Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos were successful in their 25% takeover bid of Manchester United in December 2023.
Ineos’ ownership has had its peaks and troughs for fans of the club, with a recent survey by The Athletic highlighting general dissatisfaction with how the team is being run.
What’s more, the biggest concern fans have is the treatment of staff members. Sadly, there have been a significant number of redundancies at the club in the name of economic savings.
Nonetheless, things could have been very different for United if Ratcliffe’s original attempt to enter Premier League football had been successful.
The British billionaire made a last-ditch attempt to buy Chelsea in 2022 but was unsuccessful as Todd Boehly’s bid ultimately won out.
In a book documenting the story of the sale named, “The Inside Story of the Sale of Chelsea FC”, details of Ratcliffe’s bizarre last-gasp intervention have been laid bare.
The Daily Mail have revealed excerpts from the book detailing Ineos’ failed bid.
The paper reports, “Ratcliffe called Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck the morning after a 1-1 draw with United at Old Trafford in April 2022 to request an urgent meeting.”
During the meeting, “it is claimed Ratcliffe tapped his chest repeatedly, telling Buck he had a piece of paper in his pocket with an offer for the club written on it.”
In contrast, other interested parties had contacted Chelsea weeks before and there had been 140-page documents outlining the economic side of their bids.
Undeterred by his rivals’ preparedness, Ratcliffe reportedly “bigged up how his offer would be the only one made up entirely of British money.”
It is claimed Buck had to inform Ratcliffe that he was too late and that Boehly had already been chosen as the preferred candidate to proceed with the takeover process.
Nonetheless, “Ratcliffe still requested a meeting with Raine that same morning, where he made a formal bid of £4.25 billion, the same as the other three.”
According to the book, Chelsea felt Ratcliffe’s bizarre behaviour was down to the fact his bid was the only one totally composed of British money.
He apparently believed that this set his offer apart from the competition “by virtue of the Government’s oversight of the sale and required sign-off.”
Nonetheless, his actions ultimately proved futile and only resulted in angering his competition in the bidding process.
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
