Former British Airways chairman Sir Martin Broughton has no intention of joining the race to become the next Manchester United owner, but says Sir Jim Ratcliffe is in danger of being blown out of the water by a bumper takeover bid from Qatari investors.
Reports claim that the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is lining up an offer for the Reds this week amid Friday's soft deadline, although Ratcliffe remains the only confirmed interested party. Broughton was chairman of Liverpool FC for six months between April and October 2010 and put together a bid for Chelsea last year, a race that was ultimately won by Todd Boehely’s £3bn proposal.
Ratcliffe was also involved in the race for the Blues before deeming the club's valuation too high. Broughton said it is different with United this time around, though. "Jim wants it,” he told AP. “He’s prepared to pay properly for it.
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"My surmise would be he’s willing to come up with a big number. Personally, I would guess he’d be at the £4-5 billion pounds level. Jim is a fan.
"They (QIA) might feel a knockout price (would do it and say) 'We’ll give you £6billion as long as you sell it to us now and don’t carry on the auction.’ A take it or leave, something like that could easily settle it.”
“Jim, in the Chelsea case, made it clear at the outset that he wasn’t going to be interested at that price, it was too much. Wasn’t interested in discussing, joining in with other potential bidders and then made this very late bid.”
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