Mop up: 作扫尾工作

成立于1878年的曼联俱乐部，如今已沦为美国人格雷泽的私有财产。英格兰当地时间16日，格雷泽宣布他已经实现收购曼联俱乐部的第二个战略目标---购得俱乐部75％以上的股票。按照英国有关法律，格雷泽可以把曼联俱乐部从股市撤牌，将其变成私人企业。外电报道如下：It's the biggest soccer club in the world, richer than Real Madrid, more successful than Barcelona, a name comparable to the New York Yankees or the Chicago Bulls in global sporting brands. And on the field, few teams have bested Manchester United in recent years.

But after the injury of losing freekick prodigy¹ and metrosexual icon² David Beckham, the 127-year-old soccer club has been dealt the insult of losing ownership to an American billionaire, Malcolm Glazer³.

Mr. Glazer - owner of the 2003 Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers - last week went public with a $1.5 billion buyout, and mopped up the last few shares needed to control the club on Monday.

Mop up表示“作扫尾工作，擦去，揩干，吃光，肃清残敌”，mop有“用拖把擦洗”之意，例如：mop one's brow（擦去额上的汗水）；mop the floor（拖地板）。此外mopper-up意为“扫荡者”，而mop-haired则表示“头发乱蓬蓬的”。

据悉，被称为“球盲大亨”的格雷泽从此可以根据自己的喜好制定俱乐部的任何计划，不需经过其他股东批准。愤怒的曼联球迷声称要和格雷泽对抗到底，目前一些曼联球迷正以高于格雷泽报的价格收购曼联股票，以阻止后者实现他的第三个战略目标——将自己持有的曼联股票比例提高到90％以上，从而通过法律强迫其他股民向他出售股票。