UK tycoon hints at bid for Chelsea

BRITAIN’S richest man has not ruled out buying Chelsea after admitting he had a tour of their training ground last year. Sir Jim Ratcliffe was in the Yorkshire Dales yesterday to launch Team Ineos after taking over the cycling team from Sky. And while he has not so far been prepared to meet Roman Abramovich’s valuation for Chelsea — believed to be in the region of £4billion — Ratcliffe hinted he is still interested. He initially dismissed a report in

Sportsmail last year that he had been given a tour of Chelsea’s Cobham training base, only to admit the story was true. And when pressed on Chelsea specifically, he told the BBC: ‘I’d never say no, but I don’t know where those conversations will finish up.’ There is interest in Chelsea from different parts of the world, with a bid from Saudi Arabia thought to be serious. Ratcliffe, who is reported to be worth £21bn, appears interested in exploring football. ‘I am a big Manchester United fan,’ he said. ‘In fact, I am a tortured Manchester United fan at the moment to be honest. ‘We have dipped our toe in the water with football, it’s a very different sport, quite a complicated sport, a complicated world. We are in the process of learning about it. We bought this club in Switzerland and it has been really educational. ‘We haven’t got to where we are in the chemicals and business world by being impetuous, rash and stupid. We recognised it is a very complex world, we are going through the process of learning and we are not in a desperate hurry to get to the end game.’ Chelsea travelled to Germany yesterday for the Europa League semi-final first-leg against Eintracht Frankfurt and manager Maurizio Sarri is coming to terms with a defensive injury crisis. Frankfurt represent Chelsea’s sternest test yet. They are fourth in the Bundesliga and have already beaten Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan and Benfica. Antonio Rudiger is out for the season with a knee injury and outcast Gary Cahill did not travel and is also laid low by an achilles injury. It leaves Sarri with only David Luiz and Andreas Christensen as established centre backs for a week that encompasses the two Europa League games and a Premier League match against Watford. It has also emerged that Chelsea aggravated Rudiger’s knee injury by starting him against Manchester United on Sunday. Rudiger had previously been forced off through injury against Liverpool on April 14 and returned a fortnight later at Old Trafford and has now had knee surgery in Rome. Sarri said: ‘We tried to get to the end of the season, but the meniscus was broken. Sometimes, you are able to play for one month, but the situation was the same. He was unlucky, but the situation without or with the match was the same. ‘I hope to have Cahill back in one week, but I don’t know. We are in trouble with the centre backs. In the last two training sessions, we played Azpilicueta as a centre back in case. He’s the only one who can play there.’