Manchester United sale: What Sir Jim Ratcliffe needs to change to turn things around at Old Trafford

If not a conclusion, the Manchester United takeover saga at least reached a significant staging post on Sunday with the long-awaiting confirmation that Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS would be securing a 25 percent stake in the club for around $1.3 billion. The deal’s ratification process will still run onwards, likely beyond the January transfer window, but it will not be long before the new regime makes its presence felt at Old Trafford.

To restore the faded glory of the team he says he supported since he was a boy will be a monumental task for Ratcliffe, who made his billions in the petrochemicals industry. United have not won the Premier League since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 and find themselves eighth in the table as the 2023-24 season approaches its halfway stage with as many defeats to their name as 15th place Everton. Most perturbing at all is that such a return is not far from the norm over recent years. If United were to finish outside the top four again this season it would be the sixth occasion in 11 post-Ferguson seasons. Something needs to change. Here is where Ratcliffe will be looking to make his mark:

1. Fix the recruitment process

Addressing United’s issues in the transfer market does not mean signing more players for Erik ten Hag’s squad. Indeed, if recent history is anything to go on, there can be no more damaging act carried out at Old Trafford than a major new acquisition. Of the 10 most expensive signings made in club history, only one, Bruno Fernandes, could be labelled a qualified success. Old Trafford has become a talent graveyard.

Some of world football’s best and brightest live their most traumatic nightmares at the Theatre of Dreams. Paul Pogba arrived the perfect midfielder for the modern game and departed a figure of remorseless contention, far too often the poster boy for a club that never worked out the talents of a player they’d had on their books since they were 16. Jadon Sancho arrived to plug the chasm that was United’s right wing. The problem? He is a left winger. You could forgive Rasmus Hojlund for feeling more than a little furtive.

Since the Glazers bought the club in 2005, United have spent around $2.4 billion on players, a tally eclipsed only by their crosstown rivals Manchester City and Chelsea. The former, though, have spent their riches altogether more shrewdly. It is perhaps no surprise they have used some of that to build an industry-leading recruitment division. From Txiki Begiristain down there is harmony and excellence.

That cannot be said for United, who belatedly joined the modern world when Jim Murtough was appointed football director and Darren Fletcher technical director in 2021. Even now, however, ownership of the recruitment process is up for grabs. No wonder that the voids in United’s squad have been filled by those Ten Hag has worked with, or knows from the Eredivisie since the start of last summer. In a competitive field Antony and Mason Mount stand out as particularly poor investments.

Ratcliffe certainly has plans for United’s senior hierarchy, stating that he will “bring the global knowledge, expertise and talent from the wider INEOS Sport group to help drive further improvement at the club.” Marginal gains guru Sir Dave Brailsford is to be the new owner’s man on the ground, he is expected to be at Old Trafford for Tuesday’s Boxing Day game against Aston Villa — while Dan Ashworth is wanted to take over from Murtough as the leading man in the recruitment department. That would certainly be a shrewd appointment; at Newcastle Ashworth has proven himself to be a man who can exploit his employer’s great wealth without being fleeced in the way Manchester United so often are. 

Equally, if the last decade should have taught United anything, it is the vanishing rarity of great men who fix everything in one fell swoop. While Ratcliffe and his staff streamline the football division they now run, this club will still employ the systems and individuals that turned an 80 strong shortlist for a buccaneering new right back into the robust but limited Aaron Wan-Bissaka. There is a long road ahead to fix processes and attitudes at Old Trafford. That doesn’t get any easier if money is thrown about in January in a panicky push for fourth.

2. Restore Old Trafford

It should be the mecca of English club football. Instead, Old Trafford is tired, a stadium bearing the signs of 18 years in which ownership has not committed to any major renovations. It is something of a right of passage for English football fans to experience that one game at Manchester United where the roof acts as more of a conduit for the rain than a shield from it. What was once the leading stadium in England, now sits at the pinnacle of club grounds only in capacity terms.

In April 2022 architects Populous and management firm Legends International were appointed to put together plans for the refurbishment or redevelopment of Old Trafford as well as a possible move away from the ground. That process was put on ice during the strategic review that reached its conclusion on Christmas Eve. Within the deal Ratcliffe agreed with the Glazers, $330 million was set aside “to enable future investment into Old Trafford.” That opening statement would appear to indicate that the new part-owner would not be keen on a move away from the current site on Sir Matt Busby Way. That does not necessarily close off every avenue for United; architects have suggested it would be possible to start the process of building a new stadium on the plot while playing at the current stadium.

Whatever the case, Ratcliffe’s initial investment would be a drop in the ocean in terms of building a new stadium. Tottenham’s ground, completed in 2019, cost around one and a quarter billion dollars. A new home for United would likely be significantly more. Equally, a home worthy of the Theatre of Dreams title could be a money spinner for the club in the decades ahead. Perhaps as significantly for Ratcliffe, his standing among supporters would grow all the more if his arrival were to be the catalyst for the improved matchday experience that fans have long demanded.

3. Mend the dressing room

Ratcliffe could hire best in class employees, freshen up tired facilities, (eventually) throw money at players who don’t fall off a cliff when they arrive at Old Trafford and reconnect with supporters. The latter he has already begun to do, writing to Manchester United Supporters Trust, Fans Forum and Fans’ Advisory Board soon after the announcement of his stake. “You are ambitious for Manchester United and so are we,” he said. “There are no guarantees in sport, and change can inevitably take time but we are in it for the long term, and together we want to help take Manchester United back to where the club belongs, at the very top of English, European and world football. I take that responsibility very seriously.”

It seems that Ratcliffe understands the value of a club united from top to bottom. All the work to connect would rather go to waste if the dressing room were to remain as vituperative as it has been over recent years. Naturally, that is not something a minority shareholder can directly address, but the man in charge of football operations at United can empower those minded to fix it.

Ten Hag has attempted to do so. When Cristiano Ronaldo questioned his authority he was dispensed with. Jadon Sancho has also found his manager to be unyielding, though there are serious questions to be asked about why the Dutchman revealed the mental health issues that were affecting his player. Such a stern approach to discipline does not appear to have had a deeper impact on the squad as a whole, though. United can scarcely get through one defeat without speculation as to what proportion of the dressing room has been lost.

If any player concluded they could outlast a manager you could hardly blame them. In isolation the parting of ways with each of the six permanent and interim head coaches since Ferguson might make sense — except Louis van Gaal — but when the lifespan of a boss is about half the length of a player’s contract, it sets the tone around a club. So far there has been no indication that Ratcliffe and INEOS are minded to part ways with Ten Hag though his position will clearly be up for assessment, all the more so if results do not improve. A clear-eyed view from the new football hierarchy might, however, conclude that it is time for the players who consistently fail across managers to carry the can.