you know that Ratcliffe came out and confirmed it in the Times, right?
If you want to buy something you don't go to the Times. It's quite sad fans don't realise when they're being played.
If you want to buy a house do you approach the owners or phone up the Waverley Echo?
Businessesmen with serious interest in buying what is even for them a pretty fecking expensive asset, don't act like Rebekah Vardy and run to the newspapers to let them know all about it. Primarily because of the negative impact it will likely have on the price that's demanded.
Sir Jim got some free publicity and attention drawn to his existing business. He probably dislikes the owners , as most fans do, and probably sees this as a free way to help undermine them. Which is fair enough.
But it's naive in the extreme to think this is how billionaires go about things if there was a serious interest in buying an asset worth billions of pounds. For a start the Glazers are likely to not be pleased at the publicity. Do you think pissing off the people you need to convince to sell is what someone who seriously wants to buy would actually do?
Do we think the FT is full of people openly leaking like it's Heat magazine? It's playing out like this because football fans will believe anything if they want to believe it