Sir Jim Ratcliffe should shelve his plans to buy Manchester United – and snap up Spurs instead.
The billionaire businessman might be one of the frontrunners to take over at Old Trafford from the Glazers. But to my mind he should fix his gaze on north London.
Ratcliffe and Ineos have confirmed that they have submitted a bid for majority ownership of United. However, I think the Qataris will end up taking over one of the world’s biggest clubs – why wouldn’t they? They have the cash to turn heads.
But Ratcliffe should satisfy his burning desire to be the owner of one of the big six by giving either head honcho Daniel Levy or owner Joe Lewis a call. The chemical magnate was linked with Chelsea, so he clearly wants to get his hands dirty in football club ownership and Spurs tick all the boxes.
Manchester United, by comparison, is a minefield and he’d be on a hiding to nothing there.
The temptation would be to go in like a kid in sweetshop and buy up everything in sight.
He will make better business decisions in north London because he’s not
emotionally involved like he would be at Old Trafford.
What’s there not to like at Tottenham?
Levy has overseen a huge upturn in the club’s fortunes. He has built a brilliant stadium which is a 365-day-a-year operation. The training facilities are up there with the best. The raw ingredients are there. And now is the time that the hierarchy would accept it. The protests have started and they’re not going to go away. The manager might be good enough. The players aren’t.
The relationship is only ever going to be fractious.
And, if Levy is honest, he must look himself in the mirror and level with the bloke staring back at him.
He’s had a long, long time now to bridge the gap. To turn Spurs into something special on the pitch. And he’s failed. They’re close enough for the supporters to be excited.
But then, over the years, they’ve been in that position a number of times.
Sometimes you have to know when you’re time is up. There’s not a lot more that Levy can do that would excite Spurs’ fans – apart from announcing his resignation.
Seriously, he might go after Mauricio Pochettino again. It’s a little sugar-hit, really, isn’t it? There’s nothing he can do – apart from organise a sale – to really get the fans going. The club needs fresh input. It needs someone with the vision to take them across the line.
And Ratcliffe has just turned 70 years of age.
At this stage of his life, surely leading Spurs to a cup win and taking them regularly into the Champions League would give him more of a buzz than winning trophies at Old Trafford.
If he did take over up there, the expectation in 18 months’ time would be: ‘Deliver like Fergie.’
For any owner, that’s a nightmare. It’s not exciting, being told you HAVE to win every year. Spurs would take any pot at the moment.
Ratcliffe has all the money he’s ever going to need. But there won’t be
anything like the feeling he gets if he turns Spurs from being permanent also-rans into genuine challengers. And if he did, the £3bn spend would be almost doubled.
He could go to Manchester United. But if he’s going to hold it and sell it on, he’s got to ask himself who on earth is going to buy it from him?
We’re miles out of reach of the usual high net-worth individuals. It’s likely to be another state bankrolled by petro-dollars.
So, the tools are there at Spurs. The owners’ relationship with the fans is strained, a good recruitment department is a must. There isn’t too much wrong.
With Antonio Conte being kept onside and with Harry Kane likely to fire in goals for the next few seasons, the building blocks are there.
Jim Ratcliffe and Tottenham Hotspur would be a match made in heaven.
