Former Manchester United right-back Gary Neville believes the Glazers need to acquire a partner to help fund the club, or risk loading a lot more debt onto the club.
Despite splashing out more than £230million on transfer fees during the summer, there have been increasing calls in recent weeks for the American-based family to sell up. Protests were held ahead of the clashes with Brighton & Hove Albion and Liverpool at Old Trafford and anti-Glazer chants have been sung at every game.
The supporters are desperate for a changing of the guard and want to see the back of the US family sooner rather than later. Manchester-born Sir Jim Ratcliffe, last month, confirmed that he would be interested in buying the club if the opportunity presented itself.
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Neville — who has been a regular critic of the Glazers — believes the American family must source support from elsewhere within the next 12 months to ensure the necessary support the club needs is put in place. However, he think it's more likely that they will pile more debt onto the club's books if that is not achievable.
"I do believe there is evidence, and the evidence as such, they've maxed out on the debt," Neville told The Overlap. "They've taken all the money out their overdraft and they've only got £40million, £50m, £60m in the bank.
"They've committed to infrastructure projects that total over a billion. They only own 69 per cent, how are they going to raise [funds]?
"They can't put another billion against the club, so the evidence is there that something needs to change in the next six to 12 months, not just with the £230m [transfer spend], but something definitely needs to change. They either have to bring in a partner or they have to lump a load more debt on the club which they can't do; the fans would never have that."
One of Neville's biggest criticisms of the Glazers recently has been the lack of investment committed to modernising Old Trafford. It has fallen behind its Premier League rivals in recent years and is in desperate need of renovating — something that has been planned for.
Neville added: "If they leave that stadium for another three or four years... to do anything proper with that stadium, it's a three to five year process. For a renovation they need planning permission for it; it will take 12 months to get it all sorted, get it through the fans then it will take another couple of years to do it.
"It will take a major renovation, or they've got to do a rebuild of some kind. They have committed to that, they could break the commitment."
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