Elon Musk has confirmed that he is not planning to purchase Manchester United and that his tweet was nothing more than a "long-running joke".
The billionaire technology mogul sent United fans wild late on Monday night when he sent out a tweet teasing a takeover of the club. In a rather bemusing social media post Musk wrote on Twitter: "Also, I'm buying Manchester United ur welcome."
However, he quashed talk of a takeover just hours later, clarifying: "No, this is a long-running joke on Twitter. I’m not buying any sports teams."
United's current owners, the Glazer family, are fiercely unpopular with the club's fanbase, who are desperate for a change of leadership. However, their latest hopes have quickly been extinguished by Musk.
The Glazer's tenure is under intense scrutiny in the wake of Manchester United's abject start to the season, with the Premier League giants currently bottom of the table after starting the campaign with back-to-back defeats.
Disgruntled fans feel as though new boss Erik ten Hag has not been significantly backed in the transfer market following his summer appointment from Ajax. The Dutchman has only managed to source three new signings after numerous setbacks in the market.
In the wake of United's humiliating 4-0 defeat against Brentford at the weekend, club icon Gary Neville delivered a scathing assessment of the Glazer's tenure and urged them to sell the club.
Speaking on Sky Sports immediately after Saturday's match, Neville raged: "You can't blame the individual player or the manager, you've got to look at above.
"You have to look to the very top now and this week, honestly, they are going to get peppered, those players, the coach, the sporting department, the new CEO [Richard Arnold], they're all going to get peppered. But there's a family over there in America who are just literally letting their employees take all the hits for them, and that is unforgivable."
Neville then made a plea to co-owner Joel Glazer to fly over from the United States and help remedy the situation. "They've got to get on a plane, Joel Glazer has got to get on a plane tomorrow.
"He's got to get over to Manchester and he's got to start to divert the issues away from the club and tell everybody what the hell his plan is with the football club. What is he doing?"
