19 May 2023 , 07:59
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Emmanuel Petit has questioned Sir Jim Ratcliffe's decision-making at Nice as the INEOS owner continues his pursuit of taking over at Manchester United.
Ratcliffe, 70, is amongst the favourites to become the next United owner alongside Qatar businessman Sheikh Jassim. The latter lodged a fourth bid of around £5.5billion earlier this week after Ratcliffe reportedly placed a higher offer, but Jassim has concerns that the Glazer family might not sell at all.
Nevertheless, Ratcliffe has emerged as a frontrunner to take over at the Red Devils should the Glazers decide to cash - but ex-Arsenal midfielder Petit has concerns. He has criticised Ratcliffe's plan at Nice and how the club is run both on and off the pitch in Ligue 1.
Petit told Foot01: "Since INEOS arrived in Nice, I don’t know who makes the decisions. I don't know where they want to go. I don’t know what they want to do with this club, especially since with Manchester United behind us we don’t know if they’re going to pull out overnight.
"That's what puzzles me, actually. A group like INEOS, which manages 17,000 people around the world and has a turnover of 80bn, is not even capable of managing a club like Nice at the moment and having a clear and defined strategy.
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"When you take the best sporting director, Ghisolfi at Lens, who made miracles on the transfer market with three francs and six pennies. You see today that he is in total disagreement with what we are trying to impose on him concerning the extension of certain players like Ramsey.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is in contention to buy Manchester United (Getty Images)"Who is making the decisions? Mr. Ratcliffe, Mr. Blanc, Mr. Rivère, whose silence has been deafening for the past few weeks regarding the affairs. He told us in February: 'You’ll see, we’ll give you the name of the future coach in February.' It’s the end of May and we still don’t know what’s going to happen at Nice with the market coming up quickly. The direction that INEOS and OGC Nice want to take, I have no idea!"
Nice have endured a difficult 2022/23 season despite their influx of new signings last summer, with Kasper Schmeichel, Aaron Ramsey and Nicolas Pepe amongst those to move to the club. They currently sit 10th and can still mathematically qualify for Europe, although it is very unlikely.
As for the proposed takeover, there is a possibility that the Americans could yet remain at Old Trafford. Ratcliffe has lowered his potential share of the club to just 50.01% which could yet allow the Glazers to stay with the Red Devils as investors.
A number of external investors are also still involved in the takeover proccess. Elliott Investments and Sixth Street are willing to invest in the Red Devils and again would be willing to let the Glazers to stay at Old Trafford.