Sir Jim Ratcliffe slammed by coach of INEOS-owned club | OneFootball

Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been accused of losing interest in OGC Nice by the club's head coach, having recently claimed that he doesn't get excited watching the Ligue 1 side he owns.

Ratcliffe is Manchester United's self-anointed saviour following a minority buy-in completed early last year, which handed the billionaire investor control of sporting and daily operations.

The 72-year-old bought Nice through the sporting arm of his conglomerate INEOS in 2019. But his attention was being spread increasingly thinly due to a widening portfolio of sporting interests, even before taking on the enormous weight of problems at Manchester United.

Ratcliffe recently admitted that the quality and calibre of competition isn't enough to captivate him when it comes to Nice – under INEOS ownership, the club have alternated between fifth and ninth place finishes in Ligue 1, which has not been good enough to qualify for the Champions League.

This season, Nice sit fourth in the standings, occupying the last of the Champions League qualifying berths. With seven games to go, they are only three points behind Monaco in second place, but equally only have a three-point buffer on Lille in seventh.

In response to Ratcliffe's rather dismissive comments, head coach Franck Haise retorted: "He hasn't seen a Nice match this season," but isn't dwelling on the owner's apparent lack of interest.

"He's speaking a bit more about what he saw at another time," Haise added.

"With the people who are here at the club, we are here to make the club progress in order to be even better. It's not that serious. We can be annoyed [at the comments], that's obvious. But is it really worth staying annoyed for a long time? We have got to keep working, enjoying ourselves and we have got to be doing the best possible. We have to move on and continue on our path."