Leave it to Elon Musk to anger yet another group of people on Twitter via his bold claims.
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The Tesla CEO took to Twitter on Tuesday night to brazenly claim he would buy Premier League football team Manchester United.
“In addition, I buy Manchester United, welcome,” says the billionaire told his 103 million followers.
Musk’s stark announcement was quickly answered by many who asked if he was “serious”, before finally joking about two hours later and confirming that no, he wasn’t actually buying the football team.
“No, this is a long-running joke on Twitter. I don’t buy sports teams,” Musk says said bluntly. “Although if it was a team it would be Man U. They were my favorite team as a kid.”
Many Manchester United fans have had a hard time in recent years as the team has not won a title since 2013 and has gone through a whopping eight coaches in a ten-year span.
Some urged Musk to change his mind, seeing him as the potential savior to invest in the team currently owned by the Glazer family, who also own the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“Please buy Manchester United”, a user wrote to Musk. “Save us. The only hope is… @Elon Musk.”
“Couldn’t even give us hope for a day”, another fan complained.
To be estimated that Manchester United is worth $4.6 billion with operating income of $128 million, according to Forbes.
Of course, this purchase would be significantly less than Musk’s initial (and legally pending) offer to buy Twitter for an estimated $44 billion, a bond he’s currently being sued for trying to back out.
Musk also tweeted early Wednesday that “standup” is his “side business,” presumably referring to the other purchases he’s joked about. make on Twittersuch as Coca-Cola in which he claimed that he would put illegal drugs back into the drink when he took over.
From Wednesday morning Musk’s net value was estimated to be $266.5 billion.