Britain’s richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe has outlined the reasons why he won’t buy Manchester United as he believes the club have ‘lost the plot’ after poor investments on both players and managers.
The 67-year-old, who had grown up supporting the Old Trafford outfit, is worth a reported £20billion through his company Ineos and had invested part of his wealth in Ligue 1 side Nice in August.
He had also reportedly weighed up the possibility of taking over the likes of Chelsea, Newcastle and Leeds.
But Ratcliffe has revealed he would not be interested in securing United from the Glazer family, believing the deal would not represent good business sense.
He told The Times: ‘They are in quite a big pickle as a business.
“They haven’t got the manager selection right, haven’t bought well. They have been the dumb money, which you see with players like Fred.
“We won’t look elsewhere until we have had a good run here (at Nice). We need to find out how to be successful before you ever want to write a big cheque. It’s quite difficult.”
Ratcliffe also hit out at the club’s irresponsible transfer investments since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, and compared United’s contrasting approach to the current set-up at Nice.
He added: ‘United have spent an immense amount since Ferguson left and been poor, to put it mildly. Shockingly poor, to be honest.
“We have a different approach here (at Nice) to be moderately intelligent about it. Try to do it more grassroots, trying to locate young talent.
“Some clubs seem to have an ability to do that, Southampton, Lille. United have done it really poorly. They have lost the plot there somehow.”
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