Man Utd takeover: Sir Jim Ratcliffe announcement to be pushed back once again

Manchester United’s partial takeover from Sir Jim Ratlicffe is not expected to be completed this week as the process continues to drag on. There was a sense in mid-November that things could be wrapped up quickly, with the expectation that Ineos’ investment would be agreed prior to the Everton game on 26 November. Yet there’s now a growing fear that the agreement won’t be announced before the new year. Certainly, neither United or Ineos are expecting anything to be announced before Sunday’s trip to Anfield, meaning talks will roll into the last week before Christmas. The sheer volume of paperwork is holding things up at present, but there’s no sense that Ratcliffe’s partial investment of £1.3bn for 25 percent of the club won’t be concluded, even if there will need to be a gap between an agreement being announced and it being fully ratified by the Premier League. Ratcliffe will be handed the reins to the football operations at Old Trafford once he has completed his partial takeover, with Sir Dave Brailsford and Jean-Claude Blanc expected to come in as part of his Ineos team, while Paul Mitchell remains of interest as the club’s new director of football. Ratcliffe has already allocated funds of around £245m to be invested into club infrastructure, namely the stadium and training ground. Meanwhile, United host Bayern Munich on Tuesday night in the Champions League, in a must-win game for the Red Devils if they are to progress to the knockout stages of the competition.