Another day, another sponsor.
Manchester United have more official partners than an indecisive Mormon. Forget about their struggles on the pitch, when it comes to milking as much money as possible from the footballing ‘brand’, they have few peers.
The latest addition to the club’s obscure and varied roster of corporate bedfellows is Gulf Oil International, a Hinduja Group company which can now boast of being…wait for it…United’s first official global lubricant oil and fuel retail partner.
Woo-hoo!
The lucrative deal was announced on the club’s official website and the presentation featured Ashley Young, Wayne Rooney, Luke Shaw and Mr Happy himself Antonio Valencia.
Now we’re not entirely sure whose responsibility it was to select the members of Louis van Gaal’s squad to feign excitement about a new lubricant sponsor, but surely they were aware of Valencia’s aversion to smiling at the best of times.
Sure enough, any premise of enthusiasm disappeared very quickly. In fact it looked very much as though the Ecuadorian had shares in a rival fuel retailer and was cursing his luck at the news.
https://twitter.com/andi_thomas/status/709428922878988289
I want to know what happened to Antonio Valencia between these two photos pic.twitter.com/5LlF6gitwW
— Simon Peach (@SimonPeach) March 14, 2016
Valencia displaying a real Gulf in emotions pic.twitter.com/ovJFS5q6HS
— Simon Peach (@SimonPeach) March 14, 2016
Everything about this picture screams "Will this do?" pic.twitter.com/s1OZQuVyIH
— IAN HYLAND (@HylandIan) March 14, 2016
