Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS company will reportedly take control of football matters at Manchester United.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is set to complete his purchase this month (Image: Getty)
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is reportedly already drawing up a plan to make ‘personnel changes’ when he completes his 25 per cent purchase of Manchester United and has held talks with the Glazers on what he wants done. Talks are ongoing for the British billionaire to finalise his minority stake in United.
He’s expected to complete the £1.35billion deal at some point this month with immediate plans to improve the infrastructure around the club. Part of Ratcliffe’s agreement with the Glazers is for him to take full control of the club’s football operations when it all goes through.
That would see the INEOS chief deal directly with Erik ten Hag and the club’s transfer plans moving forward. And it appears as though Ratcliffe already has his eye on making drastic changes behind the scenes on United’s board.
According to the Manchester Evening News, Ratcliffe and Joel Glazer have held ‘extensive talks’ in recent weeks. The discussions are said to have been done via video calls with the report claiming Ratcliffe has indicated that he wants to make ‘personnel changes’.
Joel Glazer has held discussions with Sir Jim Ratcliffe (Image: Getty)
Both John Murtough and Richard Arnold are said to be at risk of being moved on when Ratcliffe completes his purchase. It’s been suggested that Ratcliffe’s first port of call will be to bring in a sporting director at United.
The Red Devils have refused to follow the trend of Europe’s top clubs hiring an experienced director of football despite calls from former players to do so. Nice have benefited from such a structure being in place with Florent Ghisolfi and Fabrice Bocquet helping the French side currently sit top of Ligue 1.
Tottenham’s former head of recruitment Paul Mitchell is said to be at the top of Ratcliffe’s wishlist to become United’s sporting director. Monaco’s ex-sporting director has long been linked with the position at Old Trafford and he explained last year what United needed in order to get back to the top of English football.
He said in July 2022: “It is sometimes hard to comment when you’re not in the internal and always understanding the context. I use that word a lot because I think context is important to measure what Manchester United’s current situation is, but I think they do need to get to the point of really putting down what Manchester United needs to be in the modern game.
“We are a long time from the Sir Alex Ferguson era. Erik ten Hag is a top coach from Ajax but they need a top blueprint not only for now but for the next five years, and work towards that, and sometimes on that journey there are hard moments when you don’t get the right results, even though you’re doing the right things.
“You have to know that, over that period, the consistency of the decision-making will yield a good end result. I think we’ve seen with both Manchester City and Liverpool, when you adopt that long-term strategy you can get real consistency and sustainable success.”
