There has been several reports done on Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s impact at Nice.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the owner of Ineos who is proposing a deal to buy a 25% minority stake in Manchester United, bought Nice for €100 million in 2019 (via BBC Sport).
A lot of these reports seem sceptical – as they should be – but I can’t really look beyond the fact Ratcliffe only arrived at the Ligue 1 club four years ago. Nice fans are frustrated and Manchester United fans will be too if the Glazers are still at the club in four years.
However, we can still take insight from French football experts and, of course, those who are close to Nice.
France-based football correspondent Jonathan Johnson has explained in an article for Caught Offside that Nice have failed to make the kind of progress they expected. That said, they’ve shown promising signs this season and remain unbeaten in Ligue 1.
“We’re seeing Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS move closer to purchasing a 25% stake in Manchester United, but as much as fans of the Red Devils might not want to read this, their ownership of Nice hasn’t been a huge success,” Johnson wrote.
“We have to recognise that when INEOS came in they had a very ambitious project to challenge PSG at the top of Ligue 1 and they haven’t done that. They haven’t really made any kind of progress domestically or in Europe, so it’s been a very frustrating period for the club’s fans.
“Ratcliffe’s continual flirtation with clubs in England has also been a source of frustration to the Nice fan-base, as it’s not just Manchester United he’s shown an interest in, but also Chelsea and Liverpool in the past. Had it just been Man United, given his childhood support of the club, then I think fans might have been a bit more understanding, but given that there’s clearly been a long-running interest in buying a Premier League club, I think the Nice fans are tired of it.
“More recently, Nice have made some encouraging changes – they’re the only team unbeaten in Ligue 1 and they’re going very well under highly-rated new manager Francesco Farioli. They’ve got a couple of real gems in their ranks as well, but overall you can’t paint a picture of Ratcliffe’s reign and make it look like a success. It’s been largely a tale of frustration and wasted potential.”
There also appears to be a bit of jealousy in the fact Ratcliffe may have took his eye off the ball since turning his focus on buying a stake at Manchester United.
The future of Nice will be put into some doubt if Ratcliffe’s buy-in attempt is successful.
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