Britain's richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe has submitted an offer of £4 billion to buy Chelsea.
Roman Abramovich placed Chelsea on the market last month and Ratcliffe has now emerged as a credible successor to the Russian with an eleventh-hour offer. Ratcliffe has been linked with buying Manchester United from the Glazers over the years.
“We put an offer in this morning,” Ratcliffe told The Times. “We are the only British bid. Our motives are simply to try and create a very fine club in London. We have no profit motive because we make our money in other ways.”
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Ratcliffe, who was born in Failsworth, Greater Manchester and who supported United growing up, has pledged to invest £1.75bn on developing Stamford Bridge, Chelsea's team and infrastructure, along with the £2.5bn for the transaction of the club.
Considering Ratcliffe's strong links with United, supporters have naturally suggested he would be the perfect owner to put an end to the Glazers' unpopular regime, and the billionaire has actually spoken about potentially owning the Reds.
However, Ratcliffe hardly sound effused about United when speaking back in 2019 after his purchase of French club Nice.
"[Ineos] never wants to be the dumb money in town, never. They [United] are in quite a big pickle as a business," Ratcliffe said.
"They haven't got the manager selection right, haven't bought well. They have been the dumb money, which you see with players like Fred. United have spent an immense amount since Ferguson left and been poor, to put it mildly. Shockingly poor, to be honest.
"We have a different approach here to be moderately intelligent about it. Try to do it more grass roots, trying to locate young talent. Some clubs seem to have an ability to do that, Southampton, Lille. United have done it really poorly. They have lost the plot."
Ratcliffe also spoke about United back in September 2018 when telling The Telegraph : "It’s not getting any better [at United]. It’s gone from bad to catastrophic. Talk about a glass-half-empty."
Forbes estimated Ratcliffe's net worth at around £12bn.
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