Britain’s richest man has the funds at his disposal to buy most clubs in Europe, but he won’t be investing in Manchester United – as he claims they’ve ‘lost the plot’.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a boyhood Red Devils fan, is worth a whopping £20billion thanks to his multi-national chemicals company, Ineos.

getty images 1 Sir Jim Ratcliffe bought Ligue 1 side Nice earlier this year

In August he splashed out £91m to purchase Ligue 1 Nice, having previously taken over Swiss second division side Lausanne in 2017.

But the billionaire has underlined why he has no interest whatsoever in taking over at United anytime soon – slamming their decision to appoint Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as permanent manager.

“They are in quite a big pickle as a business. They haven’t got the manager selection right, haven’t bought well,” Radcliffe, who has also considered the possibility of taking over Premier League duo Chelsea and Newcastle, told The Times.

“They have been the dumb money, which you see with players like Fred. We won’t look elsewhere until we have had a good run here [at Nice].

“We need to find out how to be successful before you ever want to write a big cheque. It’s quite difficult.

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“Some clubs seem to have an ability to do that, Southampton, Lille. United have done it really poorly. They have the lost plot there somehow.”

The Oldham-born businessman also explained his approach in the football market, while lamenting United’s ‘shockingly poor’ business since Sir Alex Ferguson retired at the end of the 2012/13 season.

He added: “United have spent an immense amount since Ferguson left and been poor, to put it mildly. Shockingly poor, to be honest.

“We have a different approach here at [at Nice] to be moderately intelligent about it. Try to do it more grass roots, trying to locate young talent.”