Man Utd transfer news

MICHAEL KNIGHTON has vowed to complete a “hostile” takeover of Manchester United.The 70-year-old served as a director at Old Trafford between 1989 and 1992 before waltzing off to buy, and even manage, Carlisle United.
Michael Knighton is trying to buy Manchester UnitedCredit: The Sun
Knighton, 70, worked with Sir Alex Ferguson at Old TraffordCredit: Getty – Contributor
The former headmaster, turned football owner, turned poet hellbent on ousting the Glazers has lived a colourful life in and out of the beautiful game.
Let’s take a look at the man trying to become the owner of Manchester United.
YOUTH FOOTBALLER
Knighton comes from a strong footballing family, with his great-grandfather Willie Layton having starred for Sheffield Wednesday in the 1900s.
The full-back was part of Wednesday’s 1903 and 1904 title-winning teams, before also lifting the FA Cup in 1907.
READ MORE ON MAN UTD
Knighton himself possessed a talent for football growing up – representing Everton’s academy as a teenager.
He even told EFC Heritage Society that a member of the Toffees’ coaching staff had remarked that he was the “best youngster at that age he had ever seen”.
The homesick teen would head to Coventry to be closer to his Derbyshire home, however, before a thigh injury unfortunately put paid to his hopes of becoming a professional.
HEADMASTER
After his football dreams were shattered Knighton initially turned to academia, attending Durham University to complete a degree in physical education.
Most read in Football
FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS – BEST NEW CUSTOMER OFFERS
He clearly couldn’t get enough of learning, as he then went back to study philosophy, politics and Mandarin Chinese, before also attaining an FA coaching badge.
Knighton turned to teaching in 1976, moving to Huddersfield to take on a role at St. David’s School, going on to rise to headmaster in 1980.
Three years on he took the unorthodox route of buying the entire school, but in 1984 he quit teaching in order to start a property business.
He attained a number of assets across the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, before later resurfacing in football…
FIRST UNITED BID
In August 1989 Knighton exploded on to the First Division scene by lodging a staggering £20million bid to buy Man United.
The bid was the largest sum offered for a British club in history at the time and was duly accepted by then-chief executive Martin Edwards.
Desperate to impress the Old Trafford faithful, Knighton donned a full United tracksuit and astonishingly took to the to pitch to try and impress fans with his football skills, performing keepie-uppies for the crowd prior to the 4-1 win against Arsenal in 1989.
He also pledged to invest £10m in Old Trafford itself, but when two of his backers pulled out, the deal hit the rocks.
Knighton tried to get other backers onboard but as the deadline to prove his funds approached he opted to back out of the deal – instead taking a seat on the club’s board.
After three years with Sir Alex Ferguson and Co, Knighton departed to fulfil his ambition of owning a club outright.
Knighton astonishingly tried to impress fans by completing keepie-uppies on the pitchCredit: PA
The Man United board member poses with Sir AlexCredit: Getty
Knighton chats with Fergie’s assistant Archie KnoxCredit: Rex
CARLISLE BOSS
In 1992, Knighton completed the purchase of Division Three strugglers Carlisle United, boasting that he would take them to the Premier League.
Things started well, with Mick Wadsworth leading them to the Div Three title in the 1994-95 season, before they won the 1995 Auto-Windscreens Shield final in what Knighton described to the News and Star as his “greatest day in football”.
Cracks began to appear from there, however, with Wadsworth leaving for Norwich and his side being relegated back to the bottom tier after choosing to invest in their Brunton Park home rather than the playing squad.
Fans found a hero in Wadsworth’s successor Mervyn Day and they were able to get promoted back to Division Two at the first time of asking… only for Knighton to sack his popular manager in September of the following season.
I was always a tracksuit chairman anywayMichael Knighton
Already facing accusations of possessing an enormous ego, he replaced Day with… himself – although young coaches John Halpin and David Wilkes did the actual work.
He later explained to the News and Star: “I wanted to give those two young lads a chance. I said if there was any flak, I would take it. I was always a tracksuit chairman anyway.
“But if you’re a manager you select the team, take the coaching, and do the team-talks at half-time. I never took one coaching session or did one team-talk, ever.”
During his whacky spell at Brunton Park he tried to launch his own local newspaper, before making headlines in more established publications by claiming he and his wife had seen UFOs.
Speaking to the News and Star in more recent years Knighton bemoaned the treatment his extra-terrestrial encounter got, doubling down: “My wife would tell you the same story of what we saw. I said, ‘Look, it wasn’t of this world’.
“Oddly enough now, with what’s been released from the Pentagon, you don’t get ridiculed quite the same way.”
After another relegation fans turned on Knighton and launched a campaign to oust him, calling on fellow supporters to boycott the club shop and to stop buying tickets.
I’m not going to sit here and say Michael Knighton was a saint who’s got no flawsMichael Knighton
Carlisle were just moments away from dropping out of the Football League in 1999, only for goalkeeper Jimmy Glass to score a last-gasp goal against Plymouth Argyle to keep them up on the final day.
Eventually Knighton’s position became untenable and he finally sold the club in August 2002.
Reflecting on his tenure, he admitted: “I’m not going to sit here and say Michael Knighton was a saint who’s got no flaws.”
Michael Knighton poses with an alien maskCredit: News and Star
The then-Carlisle owner chats with David Sullivan at the 1995 Auto-Windscreens Shield finalCredit: PA:Press Association
Knighton lays a kiss on Jimmy Glass after the goalkeeper’s heroic goalCredit: North News and Pictures
RECLUSIVE ARTIST
Following his acrimonious Carlisle departure, Knighton sought refuge in painting and returned to the Channel Islands.
Asked what he did after selling up by the News and Star, he replied: “I went straight into my art studio and painted for about ten hours.”
Living on the island of Sark, which has a population of around 500, Knighton lived a solitary existence.
He said: “It was wonderful. I loved it. My only two friends were Henry – a bicycle I had – and Phoenix, who was a seagull I rescued. It had a broken wing, and I reared him in the bath.
“He used to sit on my shoulder and rub his head [against me]. He thought I was his mother. The day I threw Phoenix back to his own kind, tears were rolling down my face.
I used to sketch all dayMichael Knighton
“And he circled, and kept coming back. Then he realised, ‘This is where I need to be’, and he went.
“There was a monk I also got to know very well. I used to go to Evensong at the local church on Sundays. That was it. I used to sketch all day.”
It later emerged than Knighton had been working as an artist and poet under pseudonym Kongthin Pearlmich.
His works, including a piece called “The Man Delusion”, which appears to hit out at Richard Dawkins’ book “The God Delusion”, have been displayed at King’s College, Cambridge, and have sold for big money.
A spokesperson for Kongthin Pearlmich told the Telegraph in 2008: “One has been offered to Canterbury Cathedral, another to the Vatican, while the fourth went to a private collector in America and was reputedly sold for $125 million (£69.7 million).”
Knighton’s Crucifiction Triptych on display at King’s College, CambridgeCredit: David Rose – The Telegraph
Read More on The Sun
Knighton has also posted a series of poems to his personal website, with some pieces entitled “The Vagrant”, “Myths”, “Kindred Souls” and the most recent, “Double Sonnet, Double Trouble”.
Perhaps the latter could be about Manchester United’s recent fortunes… More

JAVIER HERNANDEZ has offered to return to Manchester United and play for FREE.The Mexican forward starred for the Red Devils between 2010 and 2015, helping them to two Premier League title wins.
Javier Hernandez has had his say on Man United’s plightCredit: Getty Images – Getty
The Mexican scored 59 goals for the Red DevilsCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
Now 34 and playing for LA Galaxy in MLS, Hernandez’s love for United still burns bright.
Speaking ahead of the MLS All Star Game in Minneapolis, the striker offered to help solve his old side’s striker shortage.
He said: “Man, I mean, there are these situations and I know the narratives because of my age and my past.
“If United came for me then I’d say ‘yes, I’ll play for free.’ Of course, you know, I’d do that.
READ MORE ON MAN UTD
“But I also want to be very respectful to my club. I am playing very consistently and in my mind and my world, my conviction is all about winning a championship with LA Galaxy.”
Hernandez scored 59 goals for Man United, playing under Sir Alex Ferguson during his first three years at Old Trafford.
While he remains full of respect for Ferguson, Chicharito reckons that United need to finally move on from the 80-year-old in order to give Erik ten Hag a chance to succeed.
On United’s current plight, he said: “It doesn’t surprise me because in life it’s not easy having a manager for 26 years in the way that Sir Alex did it.
Most read in Football
FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS – BEST NEW CUSTOMER OFFERS

“To substitute that man like that is not easy. It is like winning the lottery. Do you think anyone you hire afterwards is going to be able to do 80 per cent of what Ferguson did?
“My point of view is that after Ferguson brings so much pressure that it just isn’t going to work out.
“United need to now get over the fact that Sir Alex Ferguson has gone.
“Would we like to have someone similar? Yes, yes, yes. But Sir Alex has gone and it is never going to be the same.
“So United have to adapt and allow the next manager to do it in his own way.”
Hernandez will represent MLS All Stars tonight against Liga MX All Stars from his native Mexico.
Read More on The Sun
On the special occasion, he said: “It’s a little bit surreal but, I mean, it’s cool and it’s great.
“I’m very grateful, very humbled to be in this event, to be chosen by a lot of fans, managers and staff, then obviously being the captain it’s amazing.” More

AS Manchester United flail about in the transfer market, making bids for troublemakers Adrien Rabiot and Marko Arnatouvic, it’s easy to laugh along to the Muppet Show farce of it all.Chuck a few custard pies, enjoy a few internet memes, wonder how a financial man like Ed Woodward was left in charge of the footballing side for so long.
United were interested in ArnautovicCredit: Getty
A move to Old Trafford is still on the cards for RabiotCredit: Getty
But it is only when you fully consider the bald facts that the sheer scale of incompetence in United’s transfer business becomes so utterly staggering.
Between the exit of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013 and last summer’s return of Cristiano Ronaldo, United signed THIRTY players for £10million or more – and not a single one has been a genuine success.
All major clubs have their expensive flops. The market is a shark pool and no transfer is a guaranteed success.
Footballers are human beings. We get that. A 50 per cent success rate would be a very decent number.
READ MORE ON MAN UTD
But zero out of 30 over a nine-year stretch is extraordinary. Even Everton under Farhad Moshiri have made the occasional decent buy.
United have only made a profit on two players bought since Ferguson’s exit – Daley Blind and Dan James – not that either of them covered themselves in glory at Old Trafford.
Just look through that list of United recruits and try to argue a case for any of them being an unqualified, value-for-money hit.
Bruno Fernandes looked as though he was the man to buck this long-standing trend when the Portuguese arrived in January 2020.
Most read in Football
FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS – BEST NEW CUSTOMER OFFERS
But after a largely brilliant 18 months, his form fell off a cliff last season, during the death throes of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s reign, and has not recovered.
Others have had their moments. Romelu Lukaku was a goalscoring cult-hero for a time.
And even at £80m, a world-record fee for a defender, Harry Maguire started well enough – but now the captain has become the latest in a long line of players to be dragged down into a swamp of mediocrity.
United fans used to sing a sarcastic song about the English press scoffing at Anthony Martial’s £50m transfer fee.
They haven’t sung it much in the last two years, which have brought a total of five Premier League goals for the Frenchman.
There was an assumption that once the hapless Woodward left the building, United might rediscover a semblance of professionalism in their transfer dealings, under John Murtough and Darren Fletcher.
And while it is far too early to judge this summer’s recruits – Lisandro Martinez, Christian Eriksen and Tyrell Malacia – the bid to sign French midfielder Rabiot and the aborted attempt to capture the 33-year-old Arnautovic seem more comedic than ever.
The fact that United have ceased their interest in Bologna’s former Stoke and West Ham forward due to the anger of fans simply adds to the ‘make it up as you go along’ aura.
Woodward, a nodding dog for the ruling Glazer family, was only ever a symptom of the problem.
The root cause has always been the Glazers themselves.
After hiding behind Ferguson’s genius for eight years, following their 2005 takeover, the Americans have been horribly exposed since the great Scot departed.
Pogba’s big money return to Man Utd didn’t go to plan as the Frenchman returned to Juve for freeCredit: Getty
Ronaldo started the Premier League season from the benchCredit: Rex
There are many reasons why United fans have revolted against the Glazers – the leveraged takeover, the debts, the dividends, the detachment and the erosion of Old Trafford as a stadium.
But in purely footballing terms, that list of incoming transfers since 2013 is most damaging of all.
United are a football club who used to win the biggest trophies.
Had they continued to do so, the majority of their fanbase would have overlooked the rest of those issues.
Among the cast-iron flops, you may all have your particular favourites.
Mine was Alexis Sanchez – with United apparently ‘hijacking’ his move from Arsenal to Manchester City, then the triumphalist unveiling video of the Chilean playing concert piano on the Old Trafford pitch, then three goals in 32 league games.
Or there’s the enduring mystery of spending £50m on Fred, or Marouane Fellaini, whose very presence in the United side summed up the sudden, sharp demise of the early post-Fergie years.
Several promising youngsters have been snapped up, only to regress – Jadon Sancho, Aaron Wan Bissaka, Memphis Depay, James and Donny Van de Beek – aka Van de Bench – among them.
There’s also been a strange addiction to signing ageing forwards – Zlatan Ibrahimovoc, Edinson Cavani, Ronaldo, Radamel Falcao – a trend which looked as if it might reach its nadir with the possible arrival of Arnautovic.
But maddest of all must be the Manchester-to-Turin boomeranging of Paul Pogba – a free transfer to Juventus, a world-record £89m to United, another free back to Juve after six wasted years for club and player.
And now United are ready to shell out £15m on the unreliable Rabiot, who only has a year left on his deal in Turin.
Read More on The Sun
It’s almost as if Juventus saw the mug punters of United coming.
Looking at that bloody great list, it’s clear that it would have been difficult to miss them. More

JAVIER HERNANDEZ says Manchester United need to get over Sir Alex Ferguson if they are ever going to snap out of their downward spiral.Chicharito, 34, revealed that he was not surprised by United’s slump post-Fergie but says despite his genius they need to break from the past to allow new man Erik ten Hag to succeed.
Hernandez will play in the MLS All Stars clashCredit: Getty Images – Getty
Hernandez says United need to break from the past to allow new man Ten Hag to succeedCredit: AP:Associated Press
Ten Hag lost his first Premier League game in charge of UnitedCredit: Rex
The Red Devils lost to Brighton in Ten Hag’s first game in charge, while they have also been calling Sir Alex in to try and keep wantaway star man Cristiano Ronaldo at Old Trafford this summer.
United have not won the title since Ferguson, 80, retired in 2013 – but the Scot is still an ever present at the Theatre of Dreams.
Asked about United’s desperate decline, Hernandez said: “It doesn’t surprise me because in life it’s not easy having a manager for 26 years in the way that Sir Alex did it.
“To substitute that man like that is not easy.
READ MORE ON MAN UTD
“It is like winning the lottery. Do you think anyone you hire afterwards is going to be able to do 80 per cent of what Ferguson did?
“My point of view is that after Ferguson brings so much pressure that it just isn’t going to work out.
“United need to now get over the fact that Sir Alex Ferguson has gone.
“Would we like to have someone similar? Yes, yes, yes. But Sir Alex has gone and it is never going to be the same.
Most read in Football
FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS – BEST NEW CUSTOMER OFFERS
“So United have to adapt and allow the next manager to do it in his own way.”
Regardless of their current struggles, the ex-Real Madrid man says he’d play for nothing if ever asked back to Old Trafford.
Hernandez said: “Man, I mean, there are these situations and I know the narratives because of my age and my past.
“If United came for me then I’d say ‘yes, I’ll play for free.’ Of course, you know, I’d do that.
“But I also want to be very respectful to my club. I am playing very consistently and in my mind and my world, my conviction is all about winning a championship with LA Galaxy.”
Hernandez, who bagged 59 goals and two Premier League titles with Manchester United, is now skipper at Galaxy and will tonight captain the MLS All Star team as they take on a side from his home country made up of the brightest talent in Mexico’s Liga MX.
The MLS All Star clash is taking place in Minneapolis, Minnesota and will be a special moment for the forward.
He said: “It’s a little bit surreal but, I mean, it’s cool and it’s great.
Read More on The Sun
“I’m very grateful, very humbled to be in this event, to be chosen by a lot of fans, managers and staff, then obviously being the captain it’s amazing.”
The MLS All Star side also includes former Newcastle and Tottenham man DeAndre Yedlin as well as ex-Arsenal forward Carlos Vela. More