anger too, first claiming the UK had been “colonised” by immigrants before apologising, then telling the BBC more recently that the country “is on the slide” because of it, prompting United’s Muslim Supporters’ Club to call for his departure.

Fans protested the ownership before the recent derby defeat to Manchester City, with pressure continuing to build from multiple directions at once.

Now one familiar face from United’s history has resurfaced with a call to action.

Manchester United prospective buyer makes rallying call to fans

Michael Knighton, who previously attempted to buy United, has issued a rallying call to fans on X, writing, “Calling all leading Utd fan groups I met just prior to INEOS becoming involved & during our drive to bring about positive change at OUR club, we need to meet AGAIN & soon.”

He added, “I will let you know where and when shortly. My thanks to ALL. God bless.”

Knighton’s history with United dates back to 1989, when his £20million bid, a record offer for a British football club at the time, was accepted by chief executive Martin Edwards.

He announced his arrival in typically theatrical fashion, taking to the Old Trafford pitch in a full United kit and juggling the ball in front of the Stretford End before the season opener against Arsenal.

Weeks of negotiations followed before key investors withdrew, and Michael Knighton abandoned the buyout entirely, settling for a seat on the club’s board of directors instead, a decision he has since described as “perhaps the biggest commercial mistake of my life.”

He left that role in 1992 to purchase Carlisle United, running the club for a decade before it entered voluntary administration in 2002, and he has not been formally involved in football since.

Knighton also attempted to organise a fresh takeover bid against the Glazers back in 2022, at one point describing Ratcliffe as the “saviour” he hoped might eventually step in and solve United’s ownership problems.

That hope has clearly since faded, with Knighton’s latest message suggesting he now views INEOS as part of the same pattern of discontent that originally drove his opposition to the Glazers.

Whether his renewed call to action gains any real traction among United’s various supporter groups remains to be seen, but it lands at a moment when frustration with the club’s ownership, on multiple fronts, shows little sign of easing.