Man Utd takeover latest: Ratcliffe’s ‘demand’ for immediate control of transfers ‘unlikely to be accepted’

Manchester United have just six matches remaining in their Premier League season starting on Thursday with a trip to the AMEX Stadium to take on Brighton & Hove Albion.

The Red Devils will be looking to secure their place in the top four, and UEFA Champions League football next season, before going head-to-head with Manchester City in the FA Cup final at Wembley next month. Meanwhile, with a crucial few weeks ahead on the pitch the club continues to be the focus of takeover developments behind the scenes.

INEOS chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe continues to be considered the frontrunner as the next potential owners of the club but latest reports suggest there may be a stumbling block in the British billionaire’s bid. Here are the latest Manchester United takeover news headlines on Tuesday, May 2:

Ratcliffe’s ‘demand’ for immediate control of transfers ‘unlikely to be accepted’

The Telegraph have published a report which claims that Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s bid for a majority stake in Manchester United ‘includes a demand for immediate control of transfers from the moment a potential deal is agreed.’ However, the same report states that those terms are ‘unlikely to be accepted’.

The other leading candidate in the bid to purchase the club from the Glazer family is Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani but the same report claims the Qatari’s bid comes with a demand of ‘even wider oversight of club affairs’. A source for the publication is understood to have said that “requests for full control of club dealings could be a legal and theoretical impossibility prior to a deal being closed.”

The summer transfer window officially opens on June 10 and both parties are said to believe that negotiations will last beyond that date before any takeover deal is signed, sealed and delivered.