US billionaire Stephen Pagliuca outlines investment stance amid Manchester United takeover talk

Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca says he is 'assessing opportunities' in the Premier League after previously refusing to rule out a move for Manchester United.

The US billionaire refrained from denying a potential interest in United when asked about entering the buy-out race in March. He had considered a move for Liverpool prior to Fenways Sports Groups’ takeover in 2010.

There seems to be little movement regarding a conclusion to the takeover process at United eight months after November’s sale announcement. Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al-Thani are frontrunners but there are fears the Glazers could decide to stay, despite multiple rounds of bidding.

Sheikh Jassim is looking for a whole-scale purchase while Ratcliffe is eying a majority stake with rumours he could keep Avram and Joel Glazer on as minority shareholders.

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When recently speaking to Bloomberg, Pagliuca - who also has a 55 per cent stake in Serie A side Atalanta - gave his thoughts about his current stance on investing in a Premier League club through his private investment firm Bain Capital.

He said: "A league like the Premier League, if three or four teams are owned by a sovereign with basically unlimited investment, to be in the Champions League there is basically only one spot left for the other 16 teams that don't have those kind of resources.

"We're assessing opportunities [in the Premier League]. I think there's a higher bar there than there would have been, in terms that you have to be sure you have an academy and a structure where you can