Erik ten Hag has confirmed that he met potential Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe on Friday during the British billionaire’s talks to buy the club.
Ratcliffe and other members of his consortium met United CEO Richard Arnold at Old Trafford on Friday morning before touring the Carrington training base.
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Ten Hag met Ratcliffe, chairman and chief executive of chemical company INEOS, in Carrington after flying back to Manchester on Thursday night following United’s 1-0 win over Real Betis in the Europa League.
“I just met them, we shake hands, I’m focused on the game. We played a great game on Sunday, all our focus is on that, others at the club are dealing with potential investors,” Ten Hag told a news conference. . Friday evening.
Ratcliffe was at Old Trafford 24 hours after representatives of Qatari businessman Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani also met United officials to discuss their takeover bid on Thursday.
The club hopes to have clarity on the ownership situation by the end of the season and Ten Hag insists his only focus is on the fixture, starting with Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final against Fulham.
“My job right now is to focus on the game, so let’s talk about the game, it’s a big draw and we have to prepare for that,” he said.
Ten Hag will be without casemiro against Fulham when the Brazilian midfielder sits out the first game of his four-game suspension following his red card in a 0-0 draw with Southampton.
Bruno Fernandes and Fred they will almost certainly start with either Marcel Sabitzer either Scott McTominay comes in to replace Casemiro.
“We had many more games without Casemiro,” said Ten Hag.
“We did very well without Casemiro against Arsenal, Leeds and also at the start of the season, but I want to have Casemiro available. He has a big impact on our game.”
“We also won a lot of games without Casemiro, so he’s not available, so we have to deal with a lot of players.”