Manchester United part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been outspoken over the mistakes of the past at the club.
Ever since his arrival, the Ineos owner has made it clear he was unimpressed with footballing decisions made before his time at Old Trafford.
Due to this, Sir Jim Ratcliffe was quick to build an entirely new Manchester United footballing structure at the club which is headed by Omar Berrada.
Jason Wilcox and Christopher Vivell head the recruitment work at the club, which is more organisation than any manager post Sir Alex Ferguson has had.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe – Chairman and part-owner
Joel and Avram Glazer – Owners
Sir Dave Brailsford – INEOS Head of Sport
Jean-Claude Blanc – Board member
Omar Berrada – CEO
Jason Wilcox – Technical Director
Christopher Vivell – Head of Recruitment
Sir Jim eventually plans to complete a full takeover of United and so aims to run the club well and get back to the pinnacle of football.
However, it will take time, and now he has been discussing some of the biggest mistakes made by the Glazer family over the past decade which he is reversing.
Photo by Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Getty Images
Photo by Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Getty Images
Sir Jim Ratcliffe slams prior management of Manchester United
Last week, Sir Jim revealed the true magnitude of the financial problems at United, with the club paying for a decade of horrendous mismanagement.
Sir Jim claimed United owe £89m this summer alone in transfer fee instalments, for mostly players who have flopped. This is a testament to the bad decisions made by United while Ed Woodward or Richard Arnold were in the driving seat.
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Now, Sir Jim has revealed his thoughts on the Glazers appointing these two, while speaking in an interview with The Times.
“I mean, I wouldn’t have tolerated Ed Woodward or Richard Arnold. Richard was a rugby man, he didn’t even understand football. Ed didn’t have the credentials to manage the club. He was a merchant banker and an accountant. He wasn’t the chief executive.”
He then continued to explain that the club management was shocking with the money wasted.
“The management of Manchester United have been given a huge amount of rope. The owners just managed the club and left the football side alone and they’ve made a lot of very poor decisions over 12 years, stupid things.
“They made a complete —- up of it, shocking really. They couldn’t see where they were headed. The first management group, they thought they understood and wanted to get involved in buying footballers but they didn’t have the knowledge to buy footballers, you know, so they went in the marketplace, spraying money around and it was just random, wasn’t it?”
Sir Jim is spot on, with United’s biggest problem under the Glazers not so much money, but that hundreds of millions were spent recklessly by people with no footballing acumen.
Ineos have already shown Manchester United how it’s done
Despite only having two transfer windows, the hit-and-miss rate for United’s signings is light years away from what it was before the current regime took charge.
However, what Ineos have done with the latest acquisitions is remove all risk from a signing with high-potential youngsters signed for very reasonable fees.
Ayden Heaven looks like a superstar for United despite costing just £1.5m in January. Meanwhile, Patrick Dorgu cost just £25m and has the potential to be the world’s leading wing-back, showcasing this potential already.
This has happened as a result of United having footballing people making the big decisions and it is already paying off with every Ineos signing looking like a solid move right now.
If this continues, United will be out of the financial hole in no time and building a young side means in a few seasons Amorim could have a side capable of challenging for the league.