Man Utd takeover: Chelsea ‘mystery bidder’ tipped to make ‘surprise’ offer to rival Ratcliffe and co.

Lewis Oldham
Man Utd takeover

Chelsea ‘mystery bidder’ Steve Pagliuca has been tipped to make a ‘surprise’ offer to buy Man Utd ahead of Friday’s deadline for bids to be made.

Man Utd have been up for sale since November last year. The club’s current owners – the Glazer family – have set their asking price at around £6bn and there is a ‘soft deadline’ for bids to be made later this week.

As things stand, Sir Jim Ratcliffe is the sole confirmed bidder, but it is being heavily reported that Qatari investors are also preparing to make an offer to buy Man Utd. 

Liverpool are also open to new investment at the moment, while Tottenham are subject of interest from Iranian-American billionaire Jahm Najafi.

This is while Chelsea were sold to Todd Boehly’s consortium last year. Ben Jacobs is reporting that he would not be shocked if there is “more than one credible bid coming out of North America” for Man Utd.

Pagliuca has been tipped to make a ‘surprise’ bid after he made the shortlist of candidates to become Chelsea’s new owner last year.

Jacobs adds that Crystal Palace shareholders Josh Harris and David Blitzer are also “ones to watch”.

“Don’t be surprised if, after all of this hype around Ratcliffe and Qatar and possibly Saudi Arabia, we actually see more than one credible bid coming out of North America,” Jacobs told Football Insider.

“That is because entities do not do their business in public. If you are a private investment firm, you may not want it out there that this is your strategy. You may not want it out there that these are the funds you have got and are prepared to pay until after you are successful.

“Who knows what other direction you will choose to move in if you are not successful and then you have actually let slip in the market what your valuation is, what your strategy is and that can affect you detrimentally even though the more public it is the better it is for the Man United stock price.

“So when we think about North American names, I would say Harris and Blitzer have always been one to watch. They will not be combining with Sir Martin Broughton like they did for Chelsea. Broughton is out of the mix for Liverpool and never had an interest in Man United.

“Harris Blitzer could still be there potentially for minority investment and Steve Pagliuca is yet to comment.

“I do not think we can read too much into it but he was the mystery bidder for Chelsea and he owns Atalanta in Serie A and is also the co-owner of the Boston Celtics so there would also be some issues between Atalanta and Man United.

“But let’s see whether he is a part of any group as he was with Chelsea. At the moment it is just a ‘no comment’, we can’t read too much into that but it is those kind of names.“

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