Sir Jim Ratcliffe won't "interfere" with Erik ten Hag 's work at Manchester United if the British billionaire completes his takeover.
Ratcliffe, 70, remains a frontrunner in the hotly-contested race to buy the Red Devils, with Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al-Thani still hoping to pull off a takeover swoop of his own and oust the Glazer family. Within his £5billion bid, Ratcliffe has proposed a plan to initially purchase a majority stake in the club before completing a full acquisition of the Glazers' remaining shares by 2026.
Parties vying for ownership are set to learn the outcome of their latest offers in a matter of days, with the Glazer family trusting US merchant bank Raine to select a preferred buyer after three rounds of bidding. If boyhood United fan Ratcliffe - through his petrochemical company INEOS - gets the nod, then manager Ten Hag will have to prepare for a new boss.
However, the Dutchman - who's already met Ratcliffe, albeit briefly when the 70-year-old visited the Red Devils' training ground in March - shouldn't expect too much of a change from the Glazers' hands-off approach. That's according to Patrick Vieira, who worked under Ratcliffe as manager of French club Nice.
Midway through his reign in August 2019, INEOS acquired a controlling stake in Nice and Vieira got to experience working for United's prospective owners. Although the Arsenal legend was sacked by Ratcliffe within five months of INEOS' purchase - one of their many sports ventures alongside Team Sky in cycling and Formula 1 outfit Mercedes - Vieira has a positive assessment in what will be music to Ten Hag's ears.
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"[Ratcliffe] would never interfere with my work," the Frenchman explained in an interview with FourFourTwo. "We'd talk about football when we met, about the team and our lives, but he's not an owner who will get involved too much and prevent the manager from doing his job. His ambitions and expectations are high, so you know where you stand, but you can do your job freely."
A current member of the Nice setup, No.1 goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, even claims that Ratcliffe's regime was a significant factor in his decision to move to the south of France last summer after 11 years at Leicester. Speaking to Sky Sports, Schmeichel vowed: "One of the biggest reasons that I joined Nice was because of INEOS and because of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford, their vision and how they want to evolve their sports.
"They've been successful, not just in business, but in every other sporting venture they've thrown their investment at. I think with Manchester United particularly, Jim is a big fan of the club and that speaks a lot to fans.
"He's someone coming in who cares deeply about the club. From my own experience at Nice, he's a man who is present, he comes to games, a guy that's knowledgable about football and who has a vast knowledge about performance in general. He has people like Dave Brailsford working for him, who again, are present."
