Sir Jim Ratcliffe consulted Liverpool legend for advice on £2bn takeover bid

15 December 2023 , 02:00

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Sir Jim Ratcliffe consulted Liverpool legend for advice on £2bn takeover bid

Liverpool icon Graeme Souness has revealed that he held a meeting with Sir Jim Ratcliffe for advice on how to buy a Premier League club.

The INEOS owner is closing in on a deal to buy 25 percent of Manchester United and an announcement regarding his investment is expected before the end of the year.

Any deal would also bring to an end to Ratcliffe's long search for shares in a Premier League club. The British billionaire was initially linked with a bid for Chelsea after Roman Abramovich was forced to sell but was beaten to the punch by Todd Boehly in May 2022.

Ratcliffe then emerged as one of the front-runners to buy Man United from the Glazers, with Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani the other interested party. However, Ratcliffe will now purchase a minority share after the Qatari billionaire’s decision to pull out and the Glazers opted against a full sale.

It appears that Ratcliffe was interested in a deal for Chelsea as far back as 2018 and turned to Souness for advice. Speaking to talkSPORT, the Liverpool hero recounted being invited to a meeting with the 71-year-old.

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Souness said: “We sit down and he says, ‘I’m thinking of buying Chelsea. Would that be a good buy?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I think the timing might be right, I’m getting indications that maybe Roman Abramovich is getting fed up with it.’

Graeme Souness held a meeting with Sir Jim Ratcliffe (Getty Images)

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“He said, ‘What would it cost?’ And I said, ‘I would imagine you’re looking at £2billion.’ And then he said, ‘What would it take to replicate what Real Madrid have done and dominate Europe? We live in the greatest city in the world, London. Why is there not a team in London that can do what Real Madrid have done?’

“I said, ‘It wouldn’t be impossible but you’d need a large slice of luck and a lot of money.’ He said, ‘How much money?' So I said, ‘over the next ten years maybe another four or five billion, the way transfers are going.’ His response was, ‘Would it be fun?’

“I said, ‘Well I don’t know what your idea of fun is but spending five or six billion pounds on a football team knowing there’s going to be peaks and troughs along the way, only you can answer that’.”

Ahead of completing a deal for his slice of the Red Devils, Ratcliffe is already putting major plans in place. As the pressure cranks up on boss Erik ten Hag, a meeting has already been held with former Chelsea and Brighton boss Graham Potter about potentially replacing the Dutchman at the helm.

Daniel Orme