Finance expert on whether Britain’s richest man would consider Spurs takeover

Football Finance expert Dan Plumley has claimed that taking over Manchester United remains the number one priority of Sir Jim Ratcliffe despite his visit to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last week.

The Athletic reported back in February of this year that Tottenham are now more for sale than they have ever been, with potential investors having to pay around £3 billion to buy the club: £2.3 billion for the shares, plus £700 million of debt.

However, Spurs are not the only big Premier League club who could change hands with Manchester United (National News) and Liverpool (Liverpool Echo) also on the market at present.

The Daily Mail reported last Friday that Ratcliffe was a guest at Tottenham’s home friendly against mid-season friendly against Nice, which created some suspicion regarding the business mogul’s potential interest in buying the North London club.

The Daily Telegraph had claimed last month that the 70-year-old is a potential candidate to take over at United from the Glazers, having been a lifelong fan of the Red Devils.

Plumley believes that buying United would be Ratcliffe’s main priority but added that the businessman would consider Spurs as an option if the pursuit of his boyhood club fell through.

When asked if Ratcliffe can be a candidate to take over Tottenham, Plumley told Football Insider: “He ticks the box in terms of his profile and wealth. We know he’s shown an interest in investing in football clubs in the past and in the present.

“He was touted for the Chelsea deal a few months ago, but the big one for him is Man United. He’s a Man United fan so any involvement, it’s really interesting in that regard because if – and it’s a big if – he ends up buying Manchester United in an outright sale, where does that leave this deal with Spurs?

“I think in terms of profile and wealth, he’s absolutely somebody that’s made very little secret of the fact that he’s looking to invest in a high-profile English football club and his number one target will always be Man United because he’s a fan. But if it’s not them, then one of the other big six is certainly within his reach.”

Daniel Levy
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Spurs Web Opinion

Investors like Ratcliffe tend to be quite dispassionate and calculating with their decisions, and so, it is not necessarily the case that the 70-year-old would prefer to take over Man Utd owing to his affection for the club. It is possible that he might view Spurs as a more prudent investment, given the infrastructure the club have in place.

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