Sir Jim Ratcliffe is currently trying to take one of Newcastle United’s key figures to Manchester United, but he could have had they keys to St James’ Park if he really wanted.
The INEOS chief now partially owns Manchester United, and is overseeing their football operations. He intends to bring the Red Devils back to their former glories, and to do that he wants Dan Ashworth.
The Toon sporting director has been poached by Man United, and is going to be taking his talents to Old Trafford. Newcastle United have placed him on gardening leave, and it is currently just a case of the two clubs agreeing compensation.
It is unclear where discussions stand at the moment, but Ratcliffe angered Newcastle United fans back in February when he suggested that the Magpies’ compensation demands were ‘silly’. It had been claimed that Toon officials wanted £20million to allow Ashworth to move to Man United.
Regardless, a move will happen at some point, with Ratcliffe seeing Ashworth as a key cog in his Man United rebuild. He is going to invest a huge amount of money into the club, having already spent £1.3billion just to buy 25% of the club from the Glazers.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe looked at buying Newcastle United
That is a huge amount of money for just a quarter of the club. In comparison, PIF and co paid £305million for all of Newcastle United in 2021.
And that is something that Ratcliffe actually considered doing a few years ago before investing in Manchester United.
The British billionaire was linked with buying Newcastle from Mike Ashley, but his group decided that it was too expensive.
Why INEOS decided against buying Newcastle from Mike Ashley
Now iNews have reflected on INEOS’s decision not to buy Newcastle United, and shared a key detail on why they opted against doing a deal.
According to iNews, Ratcliffe’s group did their due diligence over buying Newcastle United in 2018, but decided not to negotiate a deal with then-owner Mike Ashley.
They state that one reason INEOS did not want to buy Newcastle was because of the difficulty in expanding St James’ Park.
PIF looking to overcome that problem at Newcastle
Stadium expansion will play a key role in increasing the club’s revenue, so it is understandable that INEOS decided not to invest six years ago.
But now PIF have the keys at Newcastle United, and the club are looking at every way they can get more people inside St James’ Park without having to relocate. That would cause huge uproar, as St James’ Park is at the heart of the city. It is an iconic ground, and moving elsewhere would be a huge risk.
That is why the owners are focussed on making the current stadium bigger, and are currently working towards that goal.
iNews add increasing the size of St James’ Park will be possible, but also very expensive. Fortunately, PIF have very deep pockets.
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