Manchester United owners prepared to sell Premier League club to Chinese investors for £2bn
Fernando Torres was set to announce his decision to leave the club last week, with his representative and United’s Chinese business partners ready to make an offer to buy the football club for £2 billion.
Torres, who turned 32 on Monday, has repeatedly hinted that he is unhappy playing regularly for United after their owners, the Glazer family, were accused of running the club like a cash cow.
Torres joined United in 2007 but was sold to Real Madrid in a swap deal in 2010, but the Spain forward has never been a first-team regular and scored just eight goals in more than 700 minutes for United last season.
A source confirmed on Monday morning that United’s Chinese partners were ready to make “signalling” to United, with the Chinese holding company holding a 39% stake in the club.
United have made no secret of their wish to sell Torres, although they denied this week that a £23m signing from Bayern Munich was in their plans. That deal, which was struck during a £70m deal done by the Glazers in 2006, has not closed.
United will formally submit their offer by the end of the week and Torres’s representatives are preparing to attend the Football League meeting next weekend to put in evidence that their client is happy at Old Trafford.
After his shock departure from Real Madrid, Torres said recently: “My objective is to play for Manchester City. It’s not to play for a manger. I have lived this dream before. When I played for Real Madrid it was the same.” He made £90m from the Munich fee as part of a deal that the club has confirmed was worth “probably £20m or £30m”.
The source said: “We are ready to make an offer. It’ll be submitted by the end of the week. We have to do something by mid-January but obviously we have prepared an offer.”
United could sell Torres’s buy-out clause to
