Sir Jim Ratcliffe explains why he only bid for Chelsea after the deadline had passed

Billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe insists he is ‘not giving up’ on buying Chelsea and has explained why he only lodged a bid for the west London club after the deadline had already passed.

Two months ago, Roman Abramovich instructed US merchant bank Raine Group to oversee the sale of Chelsea with an extensive bidding process seeing a consortium led by Todd Boehly chosen as the preferred bidder at the end of last week.

But just hours before Boehly was selected as the preferred buyer, Ineos founder and majority shareholder Ratcliffe made a late offer worth £4.25billion.

That was rejected by Raine out of hand, who have granted exclusivity to LA Dodgers co-owner Boehly’s consortium to complete a deal.

But Ratcliffe believes a British football club should be British owned and has urged Raine to reconsider, while he has already held ‘positive talks’ with the UK government about taking ownership of Chelsea.

Speaking to BBC Sport, Ratcliffe said: ‘We had a communication with Raine and met with them at the end of last week. We presented a bid but have heard very little back from them.

‘My message to Raine is don’t discount our offer. We are British and have great intentions for Chelsea. If I was Raine I wouldn’t close any door.’

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Raine initially received over a dozen viable offers for Chelsea which was whittled down to a shortlist of four: A consortium led by Sir Martin Broughton, a controversial bid from the Ricketts family, an unexpected bid from Boston Celtics owner Stephen Pagliuca and, of