As Roman Abramovich puts Chelsea up for sale following his botched decision to hand over "stewardship" of the club to six charity trustees, the Blues will not be short of potential buyers.
The Russian billionaire has stepped back from his duties as owner after his nation's invasion of Ukraine brought his relationship with Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, into the spotlight.
And while Abramovich is said to have offered at least four parties the opportunity to purchase Chelsea, the name of who Forbes claim to be Britain's richest man has been linked with the tumultuous situation.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, known to have had a season ticket at Stamford Bridge despite being a Manchester United fan, owns French club Nice and speculation over a bid to buy the Blues first arose in 2019.
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Ratcliffe has built up an estimated £20billion net worth thanks to his multi-national chemicals company Ineos and also reportedly explored the possibility of buying Premier League clubs Newcastle and Leeds in the past.
Having acquired Nice for around £91million in 2019, Ratcliffe was later tipped to take over from the Glazer family at boyhood club United - but he claimed that a purchase would not be a good piece of business.
With the 'Big Six' Premier League clubs valued at £2bn-plus, the 69-year-old explained that the costs of a takeover would be "stratospheric" - particularly in the case of Chelsea, who are in the process of renovating their stadium.
"There was some early exchange but we were a significant way apart on valuations," Ratcliffe told BBC Five Live. "The issue with Chelsea is its stadium. We are all getting older and it is a decade of your life to resolve that."
And he explained to The Times in 2019: "Even though clubs have those valuations today, nobody has ever paid those amounts of money.
"How much did Abramovich pay for Chelsea, £100 million? The Glazers, what £500 million? You can say it's worth three, four billion but no one has ever paid those sums.
"Ineos has always tried to take a sensible approach. We don't like squandering money or we wouldn’t be where we are today. It's part of our DNA, trying to spend sensibly."
On buying United specifically, he added: "Not at the moment, no. They are in quite a big pickle as a business.
"(Ineos) never wants to be the dumb money in town, never, never."
Having blasted the way that the Red Devils have been run in recent years, the Lancashire-born entrepreneur affirmed: "We won't look elsewhere until we have had a good run here (at Nice).
"We need to find out how to be successful before you ever want to write a big cheque. It's quite difficult."
If Ratcliffe did take the Blues on, however, he has already hinted at what supporters could expect.
"We have a different approach [than United] here to be moderately intelligent about it. Try to do it more grass roots, trying to locate young talent," he noted when discussing Nice's strategy.
"Some clubs seem to have an ability to do that, Southampton, Lille. United have done it really poorly. They have lost the plot there somehow."
While Abramovich seems to have made up his mind regarding a sale, the deal could depend on whether the UK government decide to sanction him over the coming days, as the crisis in Ukraine rages on.
