Britain's richest man, chairman of INEOS, stated in August he would be keen to strike a deal should the Glazers be willing to sell up.

There have been multiple protests against the club's owners from supporters, including one in May 2021 that saw United's match against Liverpool postponed.

But any hopes fans had of a changing of the guard at Old Trafford have been dampened by Ratcliffe, who met with Joel and Avram Glazer.

"Manchester United is owned by the Glazer family, whom I have met," Ratcliffe, told the Financial Times. "I've met Joel [Glazer] and Avram [Glazer] and they are the nicest people, I have to say.

"They are proper gentlemen, really nice people, and they don't want to sell it. It's owned by the six children of the father and they don't want to sell it."

Ratcliffe was one of several figures who made bids to buy Chelsea before Todd Boehly's successful candidacy earlier this year, and the boyhood United fan acknowledged he would have tried to make a bid in the wake of his Blues failure.

"If it had been for sale in the summer, yes, we would have probably had a go following on from the Chelsea thing," he said. "But we can't sit around hoping that one day Manchester United will become available."