BREAKING NEWS: Manchester United Owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe explains Chelsea bid after completing Manchster United takeover.
New Manchester United join-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has explained why he showed interest in buying Chelsea but also appeared to use the club as an example to fire a warning to his new team.
The billionaire has completed the purchase of a minority stake in Manchester United this week in a deal worth over $1.3bn. The deal comes after the British businessman showed an interest in purchasing Chelsea when they were put up for sale by Roman Abramovich in 2022.
American Todd Boehly beat him to a deal, completing a £4.25bn takeover at Stamford Bridge in May 2022. Ratcliffe has now opened up on his interest in Chelsea.
“We have a collection of quite interesting sports clubs, Formula 1, America’s Cup, cycling, etc. but we’ve always recognised that the biggest sport in the world is football and the Premier League is the biggest league in the world,” he told journalists [via the Manchester Evening News]. “So we’ve always had an interest in having a Premier League club — but they don’t come up very often, and at the time we had no inkling that Manchester United might ever be sold. So that’s how we finished up in that Chelsea equation.”
Since Boehly’s takeover Chelsea have not been afraid to splash the cash on transfer fees. Total spending passed £1bn in the last summer transfer window, but the Blues still sit in 10th place in the Premier League table.
Ratcliffe was asked if Chelsea have shown how to not do things in regards to spending. While not directly criticising Chelsea, the new United owner talked about mistakes being repeated.
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