UNITED’S PLAN TO BUY OUT NEVILLE
NOT for nothing were Manchester United revealed to be the most valuable club in the world game last week. England’s biggest football club cannot be accused of missing many money-making tricks in recent years.
Every day at Old Trafford, however, United’s vast array of marketing and commercial staff sit at their desks behind the huge glass frontage and stare out at a constant, irritating reminder of an opportunity missed.
‘Hotel Football’, you may recall, is the brainchild of former captain Gary Neville. Shoe- horned orned rather more gracefully than han at first looked possible on to a tiny patch of land 200 0 yards from the Holy Trinity statue of George Best, Sir Bobby Charlton and Denis Law, the 130-room residence is impossible to miss.
Boasting a bar, restau- rant and four-star facilitieses including a football pitch ch on the roof, it has only been opened a matter of monthsths and is already a fundamental part of the Old Trafford landscape. Fans gather there before matches and afterwards for Q&A sessions with other partowners such as Ryan Giggs.
Initially, United officials tried to block planning permission by suggesting the building would block views of Old Trafford.
Now, having failed with that, United chief executive Ed Woodward and managing director Richard Arnold are considering another, more straightforward approach. They are considering trying to buy the hotel.
It is understood that one tentative approach was made by United to Neville and his business partners prior to the hotel opening. That got United nowhere and there has been nothing since. According to sources, however, the issue has not gone away.
‘The hotel irritates people at United,’ an Old Trafford source told Sportsmail. ‘Not only because they couldn’t stop it but because people here realise now that they really should have thought of it first.
‘It’s not as if you can forget about it, either, if you work at Old Trafford. Everyy time you look up from your desk, iit’s there staring at you.’ NeNeville and Giggs, however, are showing themselves to bbe rather astute and uunemotional businessmmen. They have plans in place to open a second hotel, this time in Manchester city centre. On the field, United are sset for a protracted susummer battle with Real MadMadrid over the David de Gea ttransfer after it emerged ththe SSpanishi giants plan to open the bidding with an offer as low as £13million. De Gea seems destined for the Bernabeu after telling team-mates and staff he is leaving the club and failing to respond to an offer of a £200,000-a-week new contract.
United have a valuation of £25m and above for De Gea and will expect Real to match it. Ajax’s Jasper Cillessen and Tottenham’s Hugo Lloris are being lined up as potential replacements.
lNEWCASTLE manager Steve McClaren wants to take United midfielder Jesse Lingard on loan. McClaren had the 22-year-old on loan at Derby last season.