Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX CEO, tweeted earlier in the day that he was going to buy Manchester United, the Premier League club. Now, the 51-year-old has clarified that “standup” is his “side-hustle”. 

The world’s richest man has often been known to make jokes about buying notable entities like his meme spree on McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, vowing to fix the ice cream machines of the fast food chain, and reintroduce cocaine in the soft drink. However, in some cases, Musk’s jokes do come true, like his 2017 tweet about buying Twitter became very real with a $44 billion offer, and is currently tied up in legal proceedings since Musk tried backing out over an issue with the number of bots on the platform. 

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Since it is hard to know when the tech mogul is joking and when he’s being serious, the internet caught onto the frenzy of the billionaire possibly buying the English club that’s been in poor form since last season, with Dutchman Erik ten Hag’s arrival not making much of a difference, yet. United’s management decisions have largely been blamed for the state of the team and club that have now lost to Brighton and Brentford consecutively, the last being a 4-0 thrashing away from home. 

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One United fan even urged the innovator to buy the club, thinking of it as an investment. The user added, “send maguire and mctominay to space”, referring to United’s defender Harry Maguire, who became the butt of jokes last season and hasn’t quite managed to come out of it. He’s most recently being mocked for standing on the wrong side at Old Trafford in the game against Brighton, which United lost 2-1. 

Currently, the Glazers family own the club but fans aren’t too happy with the ongoing situation with the Red Devils. United are still poised to make some transfers before the window closes, but jokes are already doing the rounds that if United doesn’t score in the upcoming matches against Liverpool and Southampton then the only goal they can celebrate as the club’s goal of the month, is an own-goal by Brighton’s Alexis Mac Allister.