Sir Jim Ratcliffe

Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he won’t “spend a fortune to buy success” in terms of players, but is willing to spend money on building a new stadium for Manchester United.

Speaking on British cyclist Geraint Thomas’ podcast, he said: “It’s not that clever is it buying Mbappe? Anyone could figure that one out, but what is much more challenging is to find the next Mbappe, or the next Bellingham, or the next Roy Keane.”

Tour de France winner Thomas questioned Ratcliffe over the future of Old Trafford and whether it would be more beneficial for the club to start from scratch.

“We need to have a stadium that’s befitting of the club and the brand,” added Ratcliffe on the Geraint Thomas Cycling Club Podcast. “And that might have been the case 20 years ago, but it isn’t today.

“We can refurbish the ground and that will cost about a billion pounds to do, but you have got this opportunity, if you choose, to build a completely new ground because we’ve got enough space.

“If you built a completely new ground, it would absolutely be state of the art, world class, That then provides a platform for some of the big competitions in the north of England.

“Football is just as important in the north as it is in the south, arguably more so, and the people in the north pay the taxes, so why do we have Wembley in the south?

“Why do we have Twickenham, Wimbledon, Olympic village, the O2 in the south?”

Thomas, who is an Arsenal fan, finished the interview by asking Ratcliffe who he would like to see win the Premier League this season.

“I hate them all!” Ratcliffe joked. “I don’t know. They’re all the enemy. I couldn’t possibly choose.

“It’d be good for Mikel Arteta because he’s done really well there, and Arsenal have been patient with him, which is nice as well.”