Sir Jim Ratcliffe was critical of the data department at Old Trafford following his investment in Man United.
United's data department has been overhauled.(Image: Lorenzo Di Cola/NurPhoto)
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In an interview with the United We Stand magazine last year, Sir Jim Ratcliffe slammed the data department at Old Trafford. “Until we are as good as anyone in the world, then it’s not good enough for Manchester United. We must have the best recruitment in the world," said Ratcliffe.
"Data analysis comes alongside recruitment. It doesn’t really exist here. We’re still in the last century on data analysis here. There’s an immense amount of useful data that we can get from data analysis and we’re in the 'very poor' bracket with data analysis here.
"These things don’t happen overnight. You can’t just flick a light switch and sort out recruitment. It’s all about people and we need to find the right people.”
United announced the appointment of Michael Sansoni as director of data in the summer. Ratcliffe discussed the importance of bringing in the "right people" and landed his prime target.
Sansoni was previously the senior performance engineer at the Mercedes F1 team and contributed to eight world championship-winning seasons. United confirmed that Sansoni would be tasked with establishing the club as a data-led organisation, embedding predictive and AI-driven decision-making.
The University of Southampton graduate joined United two months before the official announcement of his appointment, allowing him to be involved in transfers in the summer window.
In July, Sansoni said United had made "meaningful progress" with "new methodologies starting to take shape and two fantastic signings, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo".
He added: "I’ve inherited a brilliant team: smart, committed, and hungry to make a difference and together we’re building a world-class data and AI function to power decision-making across football and the wider club. The challenge is great, but so is the opportunity. We’re only just getting started."
United's data-led review of 2024/2025 identified the attack as the priority area for strengthening, concluding the shortage of goals was the biggest factor in the team's underperformance.
Although you didn't need a degree in data analytics to have reached that conclusion, you only needed to have a glance at the Premier League table to see that United had scored 44 goals.
Matheus Cunha of Manchester United celebrates Harry Maguire's winner at Liverpool last weekend
Mbeumo and Cunha have been great additions.(Image: 2025 Manchester United FC)
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Benjamin Sesko and Senne Lammens arrived in the second half of the summer transfer window. They were different signings to Cunha and Mbeumo, arriving with no Premier League experience, but the numbers were crunched on both players and United were happy to splash a combined £84.8million.
The press release announcing Sesko's transfer noted that he had scored the most goals of any player under the age of 23 in Europe's top five leagues over the past two seasons.
Jason Wilcox said: "We have followed Benjamin's career closely; all of our data analysis and research concluded that he has the required qualities and personality to thrive at United."
United sources pointed to Lammens' underlying statistics when he signed. They said the Belgium international had one of the highest goals prevented metrics in Europe, with a post-shot expected goals of +14.5, and highlighted he had made more saves than any other goalkeeper in Europe's top 10 leagues.
In layman's terms, post-shot expected goals look at how many goals more or less a goalkeeper has conceded than he's been expected to, based on the quality of shots they have faced. Lammens had essentially prevented 14 goals that an 'average' goalkeeper wouldn't have been able to stop.
Lammens has recorded impressive underlying numbers since he was a teenager. "We had something in place to look at the parameters on which goalkeepers are judged," said Hayk Milkon, his former coach at Club Brugge, during a recent interview with the Manchester Evening News.
"You see the potential of the goalkeeper based on what they do in games; so their positioning, their decision-making and so on, and Senne was always quite high in these areas."
Senne Lammens of Manchester United applauds the home fans after the Premier League match between Manchester United and Sunderland
Lammens has made a big impact.
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Sesko has scored just two goals since his arrival from RB Leipzig, but Ruben Amorim has backed him to succeed. On the other hand, Lammens has "surprised" Amorim with the extent of his impact.
United's business in the summer window appears to be an improvement on previous years. How much the data is responsible for that is up for debate, but the club's data department, by all accounts, has improved. Sansoni has played a key role and he is currently recruiting staff.
When Sansoni's appointment was communicated, United said further recruitment is planned for a number of data, software and platform engineering roles in the coming months.
Ratcliffe has been ruthless with his club-wide cuts. The employee count has been slashed significantly and every outgoing penny is now scrutinised, but the data department is not shrinking - it's growing.
The United co-owner believes that investing in data can give United an edge, which will theoretically save millions of pounds in the long run. Just think how much has been wasted on transfer fees alone.
United are in the process of hiring a data operations manager to join Sansoni's team to "drive data and technology projects forward". Sansoni has invited hopefuls who are passionate about data to get in touch.
Sansoni is doing important work behind the scenes, impacting United's recruitment.