back to article Elon Musk 'buying Manchester United' football club

Rocketry, energy, automotive, AI, tequila, tunneling and (maybe) social media entrepreneur Elon Musk has proclaimed his intention to buy Manchester United — the organization often cited as the world's most supported football club. Musk revealed his "intentions" in a tweet, of course. Also, I’m buying Manchester United ur …

  1. Ordinary Donkey

    Whether Musk is serious or not is impossible to divine

    Serious is easy - he never is.

    Whether he'll actually try to buy the club will mostly depend on how funny it would be.

    1. sarusa Silver badge
      FAIL

      No, it will entirely be how f@#$ing stoned he is at the time. He's not smart enough to parse how funny it is. It will be 'how funny is this after I've done 20 bonghits?' - and almost anything is funny at that point.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        That's insulting to stoners imo.

        I've been smoking a lot longer than Elon and I'm nowhere near as much of a twat.

    2. gotes

      420 hahaha

      69 hahaha

      Memes hahaha

      Oh Elon, you're so funny and cool.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        re: 420 hahaha

        Over here shouldn't it be 20-4 ?

        Although why all these people would want to celebrate Hitler's birthday is a mystery

        1. chivo243 Silver badge
          Happy

          Re: re: 420 hahaha

          Hey! That's my Birthday you're talkin' about 4-20-xxxx and damn proud of it!

          420 is a mythical police call in the US, like a 211 - armed robbery in progress, 4-20 was weed being burned in progress.. Or so I believe since it's my B-day...

          Happy Guy, go figure!

          1. Martin-73 Silver badge

            Re: re: 420 hahaha

            you were born in the 20th month? Woah, that's some strong weed :)

          2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

            Re: re: 420 hahaha

            According to wiki the police code is a myth - I assumed it was a date that some law/police action happened, but apparently not.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: re: 420 hahaha

          Celebrate it or forget it? or forgot it? Wait who were we talking about again?

    3. Steve Button Silver badge

      Agreed. Never trust what "pedo guy" Elon Musk says.

  2. lglethal Silver badge
    Go

    United are hardly slouches in the transfer market! Over the last 10 years only Chelsea and City have spent more then them and not by much.

    Yes the Glazers take out a lot of money each year, but that doesnt particularly stop them buying whoever they want, and that has been the Problem for years at Man U. They havent had any sort of team or transfer philosophy in place, and so they buy whoever is considered hot regardless of whether they would fit in the team. They then sack the coaches when things dont go to plan. So now they have a team who have no idea how to play together, have no spine, no desire, and are happier on Social Media than on the pitch. Hmmm, seems like Musk would fit in quite well...

    1. MyffyW Silver badge

      I have no great love of the beautiful game, and a scant understanding of the rules, but Elon Musk is only the answer if the question was "what could be worse than the Glazer's"

      1. lglethal Silver badge
        Trollface

        Just because I found it funny, here is the answer my Manc friend had when told about Musk's tweet:

        "Great just what we f%&ing need! Replacing the current double glazing salesmen, with a bloody used car salesman..."

      2. Fr. Ted Crilly Silver badge

        umm.

        Are you one of those football enthusiasts?

    2. jmch Silver badge
      Happy

      "...that doesnt particularly stop them buying whoever they want, and that has been the Problem for years at Man U. They havent had any sort of team or transfer philosophy in place..."

      That sums it up nicely. They've spent over a billion pounds on 'flavour-of-the-month' players, mostly chosen by the purse-holders and against the wishes/recommendations of the managers/coaches, and selected mainly for the potential to increase the club profile and sell shirts rather than how they fit into the team. They keep offering gigantic contracts to rubbish players to "keep their value" rather than have them run down their contracts and leave for free, but in reality these are paper-only assets since no other club is willing to buy a Man Utd reject nor pay their massive wages.

      Given the situation there, it will get a lot worse before it gets better (if it ever does - note the 30 years that Liverpool spent out in the cold)... which is great for neutrals!! It will never not be funny to see them swatted aside by a team put together at a tenth of the price !!

    3. czechitout

      I hope Gary Neville doesn't read The Register, otherwise he'd be apologetic with rage at your post

      1. Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells Silver badge
        Facepalm

        As a United fan, I can't stand Neville since he's started his campaign to make himself the Mayor of Manchester.

        He's just spouting populist nonsense endlessly. Sky need to get rid.

  3. sarusa Silver badge
    Devil

    Yeah good luck with that mate

    Then he'll back out because it's a crap deal and spend months whinging in bad faith about how MU's spam levels aren't what he though they were even though it has nothing to do with what he signed while bodaciously stoned.

    He is such a f#$ing twit.

    1. sabroni Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: He is such a f#$ing twit.

      Worse than that, he's a fucking twat.

    2. chivo243 Silver badge
      Angel

      Re: Yeah good luck with that mate

      while bodaciously stoned... shouldn't we all be... Might make some of his antics laughable...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Musk sees Red

    everywhere these days. After his apparent conversion to the Republican Party (GOP) and Manure play mostly in Red then why not?

    As for the comment about being stoned. In his new home state, Texas, weed and the possession thereof is still a crime but for the ultra-mega-super rich then money can buy everything (Sic)

  5. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Coat

    Strangely I feel an urge to mis-quote Martin Sheen in Wall Street

    "he's in it for the lolz, and he don't take prisoners"

    I'm unaware that Musk has any interest in any athletic pursuit (outside of "horizontal aerobics").

    But the whole "Champions of Mars" thing might work........

    1. wolfetone Silver badge

      Re: Strangely I feel an urge to mis-quote Martin Sheen in Wall Street

      Americans reckon that there is "good value" in Premiership and Championship teams, based on how relatively cheap the clubs can be bought for and the rewards available.

      When I say relatively cheap, it's relative to the cost of purchasing NFL teams and the rewards on offer there.

      1. Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells Silver badge

        Re: Strangely I feel an urge to mis-quote Martin Sheen in Wall Street

        He's South African and his boyhood team was Man Utd.

        ( If you want to annoy *all* the right people, refer to Musk as an African American ).

        1. eldel

          Re: Strangely I feel an urge to mis-quote Martin Sheen in Wall Street

          I'm sure this will come as no surprise to anyone - but that particular reference can get you into some fairly heated (on one side at least) arguments where you have a participant going through incredible mental and conversational contortions trying to avoid the 'b' word but still telling you are are wrong.

          1. wolfetone Silver badge
            Trollface

            Re: Strangely I feel an urge to mis-quote Martin Sheen in Wall Street

            " participant going through incredible mental and conversational contortions trying to avoid the 'b' word but still telling you are are wrong."

            ... Brentford?

            1. eldel

              Re: Strangely I feel an urge to mis-quote Martin Sheen in Wall Street

              <whispers> Bolton

  6. beaker_72
    Facepalm

    Ignoring his very next tweet

    When asked in the ensuing twitter thread if he was serious, his reply was:

    "No, this is a long-running joke on Twitter. I'm not buying any sports teams"

    https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1559760618537848832

    El Reg creating click-bait articles based on nothing??

    1. lglethal Silver badge
      Stop

      Re: Ignoring his very next tweet

      There was 6 hours between the Tweets. More than enough time for an article to be written and published based on the first one, before Musk added his "clarification"...

      Dont attribute to "Click-bait" what can easily be explained by Time passing between Tweets...

      1. Falmari Silver badge

        Re: Ignoring his very next tweet

        I noticed that the BBC said that Musk was joking mentioning the later tweet. But the BBC article was published 4 hours or so after the reg article.

        1. Shades

          Re: Ignoring his very next tweet

          The timestamp for BBC articles update with successive edits.

      2. mark l 2 Silver badge

        Re: Ignoring his very next tweet

        More than enough time for him to come down from being high and realise what he had tweeted more likely

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Ignoring his very next tweet

        > There was 6 hours between the Tweets. More than enough time for an article to be written and published based on the first one,

        Welcome to 21st century "journalism", where a 160(?) characterUnicode code point sentence on the internet gets converted into thousands of 500 word articles seconds later.

  7. DenTheMan

    An improvement ...

    From the ownership of Newcastle.

    Riots incited might have been a problem though.

    1. Mine's a Large One

      Re: An improvement ...

      As a Newcastle fan I'd have happily accepted a consortium of Putin, Kim Jong Un and Musk if it meant Fat Cashley went!!

      1. jmch Silver badge

        Re: An improvement ...

        I'm sympathetic with Newcastle fans who had to put up with "Fat Cashley" for so many years, and absolutely understand the relief and even happiness at someone, anyone else taking over. Even more so someone with deep pockets.

        I have absolutely zero sympathy for those Newcastle fans dressed up as sheikhs and waving Saudi flags. They have no say in who took over the club, but they can at least support their club without helping their new owners' sportswashing project.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    On a serious note

    I doubt that any for any business trying to be bought by "paedo guy" Musk would be anything other than laughed out of existence after his Twitter "buyers remorse" thing.

    And as for the meme pic, what is "econonmy"?

    1. Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells Silver badge

      Re: On a serious note

      To be fair, Man Utd are self-sustaining and profitable and could be bought for a snip at a mere handful of billion pounds ( estimates vary between 2.6 and 6 ).

      He grew up a United fan. What's the point in becoming the world's richest man if you don't buy your football team?

      (Although he won't. And as a United fan I hope he doesn't. He might be a good owner, or he might be an awful owner. Nothing inbetween. ).

    2. GruntyMcPugh Silver badge

      Re: On a serious note

      I think we need to make "paedo guy" Musk his official title.

  9. Amentheist
    Joke

    I'm sure they'll find a way to lose if they're the only team on Mars as well.

  10. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    "But that lack of a round ball background won't stop some fans from hoping Musk's tweet expressed a genuine desire to acquire the team"

    I'd have thought that it would be reassurance that however bad things are, they're not as bad as they could be.

  11. goodjudge

    "Whether Musk is serious or not is impossible to divine"

    As always, he's not buying <latest thing>, he's buying acres of publicity at a miniscule cost.

  12. Allonymous Coward

    Did you see that ludicrous display last night? The thing about Arsenal is, they always try to walk it in.

    1. Fr. Ted Crilly Silver badge

      Another foorball enthusiast eh, goo on to me, to me, on me 'ead son...

  13. cantankerous swineherd

    this isn't news, the guy's completely flaky.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    NO! I don't want the Glazer to do to the Bucs what they seemingly have done to ManU.

  15. IT Hack

    United

    This must happen.

    A Leeds fan.

    1. IT Hack

      Re: United

      Bugger.

  16. bofh1961

    "performed modestly for years"

    This is absolute mastery of the art of understatement!

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: "performed modestly for years"

      Their heyday was probably the Giggs/Cantona era. Now look where Giggs is and why.

      (Last I heard, Cantona was trying to be an actor since retiring from footie)

  17. dazzlerrazzler

    F football. F musk and F u all. The fact he even still uses Twitter is indication enough that he has lost his mojo.

    Twitter is Win95 of social. dull, dull dull. Instagram is more fun for occasional and business use.

    but f me with a stick, comments on blog posts are DOS-like. Stop it and move with the times. this is like a 20 year time warp on the odd occasion i dip my tow into the smug waters of you old has-beens.

    christ have mercy on their pitiful souls for still commenting on blogs. BLOGS! It 2022 for goodness sake. i dont care 1 bit but if you cd all just remove urself for the net we can move things forward much quicker - especially the ugly ones which will e most of you.

    1. Fifth Horseman

      Why the hell have you created a user account simply to post this drivel, then?

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
        Happy

        I didn't downvote him for the drivel but for managing to get a simple three letter word like "toe" wrong. I LOLed when I read "tow" instead of "toe".

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The falling down game

    Needs a guy like Musk.

    Might make it more interesting

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