Sir Jim Ratcliffe: I want to buy Manchester United | Will make a bid for the club [Telegraph]

The Irish Connection

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Kind of complicated. Initially I thought he was ideal when this was discussed a couple of months back but since then I have looked into him a little deeper and there is a fair amount of negativity from the fans of the clubs he already owns which is a red flag. It is also hard to get to the bottom of whether he is a fan or not due to the heavy Chelsea links, he may have liked United growing up but frankly I can't imagine an actual fan being a season ticket holder of a rival club.

With all of that being said he may actually be an ideal owner if it comes to pass, it is hard to know for sure until a serious offer is made and we get an idea of what his vision for the club is and how he plans to finance both the purchase and any investment. Ineos and Sir Jim are going to approach this as running a business so they will not pump a single penny into the club that they don't get back. This is not necassarily a bad thing, it can be done sustainably and the club can be placed on a solid financial footing where it is self sustaining with its own revenue but the intital cash injection has to come from somewhere and the devil will be in the details.

I will hope for the best if he comes in with a real offer provided it addresses the issue of clearing the debt and investing in much needed improvements to the club infrastructure. I doubt though that a bid will actually materialize. The stunt with the bid for Chelsea in the summer throws his credibility into serious doubt because it was literally a stunt, a bid made outside of the process and after the deadline designed to grab headlines. Sir Jim himself has stated he wants to buy United and has also categorically on the record said he has no interest in buying United in the space of a few months and is now interested again. I think he is a fraud and until proven otherwise I will hope for another bidder.
I think he put that late bid in intentionally to smoke the glazers out.
 

Attila

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This is all too much to take in! I really hope it’s sir jim Ratcliffe because he is a lifelong fan and has great pedigree in sport.
All we need is someone to remove the debt and invest a relatively modest amount. The club’s pulling power will take care of the rest.
The Emir of Dubai is a lifelong fan and richer
 

angak

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This is all too much to take in! I really hope it’s sir jim Ratcliffe because he is a lifelong fan and has great pedigree in sport.
All we need is someone to remove the debt and invest a relatively modest amount. The club’s pulling power will take care of the rest.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe would be a terrible owner. He is after the profit motive. Look at the way he is running Niece.
 

crossy1686

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He is worth £15bn. He can absolutely afford us. His INEOS company is worth 4x that much. Again, he has the cash available to purchase this club.
How much of that is liquid? It doesn't matter how much he's worth. Elon just almost sank Tesla to buy Twitter, he didn't just have £55b sitting in a bank account.
 

Infestissumam

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they could always bring in more partners if needed. But I'd be surprised if INEOS couldn't foot the bill if they're serious about it, as the Telegraph suggests.
 

MrSingh2002

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This guy took a washed up Aaron Ramsey to Nice this season, years after taking over the club.

I say thanks but no thanks. We want Mbappe, Bellingham and Hakimi.

In the age of super rich clubs.... we need to be super rich. In the next few days and weeks there will be richer, more ambitious suitors with better footballing ideas. Let it play out without just backing one of the first guys that came.
 

Attila

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I wouldn’t be massively against it, just concerned about their dodgy ideals.
All I care about at this moment is the glazers are pissing off!
Everyone says this about their dodgy ideals then you look at the likes of Beckham, Keane and Neville sitting in Qatar making bank. You can only laugh

Nobody really cares if you give them enough money. The media (especially Sky Sports) haven't said anything about City at all but have kicked up this massive fuss over Qatar winning the World Cup.
 

The Irish Connection

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Everyone says this about their dodgy ideals then you look at the likes of Beckham, Keane and Neville sitting in Qatar making bank. You can only laugh

Nobody really cares if you give them enough money. The media (especially Sky Sports) haven't said anything about City at all but have kicked up this massive fuss over Qatar winning the World Cup.
Can’t disagree. The lack of criticism for city is ridulous.
 

angak

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they could always bring in more partners if needed. But I'd be surprised if INEOS couldn't foot the bill if they're serious about it, as the Telegraph suggests.
The telegraph also write that ineos want a return on investment in 3 years.

This would be like the Glazer's all over again but with prettier face. Horrible idea.
 

Plant0x84

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The telegraph also write that ineos want a return on investment in 3 years.

This would be like the Glazer's all over again but with prettier face. Horrible idea.
I don’t understand the fear of somebody wanting a return on investment in the club - as long as profit wasn’t the only motivation this only means driving growth for the club and the best way to do that in our current position is investment. I don’t see anybody buying the club and throwing money good money away after bad. It’s not a realistic scenario.
 

Attila

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I don’t understand the fear of somebody wanting a return on investment in the club - as long as profit wasn’t the only motivation this only means driving growth for the club and the best way to do that in our current position is investment. I don’t see anybody buying the club and throwing money good money away after bad. It’s not a realistic scenario.
Qatar? Dubai?
 

FiiiiveTenHaaags

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I love how everyone is acting like the oil states (of which Dubai is not) are somehow worse than the West?

Look at the Iraq war, the drone strikes, Guantanamo, the fact the UK and America are built on the backs of slaves…

That doesn’t excuse the behaviour of Saudi but let’s not be blinkered here lads.
 

FiiiiveTenHaaags

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The telegraph also write that ineos want a return on investment in 3 years.

This would be like the Glazer's all over again but with prettier face. Horrible idea.
I think they said they want either ROI or an increase in value? Like if the club appreciated a lot in the next three years that would suffice is how I read it.

seeing as we’re on the verge of a global financial meltdown worse than 2008 that might not happen though:lol:
 

Gabriel Djemba-Bebe

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He actually won't. He does not have anywhere close to 6 billion in cash
You do realise he is worth £15bn, right?

He is also not some altruistic soul who is going to dip into his own pockets to pay off the existing debts.
You don't have to be an "altruistic soul" to spend some of your own money on improving the club you support. He's previously spoken about wanting to leave a legacy behind now that he's in his 70s. Paying off United's existing debts would be a tap in for him in terms of beginning to cement his legacy.

the truth is he is a shark who openly supported Chelsea for many years.
He's a lifelong United fan who went to a few Chelsea games because Stamford Bridge was on his doorstep. It's really not that big of a deal. Besides, even if he was a diehard Chelsea fan, that in no way strengthens your argument that he'd be as bad for us as the Glazers. Your agenda against Ratcliffe is a bit weird. What's he done to offend you this deeply?

The whole package is all a bit project Leave for my tastes, promise the world and deliver disaster.
Oh I get it. You dislike Ratcliffe because he was a Brexit supporter. Dry your eyes mate. There's plenty of other billionaires out there who have done a lot worse than being pro-Leave.
 

angak

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I love how everyone is acting like the oil states (of which Dubai is not) are somehow worse than the West?

Look at the Iraq war, the drone strikes, Guantanamo, the fact the UK and America are built on the backs of slaves…

That doesn’t excuse the behaviour of Saudi but let’s not be blinkered here lads.

Ohh what about sportswashing' ? Whatever the hell that means
 

angak

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Dunno really what point you’re making mate? Not in a hostile way genuinely confused.
I am agreeing with your points.

Also poking fun at those that claim sportswashing' because the read it in a newspaper. But if you ask these same people how City owners have sports-washed they wouldn't be able to string two sentences together.
 

Cloud7

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I'm not advocating for Elon Musk to buy the club, but I do think if he did buy the club then he would run it properly. The only reason I think so is because he is very self aware and seems very reactive to public opinion, I don’t think he would want the bad press from being seen to be inept when it came to managing a football club. He’d therefore appoint the right people in the right positions in my opinion.

He would obviously run it as a business too, but I think he would be the type to give the right people impossible targets rather than letting the wrong people waste time and resources
Self aware is the last thing ol Elon is
 

SecondFig

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I love how everyone is acting like the oil states (of which Dubai is not) are somehow worse than the West?

Look at the Iraq war, the drone strikes, Guantanamo, the fact the UK and America are built on the backs of slaves…

That doesn’t excuse the behaviour of Saudi but let’s not be blinkered here lads.
And if the USA was trying to buy United those same fans would speak out. There's a difference between companies or individuals from a nation buying a club, and nation states themselves buying clubs. There are loads of countries around the world with poor human rights records, or which are built on the back of Colonial empires, but Belgium or the UK haven't recently purchased any football clubs. The UAE, Qatar and Saudi all have.
 

Kaos

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I think it's just a modern term for money laundering through sport.
It means cleaning up your questionable image using the medium of popular sports. A bit like how everyone's forgotten Newcastle owners are a bunch of journalist murdering, terrorist sponsoring monsters.
 

croadyman

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It is less about him not being a saint and more that his track record with Ineos is of taking over clubs and making them a whole lot worse whilst letting people with no clue about football make football decisions. I cannot see a difference between him and the Glazers other than nationality and I don't buy for a second that he loves the club, he loves attention.
Yeah one thing that the Dubai investment haters might want to bear in mind is that they do know how to put the right football people in place whereas with Ratcliffe I don't know if he does.
 
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