Michael Knighton wants to buy Manchester United from Glazer family

Michael Knighton, who came close to buying Manchester United in the 1980s, claims to be planning an astonishing bid to buy out the Glazer family.

The American owners are under increasing pressure to sell the Old Trafford club following a disappointing sixth-place finish in last season's Premier League.

Fan groups have protested against their ownership at recent home matches with anti-Glazer chants filling the air.

But 70-year-old Knighton, who famously juggled a ball on the Old Trafford pitch in 1989, is apparently drawing up a bid to buy the Americans out in a hostile takeover.

'We are a club in crisis and we all know the reason why,' Knighton told Man Utd The Religion on YouTube.

'We have an inept and frankly useless ownership who know little about this game of football.

'Everyone knows that we need new ownership of this football club and that is my aim and those are my objectives.

'I am making good progress, continuing to talk to the people, I have got some good pledges and good finance.

'We are now working on the offer document. Remember, it is a hostile bid - that simply means that the club isn't officially for sale.

'But my intention is to present these owners with a legitimate, potent and commercial offer to say: 'You have run out of road, it's time go, because your time is up'.

'And frankly, the fans worldwide have had enough of this regime. The exciting feeling of a new season, which we all have, and that balloon of excitement that is there, it was all burst when we quickly saw the performance against Brighton. The club is in crisis and it will remain in crisis while we have this current ownership.'

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