Sir Jim Ratcliffe admits getting into the 'very complex world' of football takes time as he keeps his power dry amid talk of buying a Premier League club.
Britain's richest man, who made his £21bn fortune with the Ineos chemicals group, is a Manchester United fan but has long been linked with a move for Chelsea.
Sir Jim's name has never been in the frame at Newcastle United - who remain up for sale after Peter Kenyon and Amanda Staveley failed to match Mike Ashley's asking price after he put the club up for sale, again, in October, 2017.
Other credible consortia have been interested in that period, though, at a time when there is renewed interest in buying Premier League clubs from the US and Asia.
That a takeover has not happened yet should not come as too much as a surprise given how clubs are often for sale, privately, for a longer period of time before a complicated deal is finally concluded. Ashley, too, has made his name as a serial purchaser rather than a man known for major disposals.
And Sir Jim's take on buying a Premier League football club will ring true with some of those parties who have shown an interest in buying Newcastle in the last 18 months .
"We’ve dipped our toe in the water with football and it’s a very different sport - it’s quite a complicated sport, a complicated world," he told the BBC.
"We’re in the process of learning. We bought this club in Switzerland and it’s really been an education. We haven’t got to where we got to in our chemicals and business world by being impetus and rash and stupid obviously.
"We recognise it’s a very complex world and we’re going through that process of learning. We’re not in a desperate hurry to get to the end game of football."
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