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- Sir Alex Ferguson, the legendary manager who led the Red Devils to an astounding 38 trophies, has seen his ambassadorial contract with the club come to an end thanks to cost-cutting measures by the club's new part-owners, INEOS.
www.sportingnews.com/uk/premier-league/news/sir-alex-man-united-farewell-ineos-cuts-ferguson-ambassador-role/ff77d87c79eafa344c0d0f9cSir Alex Ferguson's multi-million-dollar role ended by INEOS ...
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Dec 24, 2023 · Jim Ratcliffe Ineos. How Jim Ratcliffe – a ‘blunt’ British billionaire – secured a minority stake at United, while Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim proved to be a ‘non-runner’.
Oct 16, 2023 · Sir Jim Ratcliffe appears set to move ahead with his proposal to acquire a 25 per cent stake in Manchester United. The Failsworth-born businessman, who is a boyhood United supporter, is now the...
- Overview
- THE CLUB: Why do INEOS want control of the football operations?
- Can a division of responsibility between commercial and football operations work in practice?
- Did staff at United see such an arrangement coming?
- Is recruitment the biggest problem?
- Why have there been so many injuries?
- THE MANAGER: Why does Erik ten Hag still retain the faith of the club?
- Why has he been unable to play the progressive football that got him the job?
- Could the Jadon Sancho situation have been handled better?
- Is Ten Hag receiving some grace because of the wider situation at United?
It's been a whole year since Manchester United were put up for sale by the Glazer family - but the saga looks close to completion.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe's deal to purchase 25 per cent of the Premier League club for £1.3bn is close to completion, heralding a new era at Old Trafford, albeit with the Glazer family still in majority control.
•In-depth feature: The Glazers at Man Utd, inside their turbulent tenure
•Man Utd CEO Arnold to leave club with Ratcliffe deal nearing
Ratcliffe's involvement will see him and his INEOS group - including Sir Dave Brailsford - take control of United's football operations, which will include recruitment of players and coaching staff.
So with the English businessman on the verge of walking through the front door, Sky Sports News senior reporter Melissa Reddy takes a deep dive into the major questions regarding Ratcliffe's stake at United - taking a look at matters involving the club, the manager and the squad...
Image: Sir Jim Ratcliffe's proposed three-person committee in charge of football operations
In 2019, when INEOS completed the deal to acquire Nice, Sir Jim Ratcliffe highlighted the importance of operational structure. "Clubs need to be successful off the pitch, as well as on it," he said, placing what happens on a matchday secondary to how well an institution is run.
Ratcliffe believes having a clear idea, the right people with the right tools to consistently deliver it, a thirst for marginal gains and progressive thinking plus streamlined decision-making will ultimately result in winning.
When Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford - INEOS' director of sport and the man responsible for British cycling's success at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics - sat through presentations of United's working practices and long-term plans during the bidding process, they knew football operations would need to be overhauled.
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Gary Neville discusses the problems Manchester United currently face and joked that the club need something magical to turn things around.
It will be interesting to see how it materialises, especially as some elements - like training facilities and upgrading Old Trafford - fall into both categories. Joel Glazer will remain the majority shareholder, and as such, the ultimate decision maker.
Sources insist INEOS and Ratcliffe would not be willing to invest an estimated £1.3bn for their 25 per cent stake without guarantees of being able to implement their own organisational vision.
From the moment a strategic review was announced last November, employees knew all options were on the table. As the bidding process moved through higher stages, staff admitted that while there was a "business as usual" approach, it was difficult not to allow the future to colour the present.
Senior figures were also in the dark over the course of the year, with only the Glazers - even INEOS and Sheikh Jassim were frustrated by a lack of communication - knowing what route they would take.
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Sam Blitz is joined by Sky Sports' transfers co-ordinator Lyall Thomas to discuss how Jim Ratcliffe's minority takeover could affect Manchester United's transfer business in the January transfer window.
The sub-optimal purchases by United aligned with their inability to offload well is one of the major reasons Ratcliffe's investment hinged on assuming control of football operations.
It is no secret that selling clubs spike their prices when the Old Trafford side wants to do business. United insist they have been firmer in walking away from deals when the asking price supersedes their valuation, but fees for Antony (£86m) and Rasmus Hojlund (£72m) when they were the only bidders involved suggests otherwise.
Trading is undoubtedly an area the club can vastly improve in, by leaning more into analytics and moving away from a manager-led process. The majority of players recruited under Erik ten Hag have an Eredivisie background and a pre-existing relationship with the Dutchman.
INEOS are aware that a key part of improving transfer business is the overall bettering of the football operations. They do not think it is a coincidence that Old Trafford has been viewed as a 'graveyard' for some of the most pedigreed and promising players over the past decade. Even the right player can't thrive in the wrong environment.
United played 62 matches last season - the busiest calendar of any team across Europe's top five leagues. The club aren't in isolation when it comes to a full treatment room, with Premier Injuries reporting a 15 per cent increase across the division compared to the past four campaigns.
Qatar 2022 is certainly a contributing factor and Ten Hag has rightly flagged the players are overloaded. "We had a World Cup in the middle of the season; we had a longer season and a shorter break," he said.
"Every time the schedule is expanding, the load on the players is too much. It's such a great overload. Many colleagues of mine have pointed to that and I have pointed to that as well. But it keeps going. We keep expanding the schedule.
"Players can't deal any more with this overload and that's what you see in this squad at the moment."
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Sky Sports News' chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol explains how Sir Jim Ratcliffe's takeover of Manchester United could affect Erik ten Hag's future and how the club act in the transfer market.
Ten Hag inherited a dispirited, ill-disciplined mess and had to solve the Cristiano Ronaldo conundrum in his debut season yet still ended a seven-year trophy drought, returned United to the Champions League, and posted their highest points total in five campaigns. He has not become a bad coach, with his attention to detail cutting out bad habits and driving positive changes at Carrington and on matchdays (nutrition, rest, cut down on travel)...
While the manager should not have such an overwhelming influence on transfers, the club would not have been able to get their deals over the line - with the exception of Casemiro - if he wasn't in the dugout. It is on United that they have afforded Ten Hag so much sway, when true support would come via intelligent trading like Txiki Begiristain does for Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, the way Edu works to serve Mikel Arteta at Arsenal and how Michael Edwards empowered Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp.
Ten Hag has to accept criticism for United not having a discernible identity or automations that would be evident from work on the training pitches. They are oceans away from his vision of being "the best transition team in the world".
Injuries - especially to Lisandro Martinez and Luke Shaw - have hampered the balance of the side, gravely affected build-up play, impeded other selections like that of Raphael Varane, and not extracted the best out of new signings like Andre Onana and Hojlund. Mason Mount is lost in the midst of it all. Ten Hag had the third-best defence in the league last season, but that department has been ravaged by setbacks leading to inconsistency. However, United are not the only team with a deep sidelined list and even their victories have come amid poor performances. Man-marking certainly hasn't been the solution.
There hasn't been midfield harmony yet, with Mount and Bruno Fernandes caught ahead of the ball leaving an off-form Casemiro isolated. The pressing from the front has malfunctioned and the forwards are either starved of service or confidence. United as a whole have scored as many goals in the league as Erling Haaland. Another problem is the team's petulance; too often they get sucked into frustration and frothing rather than properly fighting their way back into a game.
It is unequivocal that there has to be stark improvements spreading from the coaching team through the squad. While Ten Hag was correct in asserting his United group are made up of more direct players than he had at Ajax and their demands are different, he was recruited for his proactive, dominant, possession-based philosophy.
Being comfortable with the ball can be meshed with a more aggressive, direct approach - he did exactly that at the Dutch giants.
Given the power Ten Hag has had to design the squad to his liking, it is fully reasonable to expect much more from performances and the playing style. The Dutchman has definitely created a greater level of discipline at United and the squad initially responded very well to his stern methods and authority. The rest of the facets of his management are now being tested.
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Speaking earlier in November, Melissa Reddy reports that exit routes are opening up for Jadon Sancho from Manchester United as there appears to be no sight of a resolution to his standoff situation with Erik ten Hag.
There can be no other answer but a resounding yes. A 23-year-old player, bought to the tune of £72m, has been frozen out of the first team since September for defending himself in a social media post which he then deleted, and safeguarding rules are activated when he's in the academy building. This is not a healthy state of affairs.
United and Ten Hag read the situation as Sancho effectively calling the manager a liar and showing open defiance to his authority. They have said previous disciplinary issues were being dealt with leading into the stand-off, but a simple apology from Sancho could have resolved the situation.
United's hierarchy and the winger's closest friends in the squad pleaded with him to say sorry publicly and to the manager, but there are staff who sympathise with Sancho's feelings about being made "a scapegoat" and believe all the onus shouldn't be on the player for a resolution.
There is no doubt that Ten Hag is in control at United and one social media post from Sancho was not going to tank his authority.
Yes, understandably so. Bar the uncertainty of the club's ownership looming large for a year, he has also had to deal with disciplinary issues involving Ronaldo and Sancho, along with off-the-field matters involving Mason Greenwood and Antony.
There have been question marks over the handling of the final three situations on that list, but again, that is on United rather than solely on the manager.
- Melissa Reddy
In August 2022, Ratcliffe expressed interest in buying the Premier League club Manchester United, [40] a team he has supported since childhood. [41] The following January, INEOS announced publicly that it had entered into the formal process of bidding for Manchester United, after the current owners announced it was looking for new investors.
Jun 1, 2024 · INEOS’ plans, viewed as radical in some quarters, received pushback from Patrick Stewart, who was interim CEO before Blanc and who will be leaving the club at the end of the season.
- Dan Sheldon
Dec 24, 2023 · SirJim Ratcliffe purchases 25 per cent of Man Utd for £1.2bn, with the deal giving the INEOS owner control of football operations and a say in the commercial side managed by the Glazer family...
Feb 14, 2024 · The Premier League and the FA have approved Sir Jim Ratcliffe's proposed bid to buy a minority stake in Manchester United; Ratcliffe, who is the owner of INEOS, is closing in on completion...
