Man Utd takeover: Ratcliffe responds to 'dead in the water' claims

Tom Weber

• 6 Jul 2023 17:28 BST
• 3 min read

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has responded to reports claiming that his Manchester United takeover bid is 'dead in the water.'

The ownership saga is still dragging on. It appeared as though Sheikh Jassim was finally the favourite to win the bidding war with Sir Jim Ratcliffe, only for new reports to surface that the Qatari banker was getting increasingly frustrated with the Glazers, the current owners, dragging their feet, casting doubt on the prospects of a takeover.

The unpopular Americans' lack of urgency has been heavily criticised by Red Devils fans and even head coach Erik ten Hag hasn't always managed to contain his frustration as his ambitions to build a team capable of challenging for the Premier League next season are currently hamstrung due to uncertainty over the club's budget.

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In late June, Bloomberg claimed that Jassim was growing increasingly confident of finally striking a deal as Ratcliffe's offer, that would see him only buy out the Glazers and do it via a gradual, drawn-out process, had caused outrage among United's minority shareholders. David Hellier went so far as to claim that Ratcliffe's bid is 'dead in the water.'

Now, the man himself has given his thoughts on the situation.

What did Ratcliffe say?

"We have a good offer and we have met with the Glazers a couple of times,” Ratcliffe said at a recent book launch. "We’ve had good discussions with them."

"We would still very much like to do it," he continued. "And we would be doing it for the right reasons. But in the end, it is their decision, not our decision."

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"Teams don’t come around very often. There are some special teams and the value of them tends to go up. They ain’t making them any more. Manchester United and these type of clubs, it’s like art or areas like that."

"When you have special things, their value continues to pick up over time. It’s because they are very special and rare. I don’t like throwing money away or losing money. It doesn’t make me happy at all."

"But we aren’t there to make money out of it. If it’s a really good asset it will increase its value over time."