The Sir Jim Ratcliffe era is nearly upon us.
A deal for the Ineos billionaire – and boyhood Manchester United fan – to take a 25 per cent stake is almost complete. Not quite there yet, say insiders, but an announcement is expected early next week to bring the curtain down on a tortuous 11-month process and usher in new ideas and resources at Old Trafford.
So what can we expect? And what needs to be changed to return the club to its place in the elite?
Here are the main areas Ratcliffe plans to address.
Erik ten Hag
United’s flat-lining form has put Ten Hag in the firing line but i understands Ratcliffe and his Ineos team have no immediate plans to push for a changing of the guard.
Given the paucity of their form against the elite sides – and the fact they are making a hash of their Champions League group – Ten Hag is perhaps fortunate that boardroom upheaval is insulating him against more fierce internal questioning.
Richard Arnold’s departure is a symbol of the temporary feel at Old Trafford. There’s no one in the building at the moment to make a big decision and there’s no appetite on Ratcliffe’s part to announce his arrival by agitating for managerial change.
Mid-season managerial change, in the words of one source close to Ratcliffe, “is a sign of an organisation failing, not just the manager”. He will get time, at least until the end of this season, to correct a poor run of form for which he can provide the mitigation of a long injury list.
What’s more, those close to Ratcliffe believe he is an admirer of Ten Hag and his football philosophy.
“I’ve only ever heard Jim say positive things about Ten Hag,” one source close to Ratcliffe confided to i.
A much-needed boost to Ten Hag’s authority, then? Not quite. As i revealed earlier this month he can expect his influence over recruitment to diminish given his hit-and-miss record in the market.
Last summer he got what he wanted to kick on: namely expensive signings Andre Onana, Mason Mount and Rasmus Hojlund. They were players he’d either worked with, had played in the Eredivisie or had links to his agents Sports Entertainment Group. It was about as wholesale backing of a manager as you could imagine.
With Ratcliffe zeroing in on recruitment as an area to make quick wins, he can expect forensic questioning on his picks.
Director of football
When Ratcliffe visited Old Trafford in March as part of the club’s efforts to flaunt United to the highest bidder, there were two figures in particular who the Ineos chairman told – in no uncertain terms – what he thought of their performance.
One, CEO Richard Arnold, is already gone. The other is football director John Murtough.
Murtough has plenty of experience in the game, but not at the highest level. Light years after the rest of their rivals, the former Everton director of development was instilled as United’s first-ever football director in 2021, but his track record in the transfer market has been chequered, to say the least.
He has time to convince Ratcliffe he is the man to work alongside the incoming billionaire but after Arnold’s exit, the writing is on the wall.
Should Ratcliffe decide to bring in his own figure as sporting director, former Tottenham head of recruitment Paul Mitchell is a leading candidate, as is Crystal Palace’s Dougie Freedman.
Mitchell, however, has been described as the “perfect” option, given his glittering CV. He has recently left his position as sporting director at Monaco where he “operated in the same circles” as Ratcliffe and has moved back to the Manchester area. Mitchell is keen on taking a role at United should it come up, a source close to the deal said.
After helping Mauricio Pochettino make his way in England, bringing Sadio Mane, Graziano Pelle and Dusan Tadic to Southampton, Mitchell later joined Pochettino at Spurs, where he continued his impressive work in the transfer market, acquiring Dele Alli, Son Heung-min, Kieran Trippier and Toby Alderweireld, before moving to RB Leipzig and then Monaco.
Dave Brailsford’s role
Ratcliffe may not have his feet under the table yet but that hasn’t stopped Ineos’ director of sport Sir Dave Brailsford from making his presence felt.
i understands that Brailsford has visited the Carrington training ground on several occasions recently as part of what sources describe as a “thorough ongoing audit of football operations”.
That it is trusted lieutenant Brailsford who is undertaking it tells its own story – Ratcliffe is making good on the pledge he made back in March’s first meetings with United’s hierarchy to address the issues that have held the club back.
Sources close to Ineos warn against taking all of the whirlwind of predictions around Ratcliffe’s intentions too seriously but it’s a safe bet Brailsford will have some sort of role at Manchester United – at least in the months after his investment is confirmed. It is undecided exactly what that role is going to be.
A knight of the realm for his pioneering work with British cycling, his record in football has not yet come under the sort of intense scrutiny it would if his role was formalised at Old Trafford. Some warn of the potential for tension.
Brailsford certainly has his fans – Newcastle’s director of football Dan Ashworth says he is the “best in the world” at creating a winning culture – but not everyone is a convert.
One high-profile sporting figure who knows Brailsford told i bluntly that he “thinks he knows better than anyone”. “If you were at a restaurant, he’d be trying to tell the chef the right temperature to boil the pasta,” they quipped.
Recruitment
For the same amount United have spent on player transfers in the post-Ferguson era, you could acquire a whole archipelago of islands.
And for what? Arguably only one big-money arrival, Bruno Fernandes, can be deemed a success, even if the Portuguese is doing his best to undo his earlier good work this season.
Ratcliffe has seen enough and will not abide another £1.67bn – the outlay since 2014 according to CIES Football Observatory – going to waste.
There will be no major squad overhaul in January. Brailsford and his new football committee will conduct a full audit of the transfer system in place right now before making any sweeping changes – a process that will likely take until towards the end of the season, insiders said.
There has been no shortage of talent at Carrington in the past decade – Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Angel Di Maria to name but a few – all arriving at the peak of their powers before flattering to deceive.
The new plan is to first firm up what type of player the manager wants, before then going after targets who suit that style and philosophy. Liverpool and Manchester City’s transfer hierarchy know what type of player their respective coach wants, and they go out and get them.
There has been a recent shift in transfer approach at United, with the manager given more responsibility but that isn’t working either. At the majority of Europe’s top teams, the manager is left to coach, and that is what is being earmarked for Ten Hag’s role going forward. Not signing former Ajax players every year.
Executive team
While it is understood Ratcliffe had “nothing to do” with Arnold’s departure, it is believed that he very much jumped before he was pushed.
After succeeding his old Bristol University friend – the ever-unpopular Ed Woodward – Arnold did work wonders on the commercial side of the club, brokering some eye-watering deals, such as the £900 million shirt agreement with Adidas.
One thing he will unfortunately be remembered for is his handling of Mason Greenwood. Arnold delayed making any decision on Greenwood and is reported to have wanted him to stay, despite the backlash against the striker after he was charged in October 2022 with attempted rape, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and controlling and coercive behaviour, charges he denied and which were later dropped.
It wasn’t until that information was leaked, leading to public fury, that United’s decision was reversed. Arnold attempted to explain the club’s decision-making process in an open letter to fans, but the fact that he seemed to have misread the situation so badly alarmed many, including domestic abuse charities.
One of the things Brailsford is especially good at is surrounding himself with the right people, and he has the perfect candidate already in his eyeline, one with an unrivalled resume.
Jean-Claude Blanc currently oversees Ineos’ entire sports portfolio and is expected to take its latest addition under his wing, too. The 60-year is one of the most experienced sports marketing executives in Europe having led organisations in different major sports over the last 20 years. During that time, he managed the Winter Olympics, the Tour de France, the Paris Dakar, the French Open and the Davis Cup, as well as being CEO at Juventus and marketing executive at Paris Saint-Germain.
Infrastructure
It was the cost and scale of the work needed to improve Old Trafford and the club’s Carrington training ground that forced the Glazers to the negotiating table in the first place 11 months ago. Securing finance to embark on those plans is what has opened up Ratcliffe’s route to the Old Trafford boardroom, so it’s little surprise that insiders say he has a firm commitment to improving both.
Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani made lofty claims about the level of finance he would provide for training ground and Old Trafford upgrades but as Ratcliffe’s advisors were at pains to point out, there was scant detail to go with those pledges.
Infrastructure is one area where new owners or investors are free to pump unlimited funds in without impacting on Financial Fair Play (FFP) and i has learned Ratcliffe expects to commit around £250m to improve both the stadium and training ground. The bulk of that will go towards a refit of the training base, which has fallen behind the standards set by Premier League rivals.
As for the stadium, insiders say that will be more difficult. The Glazers commissioned architects to look at possible solutions to improve Old Trafford but the most expensive version – a £1.5bn total rebuild – is understood to have been ruled out.
Instead it will require more complex and complicated work that “could take years”. While Ratcliffe is committed to restoring the stadium to its former glories it could be a while before the first spade goes into the ground.