Sir Jim Ratcliffe to make three changes at Man Utd including Jadon Sancho call
Sir Jim Ratcliffe will use his vast business experience to implement sweeping changes at Manchester United when his takeover is confirmed.
Ratcliffe is still awaiting ratification for his £1.3billion investment, which will see him buy 25 per cent of the club and take over sporting control, but former United striker Dion Dublin is expecting big things once he’s through the door. The 71-year-old’s trusted director of sport across INEOS’ many interests, Sir Dave Brailsford, has been undertaking an audit of United and a ruthless approach is expected.
Richard Arnold has already stepped down from his role as chief executive and Mirror Football understands there are doubts over the futures of football director John Murtough, technical director Darren Fletcher and director of football operations David Harrison. Ratcliffe has previously criticised United as being inefficient and being “the dumb money” in town and Dublin thinks he will take a ruthless approach to overhauling the club.
“He's not going in to tiptoe around people,” he told Mirror Football, speaking on behalf of Smart Energy GB. “He's going in to say: ‘Right this huge brand needs to do better’. First and foremost it needs to win football matches because I don't care how much merchandise you sell, if it’s not right on the pitch it's not right off the pitch. That's a fact. So he's got to get it right on the pitch first.”
Ratcliffe is very familiar with the football side of things at United, having been brought up as a fan of the club in Failsworth, Greater Manchester, and having undergone a lengthy vetting process with the Glazer family. But Dublin, who played for the club between 1992 and 1994, thinks the INEOS owner will push any sentimentality to one side and keep his business hat firmly on.
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Sir Dave Brailsford (right) is Sir Jim Ratcliffe's trusted advisor (Michael Steele/Getty Images)“I think Mr Ratcliffe thinks about the bigger picture, he thinks about the brand and how he's going to change it,” he said. “To get to where he's got to, he's got to be doing something right. And I think one of the most important things with Mr Ratcliffe is his team and who he puts in place to do things. He'll just delegate the best in the business to do that job.”
That process will involve Brailsford, who made his name as the face of the marginal gains movement with Team Sky in cycling. Brailsford will be tasked with implementing the strategy which has already been used at INEOS’ other football clubs, OGC Nice and Lausanne-Sport, and has informed their investment in the Mercedes F1 team.
“I think they'd go in and do that,” Dublin said. “But the fans can see those little changes. For instance, we might see [Jadon] Sancho back – that's a little marginal gain, he's going to put it right, going to try to put a smile on his face so we might get a £90m pound player back on the pitch. I think Mr Brailsford will see all that. There are lots of conversations with Erik ten Hag which I'd love to be sat in on.”
Jadon Sancho has not played for Manchester United since August 26 (Getty Images)Dublin runs some small businesses, including an auction house and a building company, and while his marginal gains decisions come down to things like installing smart meters and energy-saving light bulbs and driving an electric car, he sees some parallels.
Sancho was signed for £73m in the summer of 2021 and is now frozen out of the first team following a falling out with Ten Hag. “Now, that's a stagnant gain that's just sat there waiting to be used,” he explained. “It's waiting to enhance the business.”
Dublin expects Ratcliffe and Brailsford to encourage Ten Hag to repair things with Sancho, who is under contract until June 2026 and will be difficult to sell in the January transfer window. Ten Hag will have to be made to see the bigger picture, from a business perspective.
“Something seriously had gone wrong between the two in regards to the relationship,” Dublin said. “I’ve met Erik ten Hag many times and interviewed him a couple of times as well. He's just very straight and very honest, very much like a boss in a business.”
Dion Dublin has teamed up with Smart Energy GB to show how smart meters can help small businesses be more in control of cashflow and budgets with near real time energy use information and accurate bills.
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