Britain’s Richest Man, Ratcliffe: ‘Why I Won’t Buy Man United’

Britain’s richest man and Manchester Unted fan, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has sensationally proclaimed that the Old Trafford side is very unattractive to him and insists it won’t make business sense to ‘write big cheque’ and buy the club.

Ratcliffe who is reportedly worth £20billion through his petrochemicals company Ineos, told The Times in an interview that Manchester United are in ruins because of mismanagement on the part of the club’s hierarchy. And And he explains reasons he can’t buy and inherit such liabilities inherent at the club.

The 67 year old business mogul in August this year invested a fragment of his riches in Ligue 1 club Nice, and still has strong desire to own a big club back home, but only if the circumstances are right.

But Ratcliffe’s disenchantment over the Manchester United investment methods on players and managers indicates that his taking over from current owner, the Glazer family is not feasible.

Ratcliffe is said to have considered in the past, the options of buying any of Newcastle United, Chelsea and Leeds United.
“They are in quite a big pickle as a business,” Ratcliffe told The Times.

“They haven’t got the manager selection right, haven’t bought [Players] well. They have been the dumb money, which you see with players like Fred.

“We won’t look elsewhere until we have had a good run here (at Nice). We need to find out how to be successful before you ever want to write a big cheque. It’s quite difficult.”

Ratcliffe added: “United have spent an immense amount since Ferguson left and been poor, to put it mildly. Shockingly poor, to be honest.

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“We have a different approach here [at Nice] to be moderately intelligent about it. Try to do it more grassroots, trying to locate young talent.

“Some clubs seem to have an ability to do that, Southampton, Lille. United have done it really poorly. They have lost the plot there somehow.”