by There is a line from four-time Olympic sailing gold medalist Sir Ben Ainslie in a book published last year that highlights the rise of Ineos which will benefit the Manchester United team that met Sir Jim Ratcliffe this week.
Ainslie leads Ineos Britannia, the British sailing team that will challenge for the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona in October.
“As team principal, I have to defend my decisions and the Ineos guys – especially Jim – have a great ability to sniff out bull,” said Ainslie in Grit, Rigor & Humour: The Ineos Story.
“The moment they feel that you might be beating them on some technical detail, they go straight to the point. I think that’s why they’ve been very successful in business.”
Even as late as late September, when United were in a growing crisis on and off the pitch, disillusioned staff at Old Trafford were still reeling from much of what Ratcliffe could recognise. as “bull—-”.
Richard Arnold, the former chief executive, told a staff meeting, for example, that United were “closing in and making progress” on Treble winners Manchester City and were “on the hunt” for other rivals.
This despite Erik ten Hag’s side looking in trouble having just been beaten 3-1 at home to £17million Brighton, their third defeat in four Premier League games, with Jadon Sancho sent off and the accusations of attacks leveled by Antony afterwards. from the goalkeeper on the club’s handling of the Mason Greenwood saga.
In contrast, the tone could not have been more different at a meeting between United and Ratcliffe staff at Old Trafford on Thursday, with the Ineos chairman drawing applause for his impromptu assessment of the team’s performance on the pitch in the decade since Sir Alex Ferguson retired. .
Ratcliffe, who was given full control of Old Trafford’s football operations subject to his £1.03 billion deal for a 29 per cent stake in the club receiving regulatory approval, said it was clear to those present that United had long failed too long and his priority is to return the club to winning ways – rather than making money.
One source with knowledge of Ratcliffe’s address told Telegraph Sport that he was “as honest as anyone since Ralf Rangnick said the club needed open heart surgery” but said there was hope that the resources, the authority, the time of the British billionaire and his Ineos team. and the ability to deliver, unlike interim replacement Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
By being at the ground at United this week and speaking and listening to staff, players and Ten Hag, Ratcliffe has been more open, transparent and visible in a few days than the Glazers have been in 18½ years.
Not since they bought the club in 2005 have the Glazers spoken to their employees in a way that underlines how detached, aloof and disconnected from reality the Americans have become.
Ratcliffe and the Glazers agreed under the terms of the deal not to publicly criticize each other but the Oldham-born businessman didn’t need a word to do so. Just his presence alone and the pictures that the club spread of him greeting the staff and players shamed the Glazers in words that may never have been possible.
At the same time, United fans will be hoping that Ratcliffe’s ominous extravaganza is just the start of meaningful changes at the club, rather than more simple window dressing.
“All fur coats and no knickers” as one member of staff described ex-Ferguson United to this correspondent this week and the challenge for Ineos will be to ensure any change they deliver has real substance as more empty rhetoric will wash away.
“There’s a lot of disillusionment,” the source said. “People at the club want to encourage again. They want someone they can really get along with and believe in.”
Sir Dave Brailsford is behind Ratcliffe in Manchester this week. The former British cycling performance director, who now serves as Ineos sporting director, has been inspecting United’s football operations and personnel and has spent a lot of time talking to the team.
The recruitment sector is considered to be in need of the most overhaul and it is strongly expected that Ratcliffe and Brailsford will bring in a new director of football and possibly a head of recruitment.
The departure of Donny van de Beek on loan at Eintracht Frankfurt this week and the likely return of Sancho, on loan, to Borussia Dortmund in the coming days is a reminder of United’s continued transfer failure and the club’s enduring ability to pamper and pamper players. dysfunctional arrangement.
Whatever happens, United supporters will be praying that Ainslie is right and that Ratcliffe and Ineos can quickly snuff out the “bull—-” and do something about it.
