Sir Jim Ratcliffe has warned that he will not pay a ‘stupid price’ to buy Manchester United from the Glazer family.
Ratcliffe is one of two bidders who have gone public with their offers to buy the club, alongside Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, although numerous other proposals are believed to have been submitted behind the scenes.
Sources have told 90min that the Glazers are holding out for an offer of around £6bn and have encouraged bidders to increase their proposals after talks and a presentation at Old Trafford.
But Ratcliffe, a United fan, has stressed that he will not be pressured into paying an astronomical price for the club.
“How do you decide the price of a painting? How do you decide the price of a house? It’s not related to how much it cost to build or how much it cost to paint,” Ratcliffe told the Wall Street Journal. “What you don’t want to do is pay stupid prices for things because then you regret it subsequently.”
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Ratcliffe did, however, admit that his view for United would not be driven by money and would instead be more of a ‘community asset’.
“Our interest in that club would be purely in winning things,” he said.
The group managing the sale, Raine, have set a deadline of Wednesday evening for the next round of bids. 90min understands at least four bids are expected and perhaps as many as eight could be submitted.
The Glazers are prepared to stand firm on their £6bn valuation, having been informed by American group Elliott, the former owners of AC Milan, that they would be prepared to invest in the Glazers to keep them at Old Trafford.
Elliott have offered funding for any potential owners of United and have also made it clear that their offer extends to prospective bidders as well as the Glazers.
The Glazer family, who took control of the club in 2005, have been the targets of numerous protests from disgruntled Manchester United supporters.
Performances on the pitch have declined ever since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013 and a lack of planning has been attributed to the Glazers, especially with regards to player signings and managerial appointments. It’s now fallen on the shoulders of Erik ten Hag to oversee a systemic rebuild.
Old Trafford is in desperate need of modernisation – facilities at the famous stadium are outdated and the club’s Carrington training base could do with a facelift – and the Glazers were in initially in favour of joining the European Super League. Uproar from the club’s…
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