Even if FSG would intend to sell to regular investors, which none of us knows, its certainly in their best interest to welcome bids from oil states and keep up the rumour mill.
Whatever lines in the sand that FSG has drawn, they will keep that a very tight secret as long as possible.
I find it difficult to imagine that too many 'genuine investors' could exist in current conditions, which is one of the things that puzzles me about the timing of us and United going onto the market within a heartbeat of each other.
We hit peak football in this country in about 2005-2010, since then each new generation has been progressively less interested in playing and watching football.
Plenty of hard data out there concerning this phenomenon, and much talk in pubs and on these boards as to the noticeable reduction in kids at Anfield over recent decades, but I've been struck twice this week by just how apparent that wider loss of interest is now becoming.
Firstly the youth football club my 5 year old lad is attached to announced they would only be forming one U7s team for next season based on indications of interest they had received. Twenty years ago they ran the equivalent of 6 teams in that age group.
Second anecdotal example is that I ventured out to the local sports bar on Friday night to watch the world cup. I spotted maybe 15 people who looked obviously under the age of 25 in a pretty full pub. The place was otherwise full of those of in the 30 to 60 bracket. The contrast with the major tournaments of the early 2000's was pretty bracing.
Overseas interest growing sharply has largely obscured that reality but the indications are that growth in those markets is now plateauing and the same demographics trends around youth interest levels are becoming apparent.
Now none of that necessarily precludes future revenue growth but it does at least suggest that substantial returns may be harder to come by in the next decade or so, and the risk of loss of European football (and associated revenues) is significant and growing thanks to Newcastle.
So that is already a fairly dubious looking pond for genuine investors to go fishing in.
Factor in now that alternative investment opportunities like Nasdaq are currently trading at pretty eye watering discounts to recent years and that the US economy looks like it will bounce quite strongly in the next few years and ask yourself the question: if you had £3bn in the piggy bank and maximising future returns was your primary concern, would you be investing in us (or United) at this time or would you be looking elsewhere for those returns? Personally I wouldn't go anywhere near a premier League club.
So that basically leaves us with egotists, sportswashers and idiots as our potential ownership pool at the current moment.
Which just takes me back to the question of sale timing. Why now? If stock markets weren't at such an obviously low ebb investing in a football club might look a more attractive proposition. United in particular, hitting the market now rather than in 2 years time is just really tough to comprehend.
