Pundit ‘gobsmacked’ by potential Man Utd takeover price after ‘formal’ announcement from Ratcliffe

Lewis Oldham
Man Utd for sale

Simon Jordan has insisted that he would be “gobsmacked” if Man Utd are sold for £7bn amid interest from British businessman Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

It was announced back in November that the Glazer family were considering selling Manchester United.

The club’s current owners have been slammed in recent years amid their involvement in the planned breakaway with the European Super League.

United’s supporters are also of the belief that the club have been left behind their rivals with Old Trafford and their training ground in need of investment to bring the facilities more up to date.

Ratcliffe was quickly identified as a potential buyer and the Ineos CEO “formally” put himself “in the process” to buy United earlier this week.

The British billionaire is known to be a United fan but he made a failed attempt to buy Chelsea last year before a consortium led by Todd Boehly became their new owners.

The Glazer family hope to conclude a deal soon with it previously suggested that they want a ‘full sale’ for £7bn in the ‘first quarter of 2023’.

Former Crystal Palace owner has been taken aback by talk of Man Utd being sold at £6-7bn. He instead predicts that United will be sold for around £5bn.

“If you’re going to spend £5billion on a football club, you are going to want some return on it,” Jordan told talkSPORT.

“We can’t all expect everyone to be a fairy godmother trying to influence people’s thinking by being a nation state buying a football club for very different reasons than somebody that’s a commercial man that’s indexed to it for other reasons.

“So there has to be some form of commercial thinking behind it so with that in mind, do Manchester United get sold at £6/7billion? I’d be gobsmacked if they did.

“If it gets into the territory of between £4-6billion, by that I mean probably £5billion, then the conversation happens.”

Jordan added: “Jim Ratcliffe is a very astute businessman, a very successful businessman.

“He also has quite a significant footprint in sport whether it’s in cycling or whether it’s in motor racing, or whether it’s in the football clubs that he’s involved in Switzerland and France in.

“This is nobody’s fool, and obviously part and parcel of his motivation is to own arguably the biggest football club. Man United winning the Premier League, Man United being back amongst the elite will eclipse everybody economically.

“The fact that they’re not far behind everybody and still not pulling up any trees tells you that once they’re back in the groove again, they’ll be back in the economic top of the tree scenario.”

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