Months after their attempt to buy Chelsea failed, two of our co-owners, Josh Harris & David Blitzer are reportedly now interested in buying shares in Manchester United to effectively prop up the Glazers. Link below.

[Link]

Assuming this is true, I wonder if I'm alone in hoping that these two sell their shares in our club as soon as possible. Textor can go too.

These people are not interested in our club, they are investors who regard Palace as little more than a financial opportunity.

The only significant member of our ownership hierarchy who has the actual best interests of the club at heart is Steve Parish.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold...

Surely that's the case with virtually every investor in every club. I'm never clear about what fans realistically want or expect. They sometimes want an incredibly wealthy person to pump money into the club so that we rise up the league, qualify for Europe and win things (provided our ticket prices don't go up and provided we can still watch matches on illegal streams without actually contributing to the club at all). Then they want that incredibly wealthy person to (basically) be a Palace fan. No chance!

Palace since 19 August 1972. Palace 1 (Tony Taylor) Liverpool 1 (Emlyn Hughes)

Harris and Textor are no more interested in Man Utd as a football club than they are in Palace (or any other club). These are investors; they are simply pursuing the investment likely to yield the greatest return. That's what investors do.

They view a football club primarily as a content generator (Blitzer is on record as saying this). There is an inexhaustible appetite for content in today's world and a lot of broadcasting hours to fill so the demand is there, and allied to that is where the real value lies; media rights.

Quite obviously, compared to Palace's, the demand for Man Utd. content and the potential value of Man Utd's media rights far outstrips Palaces.

Basically, there are two and maybe three types of owners these days:

1. Sovereign wealth funds (Newcastle, Man City) or billionaires (Abramovich, Usmanov). These owners are generally motivated by ego or self-aggrandizement (either through promoting a message (sports washing) or themselves). They're so rich they don't have to worry about RoI although they'll take it if they can get it.

2. Investors (Harris, Blitzer, the Glazers, etc.). These owners are primarily motivated by increasing the value of the investment but have no historical loyalty to the underlying club itself. They want to achieve sporting glory, but that comes after financial return.

3. Traditional owners (Delia Smith, formerly Simon Jordan, other football league clubs) who have mostly disappeared from both the PL and even the Championship because they simply lack the monetary resources to compete at the sharp end of the pyramid.

Whoever owns Palace now or next, they'll almost certainly fit into category 1 or category 2 above. Better get used to it. We're not going to have another owner who's emotionally committed to the club unless we find ourselves back in League 2.

Edited by sydtheeagle (23 Jan 2023 9.29am)

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.

That's how I see it too.

If I was a betting man ( I'm not ! ), my money would be on Category 2 from the above, with Textor's company being our future owner.

Comparing Textor with Harris and Blitzer, from what I know, Textor is at least a genuine football fan with some knowledge of the game. Unlike the other two. That's not to lose sight of the fact that he's in it to make a return on his investments.

Old, Ungifted and White

Again Neillo, bang on. I think you're absolutely right. There's probably a very slim chance that out of the blue, some party from category one suddenly decides that if it wants to get into the PL, Palace may be its best bet (and the only option available) but more likely we'll end up with a new owner from category two and Textor is definitely, at present at least, in the driving seat. And I think your summary of what sort of owner he'd likely be is pretty much correct too. Plus, better the devil you know.

I think it's highly likely that right now, Textor is trying to raise the funds necessary to acquire majority ownership of Palace and I'd be very surprised if the channels of communication with Harris, Blitzer, and Parish weren't open towards finding ways for that to happen. When you have a willing buyer and a motivated seller, you can usually find a way to make a deal happen. Harris and Blitzer's interest in Man Utd adds urgency to the situation and is another motivating factor.

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.

My understanding of the rumours is that H & B are interested in a minority stake in Man U in SUPPORT of the Glazers. I assume the intention is that H & B will pay the Glazers an agreed sum to come on board. Reading between the lines it seems the Glazers want to raise some money for some other purpose.