Turki Alalshikh drops cryptic Manchester United takeover update with dig at Glazers and Jim Ratcliffe

Saudi billionaire Turki Alalshikh has claimed that Manchester United are in the advanced stages of a deal with a new investor.

Alalshikh, who is chairman of the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia, posted a message on X on Wednesday night suggesting that the club are ready to sell.

He wrote on X: "The best news I heard today is that Manchester United is now in an advanced stage of completing a deal to sell to a new investor – I hope he’s better than the previous owners."

Alalshikh himself has been looking to invest in a football club in England.

Former Crystal Palace owner, and talkSPORT host, Simon Jordan revealed in September that he held an interest in buying Bristol City.

Other clubs believed to have been of interest were Southampton, Millwall and Sheffield Wednesday.

However, talkSPORT understands that no Saudi entities are in talks over an ownership stake of Man United.

It is unclear if there is any substance to Alalshikh's claim, but his post on social media has been viewed more than two million times.

Manchester United's ownership

The Glazer family are still the majority owners of Manchester United.

They sold a 27.7 per cent stake to Ineos businessman Sir Jim Ratcliffe in 2024 for £1.25billion.

They rejected a takeover bid from a Qatari consortium led by Sheikh Jassim Al-Thani.

There are no suggestions that the Glazer family or Ratcliffe are currently looking to sell their stake in the club.

Jim Ratcliffe at Man United

Since becoming a minority owner in the Red Devils, Ratcliffe has been running the day-to-day operations at Old Trafford.

He has made wide-ranging cost-cutting measures that has resulted in about 450 jobs being lost.

Ratcliffe has spoken out about what has happened at United under his tenure.

“The costs were just too high,” Ratcliffe told The Business Podcast.

“There are some fantastic people at Manchester United, but there was also a level of mediocrity and it had become bloated. I got a lot of flak for the free lunches, but no one’s ever given me a free lunch.

“The biggest correlation, like it or not, between results and any external factor, is profitability.

"The more cash you have got, the better squad you can build. So a lot of what we have done in the first year is spend an awful lot of time putting the club on a sustainable, healthy footing.”

The Red Devils reported record revenues last month of £666.5m in the financial year to June 2025, but a loss of £33m.

“We’re not seeing all the benefits of the restructuring that we’ve done in this set of [financial] results and we were not in the Champions League,” Ratcliffe said.

“Those numbers will get better. Manchester United will become the most profitable football club in the world, in my view, and from that will stem, I hope, a long‑term, sustainable, high level of football.”

Man United's struggles on the pitch

United finished 15th last season and serious questions have been raised about manager Ruben Amorim.

He has picked up just 37 points from his 34 league games.

Ratcliffe has been a keen supporter of the Portuguese and says there will not be a kneejerk reaction.

“He has not had the best of seasons,” Ratcliffe added. “Ruben needs to demonstrate he is a great coach over three years. That’s where I would be.

"The press, sometimes I don’t understand. They want overnight success. They think it’s a light switch. You know, you flick a switch and it’s all going to be roses tomorrow.

"You can’t run a club like Manchester United on kneejerk reactions to some journalist who goes off on one every week.”

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