Sir Jim Ratcliffe defends wholesale changes made at Manchester United

Manchester United’s new part owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has given an interview defending the amount of changes he has made at Old Trafford since Ineos gained sporting control in December 2023.

Speaking to The Times on a fly-fishing trip to Iceland, where the billionaire has bought up 400,000 acres of wilderness in the country, he spoke of the patience that was needed to land his boyhood club.

In a process that took well over a year, Sir Jim Ratcliffe overcame competition from Sheik Jassim and others to win out and gain a 27.7% of the club.

Ratcliffe joked that buying the club was similar to landing a salmon as it required “enormous patience — it was on the line for a long time.”

He had originally wanted outright control but the Glazer family were unwilling to do this and the petrochemicals company had to get creative to do a deal.

“I think we tried and tried many, many different permutations to do a transaction with the Glazer family, and for one reason or another [each] had their challenges or obstacles so in the end we did the deal that we could do.”

Controversially yet predictably, the British-born billionaire praised the American family by stating, “they’re really good people. And they are passionate about the club. The key is not the legal agreements. The key is that we have common objectives, which are to see Manchester United be successful, and that we trust each other.”

Ineos do have control of day-to-day operations at the club and their proactivity stands in stark contrast to years of Glazer inaction on numerous issues.

The Red Devils have signed Leny Yoro, Joshua Zirkzee and it was reported yesterday that they have agreed a double deal for Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui from Bayern Munich, with the club still hungry to sign at least one more midfielder before the window shuts on the 30th of August.

Nonetheless, probably the biggest changes have occurred behind the scenes as unpopular names connected to the previous regime such as Richard Arnold and Jim Murtough have been replaced with a tight, organised footballing structure.

Impressively qualified people with big reputations in the game such as Omar Berrada, Dan Ashworth and Jason Wilcox have all been brought in and there has been a revamp of Erik ten Hag’s coaching staff with Ruud van Nistelrooy and Rene Hake among others replacing the likes of Mitchell van der Gaag, Steve McClaren and Benni McCarthy during this pre-season.

Ratcliffe has defended the wholesale changes due to the crisis the club he inherited found itself in.

United have “clearly lost its way. I mean, the results speak for themselves. In the last ten or eleven years, it should have been a contender for the Premier League and Champions League [trophies] every year and it hasn’t at all. It is a big responsibility to return the club to where it should be. It should be performing at least in the top eight in Europe. Now if we can’t do that then we won’t have been successful.”

“We’ve got some very good people and some fresh faces. You can’t put your head in the sand, you have to face facts. It needed a fresh start, so that’s what we’ve done.”

United and Ineos have also faced quite a bit of public criticism from the fact that they are cutting 250 jobs in an effort to reduce overall costs at the club and the fact they made staff pay for their own trips down to Wembley for the FA Cup final in May.

They would probably argue they are making the kind of tough decisions that the previous regime shied away from and that the club will reap the benefits in the future.

Surprisingly for some, manager Erik ten Hag was not a head to roll despite the eighth placed finish last year but Ratcliffe believes his lack of success was due to having to control too much and a more streamlined approach will allow the Dutchman to focus on the main aspects of his role.

“Erik is a good guy and had been doing his best, but doing too much. He was trying to sort out the squad and fix leaks in the roof at the same time.”

Ratcliffe claimed that the departure of both Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill at the same time in 2013 left a “vacuum” as they had largely taken control of the footballing side and left the Glazers to focus on the commercial side, but suddenly the American owners were then charged to deal with both.

Finally, Sir Jim spoke on the responsibility he feels on his shoulders not just as a fan but also due to the sheer size of the club.

“Manchester United has the biggest fanbase of any football club in the world, probably the biggest of any sports team in the world. They say about 10 or 12 per cent of the planet are either Manchester United fans or sympathisers, which is getting close to a billion people. It is a colossal enterprise.”

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