72 hour claim made about Ratcliffe’s Manchester United deal

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Reporter Ben Jacobs believes there is ‘hope’ that Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s 25 per cent takeover of Premier League giants Manchester United will be confirmed before Thanksgiving later this week.

If Joel Glazer told you he would meet you for lunch at 12pm, it would probably be time for tea by the time he arrived at the restaurant.

As Manchester United supporters know all too well, delays usually go hand-in-hand with the Glazer family, Joel and Avram making those slow-talking Ents from Lord of the Rings seem like quick decision makers by comparison.

When Sir Jim Ratcliffe appeared to make a breakthrough in talks with the despised Old Trafford chiefs recently, there were hopes that a deal would be officially confirmed around the start of November. Then the date got pushed back. And pushed back again.

Manchester United yet to confirm Ratcliffe deal

Ben Jacobs, an excellent source throughout this whole takeover saga, insists that nothing will be announced today either. And while Ratcliffe’s minority takeover could still be ratified by Thanksgiving on Thursday November 23rd, would you really be surprised if we were still waiting for the news to drop this time next week?

“No announcement planned today,” Jacobs writes on X. “Hope still remains it’s all confirmed before Thanksgiving.”

Announcement should come soon

According to Bloomberg – about as reliable as they come with regards to colossal financial deals like this one – an agreement between Ratcliffe and the Glazers has been all-but reached.

All the talk in recent days, meanwhile, appears to suggest that a long-awaited and much-needed restructuring behind the scenes of Manchester United is already underway, Ineos’ chief executive Jean-Claude Blanc expected to replace the departed Richard Arnold as CEO.

John Murtough, meanwhile, could hand over director of football duties to a Dougie Freedman or a Lee Congerton or a Paul Mitchell, with the latter seemingly the frontrunner.

Blanc and Mitchell, two men with an outstanding track record at the top level of European football, would represent a dream start to the Ratcliffe era. An overdue modernisation of a Mesozoic Manchester United outfit stuck in the past.