British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s right-hand man Dave Brailsford has reportedly taken a step back from his duties with OGC Nice in a bid to fully focus on the attempt to purchase Manchester United. The takeover saga at Old Trafford has had plenty of twists and turns over the past few months but both Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani appear to be in the same situation they were in back in February.
Both separate parties are pushing to be the bid chosen by Raine Group, the US banking firm tasked with overseeing the takeover talks by the Glazer family. It did appear as though the Qatari deal had been successful with reports earlier this week circulating on social media, but they were quickly shut down.
A final decision is expected in the near future, but it’s not any clearer on who will win the bidding war. The Glazers are still said to be pushing for bigger offers closer to their £6billion valuation.
It means officials involved in both bids may well need to put in more work to make their offer more appealing to the Glazers. And Ratcliffe is seemingly doing what he can to get it over the line with Get French Football News claiming Brailsford is now taking an active role in focusing fully on the purchase of United.
The 59-year-old, who helped lead British Cycling to Olympic glory in 2008 and 2012, is said to have taken up an ‘active role’ working at Nice over the past 12 months. But the report claims Brailsford has now taken a step back from his Director of Sport role and its pointed out that Florent Ghisolfi is leading Nice’s search for a new manager.
Brailsford is said to be ‘focusing heavily’ on Ratcliffe’s bid for United with the INEOS billionaire still hopeful of winning the bidding war. The 70-year-old hasn’t spoken publicly on his bid for United for a few months now, although he admitted back in March that he wouldn’t pay “stupid prices” for the club.
“How do you decide the price of a painting?” Ratcliffe said. “How do you decide the price of a house? It’s not related to how much it cost to build or how much it cost to paint.
“What you don’t want to do is pay stupid prices for things because then you regret it subsequently.” But United were given a warning on how Ratcliffe is perceived by players at Nice when Dante gave a scathing review on how the club was being run.
He said: “To maintain a project, maybe you need to speak less about objectives and work in silence to create an environment of competitors. Because the expectation is even bigger, and then after, people are frustrated. The best thing to do is to prepare as quickly as possible for next season in order to start it well.”
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
