Simon Jordan calls Sir Jim Ratcliffe a ‘disruptor’ for Chelsea bid and warns Manchester United fan ‘not always successful’ in sport

Simon Jordan labelled Sir Jim Ratcliffe a ‘disruptor’ for his 11th hour bid for Chelsea.

Todd Boehly's consortium is understood to remain on course to be confirmed as the preferred bidder and then handed the opportunity to seal a Stamford Bridge takeover from Roman Abramovich.

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The Russian oligarch put the club up for sale in March amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, but was later sanctioned by the UK government and had his assets frozen.

Chelsea were still able to operate on a special licence with New York-based merchant bank The Raine Group handling the process overseeing the sale.

The Treasury will have to ratify the club’s sale for the eventual takeover, but significant progress has been made with LA Dodgers co-owner Boehly expected to be named the preferred bidder.

That was until Britain’s richest man, Ineos owner Ratcliffe, confirmed a last-ditch £4.25billion bid for the club.

Manchester United fan Ratcliffe carried out extensive due diligence on Chelsea in 2019, only to opt against submitting a formal offer to buy the west London club.

The British billionaire had distanced himself from a bid for Chelsea in early March, with his brother Bob reiterating previous determination at Ineos not to be ‘dumb money’ in football.

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But crucially, Ratcliffe never categorically ruled himself out of a bid for the Blues.

Former Crystal Palace owner Jordan does not believe that Ratcliffe’s bid will succeed and the £4.25billion figure quoted is not quite all it seems.

When asked why Ratcliffe has made the late bid, Jordan told talkSPORT: “No idea… being a disruptor? His bid is the lowest bid. He hasn’t bid what the other guys have bid.

“The other guys have bid near to £3billion and he has bid the £2.5billion, which was supposedly the price people were to get to and bid a future commitment of £1.75billion. A future commitment, which I’m suspecting the other guys will spend just as much as he’s forced to spend.

“If they are going to develop the stadium, which I suspect they are all going to, they are all going to the same place.

“He’s had ample time to get in a situation where he could have done this. Whatever has prompted him behind this?

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“You also have the Todd Boehly bid, the make up of that and who is behind it. There are some very interesting people, not necessarily financially well heeled, but people who are intellectually well heeled like Danny Finkelstein.

“It’s going to be Todd Boehly and his gang, those are going to be the guys who come out of it.

“Jim Ratcliffe, whenever he gets involved in sport it is not always the greatest success. He wasn’t the greatest success with Ben Ainslie over the Americas Cup, but the man has significant wealth.

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“He’s a Manchester United fan, not that that influences who you can and can’t own.

"If he wanted to be involved in this process, he could have been at some point and probably didn’t want to be at the table in a bidding auction with other people, but this bid that has been dressed up as £4.25billion… what you spend in the future has nothing with what you buy the football club for.

“There are two things. The price you’ve got to pay to own this business and what you project to spend in the future, that’s for the birds."