Watch out Old Trafford: Elon Musk might be heading your way.
Musk, reportedly the world’s richest man and definitely a person who has claimed he’s buying large, oft-criticized entities only to not end up doing so, took to Twitter to claim that he’s going to buy Manchester United.
Earlier this year, the owner of Tesla and SpaceX claimed he was going to purchase Twitter itself, but amid a stop-start process that seemed to resurrect itself several times, the billionaire withdrew his bid. That doesn’t mean the situation is actually resolved, as Twitter has sued Musk to try to force him into completing the purchase, meaning there’s a very convoluted situation in which he could theoretically be forced to purchase an entity he does not want.
In the meantime, Musk—in a two-tweet thread that began as a statement clarifying his centrist political views—abruptly pivoted to declare that he would purchase the Red Devils.
Also, I’m buying Manchester United ur welcome
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 17, 2022
“Also, I’m buying Manchester United,” wrote Musk, who again was not talking about soccer at all before making the statement. “ur welcome.”
It is, according to a search of Musk’s past tweets, the first time he has referenced Manchester United by name, so obviously he’s ready to mount a very serious bid.
With Man Utd fans as mad at ever at the state of their club, both in the Premier League table and in a more broad, anti-Glazers sense, Musk’s claim might actually be popular in the stands. However, Musk has claimed a lot of things on Twitter, many of which turned out to be attempts at humor or things he never actually followed through on, and purchasing Manchester United might somehow be a thornier proposition at this point in time than buying Twitter was.
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