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The Todd Boehly-led consortium which leads the race to buy Chelsea has around a week to sign a purchase agreement if they want to beat Britain’s richest man to the acquisition of the club.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe made a dramatic late bid to buy the club from Roman Abramovich on Friday when he tabled a bid of £4.25billion. His bid has been and will continue to be given serious consideration.

But Boehly’s group have been told they have been given preferred bidder status by the Raine Group, the merchant bankers handling the club’s sale. And they now have a short window, believed to be a week, to get to the point at which a purchase agreement can be signed and get the deal sealed.

Ratcliffe’s offer has ramped up the pressure on the LA Dodgers co-owner and his pals, and the fact they are understood to have bypassed Raine altogether to deal with Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck there is clearly a belief from the Ineos supremo that he hasn’t left his move too late.

"We put an offer in this morning," Ratcliffe explained. "We are the only British bid. Our motives are simply to try and create a very fine club in London. We have no profit motive because we make our money in other ways.”

A statement