An exciting new entry into the hallowed list of 'things Elon Musk probably won't end up buying, let's be honest': Premier League crisis club Manchester United.
Having another extremely normal night on Twitter (sidenote: imagine being worth all of $272 billion and just spending your free time tapping away on the hellish bird site?) Musk had United fans across the world flapping when he said: “To be clear, I support the left half of the Republican Party and the right half of the Democratic Party… Also, I’m buying Manchester United ur welcome.”
Unsure of how the two things were linked, it nonetheless got some supporters excited, as the once great club – owned by the real estate billionaires, the Florida-based Glazer family – is currently trailing at the bottom of the Premier League, and suffered an excruciating 4-0 loss to Brentford at the weekend, leading one publication to bemoan: “Man Utd’s owners built a ‘toxic culture’ that destroyed a giant in $1.4bn demise”.
One fan responded: “You have absolutely no idea the sheer amount of hope you just gave to a million fans worldwide… And at this point I don’t care if you rename Old Trafford as X Æ A-12 Musk Stadium. Just buy the club.” Another jumped right ahead, posting a picture of a mock-up of the kit with a Tesla sponsorship adding: “I'm actually begging you Elon. I've been wanting Tesla to be the kit sponsor. I did a kit edit with it on. Make this happen.”
Just as supporters were getting their heads around Grimes recording a synthy remix of 'Glory Glory Man Utd', Musk was forced to backtrack: “This is a long-running joke on Twitter. I’m not buying any sports teams,” and added: “If it were any team, it would be Man U. They were my fav team as a kid.”
A deal may not totally be off the table there then. If you remember, Musk’s currently stuck in a pesky court case with Twitter after announcing he’d buy it for $44 billion in April, then – LOL! Roflcopter! – re-negging when he said there were too many bots on the site. Twitter sued him, and the court date is now set for 17 October.
Still, even if things don’t end up in the Tesla founder's favour, he can always head back to his favourite childhood sports team. The Guardian estimates if you wanted to organise a whip round to buy Man Utd, it’d cost around £2 billion. Small change for Musk.
