Roy Keane has hailed the "good news" that Manchester United's owners the Glazer family have put the club up for sale.
A statement was issued by the Glazers on Tuesday confirming reports they were seeking out potential investment, either as a partial bid or a full scale takeover. United fans have long protested against the American family's running of the club.
Keane was United skipper through their trophy-laden period under Sir Alex Ferguson but left the club shortly after the Glazers took over at Old Trafford in 2005. Speaking on ITV Sport, the Irish pundit said: "That’s good news for United fans, again, the last few years they’ve wanted owners out, there’s been no relationship, they [the Glazers] are business people so it’s good news for the fans."
Keane's fellow pundit Ian Wright shared a similar view. "I’m pleased because the fans have not stopped from the time they’ve been there, in respect to the protests," the Arsenal legend said. "If that does happen, you’re thinking will a club of that size have fan involvement just to let them know what’s going on.
"The fans have been brilliant, hopefully it can happen for the fans because they’ve wanted it from day one and it might happen, fingers crossed for the United fans."
The Glazers have selected the Raine Group as their exclusive financial advisors to handle any potential sale following the company's stellar work in arranging Chelsea 's sale from Roman Abramovich to a consortium led by Todd Boehly in the summer. That deal saw Boehly and co pay an initial £2.85bn for Chelsea - a figure which has caught the attention of United's owners, who follow Liverpool's owners Fenway Sports Group in putting their club on the market.
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The Glazers bought United for £790million in a deal which largely saw the club take on masses of debt in a leveraged buyout. That has been a key point of angst among United fans over the years who are angry that the Glazers have used profits the club has generated to service the debt, as well as line their own pockets with regular dividends.
While a sale could take a long time to go through, there are already a number of investors who have shown an interest. Britain's richest man and Ineos owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is a lifelong United fan and was keen to purchase the club previously.
Ratcliffe has spoken out on the prospect of launching a takeover of United several times previously and made a late bid to buy Chelsea in the summer. His most recent response came at a Financial Times event last month, where Ratcliffe said: " Manchester United is owned by the Glazer family. I have met Joel and Avram. They are the nicest people, I have to say, proper gentlemen. They don’t want to sell it.
“It’s owned by the six children of the father. If it had been for sale in the summer, yes we would probably have had a go following on from the Chelsea thing. But we can’t sit around hoping one day Manchester United will become available."
A report from the Telegraph now claims Ratcliffe has made a U-turn on his position following the Glazers' statement and will make a bid for the club - though is wary of the price tag. The Glazers are demanding a world record fee to hand over the reins, with the total cost eventually rising to £8billion.
Former Goldman Sachs boss Lord Jim O'Neill has also admitted he would be open to launching a fresh bid with a consortium after failing with the Red Knights campaign in 2010, but like Ratcliffe, currently has reservations over the asking price.
"[Those figures are] obviously what they’re floating, but I don’t think that’s realistic, especially as the few smart people that might be vaguely capable of putting those kinds of sums together can see the same information the Glazers can see," O'Neill said.
"I think they think Chelsea was bought for too high a price and United should be a premium. Now they’re slightly strangely and slightly desperately in my view, going so public that they can capture anybody who is daft enough to pay them the money they want."
