By Ben Crawford
Copyright manchestereveningnews
Conor McGregor once hinted at his desire to purchase Manchester United as rumours of potential investors at Old Trafford are circulating once again. The Irish former UFC two-weight world champion’s ambition was made clear in 2021. Speculation about a takeover has been quashed since Sir Jim Ratcliffe acquired a minority stake from the Glazers. However, earlier this week, Turki Al-Sheikh, chairman of the Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority, suggested on social media that the Manchester club is in “advanced stage” negotiations with new investors. Many assumed he would be involved with this party or they would hail from his own country, but hours later the official clarified that they were not . This announcement came on the same day that United co-owner Ratcliffe gave an honest review reflecting on his two years at the club, during which he and his company Ineos purchased a nearly 30 per cent stake in 2023 . While it remains unclear who these investors mentioned by Al-Sheikh are, one sporting star who expressed his desire to be involved with United is wealthy MMA ace McGregor, albeit his proposition was somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Four years ago, amid drama surrounding the proposed Super League, United’s former executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward resigned from his position. This sent fans into a frenzy and calls for the Glazer family to sell began. McGregor turned to X, previously Twitter, to cause a stir and simply wrote to his then 8.6 million followers: “Hey guys. I’m thinking about buying Manchester United! What do you think?” He later added: “I am certainly interested in acquiring a sports team at some stage! Both Celtic and Man United are teams I like for sure. But I am open. I feel I could do big things for a club.” At that point it was crystal clear that the Irishman lacked the financial muscle to snap up the club single-handedly. He had amassed wealth from his £61million bout with Floyd Mayweather and secured sponsorship deals with brands including Monster Energy, EA, Burger King and Reebok. However, his estimated net worth remained at merely £181m in 2021 and Celebrity Net Worth indicates that his wealth stands at £150m as of 2025. This financial clout would be sufficient for him to team up with fellow investors to establish a consortium, though. McGregor represents just one of numerous prospective investors who have shown interest in buying stakes in United through the years, but Ratcliffe and Ineos backed up their words with action in 2023. It has now been 24 months since they took charge of football operations and the British billionaire has discussed his somewhat disappointing tenure extensively this week. “There are two halves to a football team,” Ratcliffe explained on The Business podcast . “There’s the business side and the sports side. The biggest correlation, like it or not, between results and any external factor, is profitability. “The more cash you’ve got, the better squad you can build. It’s like a Formula One car – the better car you can build, the quicker you go. The better your squad, the better your football should be. “So a lot of what we’ve done in the first year is spend an awful lot of time putting the club on a sustainable, healthy footing. If you look at our results for last year, we have the highest revenues ever. Profitability, the second highest ever. We’re not seeing all the benefits of the restructuring that we’ve done in this set of results, and we weren’t in the Champions League . “Those numbers will get better. Manchester United will become the most profitable football club in the world, in my view, and from that will stem, I hope, a long-term, sustainable, high-level of football. “The press, sometimes I don’t understand,” added Ratcliffe. “They want overnight success. They think it’s a light switch. You know, you flick a switch and it’s all going to be roses tomorrow. You can’t run a club like Manchester United on knee-jerk reactions to some journalist who goes off on one every week.” Here at the Manchester Evening News, we’re dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester United coverage and analysis. Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest United news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe. You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day’s biggest stories. And finally, if you’d rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Manchester is Red podcast. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts , and you can also watch along on YouTube .