Thursday marks the one-year anniversary of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s 27.7% purchase of a minority stake in Manchester United — a deal that gave Britain’s richest person control of football operations at the Premier League‘s most successful club — but it has been a turbulent 12 months for the club since his arrival. Erik ten Hag ended last season by winning the FA Cup and was rewarded with a new contract as manager only to be fired four months later, while over 250 job cuts — and the prospect of more — have left morale at rock bottom within Old Trafford.
Ratcliffe’s Ineos Group has made changes behind the scenes, hiring and firing senior staff, but on the pitch, new head coach Ruben Amorim has endured a nightmarish start that has even prompted the former Sporting CP coach to say that relegation is a possibility for the 20-time title winners. United are also struggling to comply with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR), which threatens a summer of low spending in the transfer market.
So with the first year under Ineos proving to be tough for United, Mark Ogden and Rob Dawson have assessed the group’s impact so far — and whether the club can look forward to a brighter future.
(Editor’s note: The grades are assessing the gap between expectations when Ineos arrived in town a year ago, complete with big ideas and ambitious plans, and the reality of where Man United find themselves right now.)
Dawson: More than £200m has been spent on signing new players since the takeover, and you could argue the squad is no better. In fact, plenty of fans would agree it’s worse. The jury is still out on summer signings De Ligt, Mazraoui, Manuel Ugarte, Leny Yoro and Zirkzee. The same can be said for Patrick Dorgu, January’s one significant arrival. In terms of outgoings, United have Marcus Rashford (Aston Villa), Antony (Real Betis), Jadon Sancho (Chelsea) and Tyrell Malacia (PSV Eindhoven) — with a combined market value of more than £200m — playing for other clubs on loan.
United have struggled to score goals since Ten Hag’s time in charge, but in January both Rashford and Antony were allowed to leave without replacements coming in. United have scored 28 goals in 25 league games this season with only Ipswich, Southampton, Leicester and Everton scoring fewer.
The injury list is getting longer, too, after Amad Diallo, Mainoo and Ugarte all picked up problems last week. Still, the state of the squad was summed up at Spurs when Amorim was able to name only one substitute over the age of 19. That was Victor Lindelöf, who hasn’t played in the league for more than two months and is set to leave on a free transfer at the end of the season.
GRADES:
– Ogden: D
– Dawson: D
Moves made with senior management
Ogden: The jury is out on this one because virtually all of the senior executives pre-Ineos were cleared out by the new regime.
The Glazers oversaw a decade of drift and decline by promoting from within, resulting in the likes of Ed Woodward (executive vice chairman), Richard Arnold (CEO), John Murtough (football director) and Darren Fletcher (technical director) assuming consequential roles and not meeting expectations. Ineos has since hired Omar Berrada (CEO), Jason Wilcox (technical director) and Dan Ashworth (sporting director), but former Newcastle United and Brighton & Hove Albion sporting director Ashworth was fired after less than five months in the job. Ashworth failed to impress Ineos boss Ratcliffe, but he was expected to perform a role that was different from his previous experience working with more autonomy at Newcastle, so Ratcliffe and Ineos cannot escape blame for that failed appointment.
Sir Dave Brailsford, the Ineos director of sport, has an influential role behind the scenes at United, and they now have a coherent leadership structure tasked with plotting a course forward.
0:57
Ogden questions what the ‘cult of Jim’ are adding to Man United
On “The Football Reporters” podcast, Mark Ogden wonders what Dave Brailsford can bring to Manchester United with a background in cycling.
Dawson: It’s probably the one area where Ineos has made some kind of progress. Ratcliffe identified very early that the club’s structure wasn’t set up for success, and he has tried to fix it.
Berrada is a clever appointment as CEO after helping Manchester City to become the dominant force in English football. He has an astute business mind, knows football and has contacts across Europe — really the perfect candidate to lead a rebuild.
Ashworth also seemed like a smart hire as director of football given his longtime friendship with Brailsford, but it quickly turned into an embarrassment. Ratcliffe should have made sure his team and Ashworth were completely aligned on key issues — such as possible managerial candidates — before spending so much time and money appointing him from Newcastle. Having to sack Ashworth so quickly suggests Ratcliffe didn’t do his homework, which doesn’t bode well for the rest of his decision-making.
GRADES:
– Ogden: D
– Dawson: C
Fan relations
Ogden: The optics of the Ineos era so far have been really bad. Beyond issues with cost-cutting and infrastructure that have caused embarrassment, fans have felt the tangible effects of the new regime.
Ticket prices have gone up, despite the woeful football and results, a decision that Ratcliffe justified by saying it shouldn’t cost more to watch Fulham than Manchester United — a remark that went down badly with fans. They directed derogatory chants toward Ratcliffe during the recent game at Fulham, so in a year, he has achieved the remarkable feat of becoming as unpopular as the Glazers.
Dawson: The message from Ineos at every turn has been that each decision — popular or not — has been taken to benefit the men’s first team. In short, it’s prepared to do anything and everything to make the club more competitive on the pitch.
It probably felt like an easy PR win considering how things had been under the Glazers, with former executive vice chairman Ed Woodward never able to forget his infamous quote: “Playing performance doesn’t really have a meaningful impact on what we can do on the commercial side of the business.” But by being so clear about its reasoning, Ineos has opened a debate about what a football club is.
It’s true that many supporters only want to see United win the Premier League and Champions League, not caring how they get there. But there are other fans who believe a football club should stand for more: that ticket prices should always be affordable, particularly for children and teenagers; that there should be a thriving women’s team; that there should be a charitable foundation to improve lives in Manchester; that former players who had careers during a time of more modest salaries should be supported.
Fans already feel like they are being forced to pay the price for poor decision-making by the Glazers, and many believe it’s being continued by Ratcliffe. There has already been scattered discontent aimed at Ratcliffe and Ineos, and there’s a larger protest planned ahead of the Arsenal game on March 9. There’s real concern among season-ticket holders that they will be hit with a major price hike ahead of next season.
GRADES:
– Ogden: F
– Dawson: D
How does the future look?
Ogden: Right now, the future doesn’t look great at all, but perhaps Ineos is making the tough, unpopular decisions to clear the way for progress. Sometimes you have to rip off the bandage, and Ineos is certainly doing that.
We shouldn’t forget that Liverpool’s owners, Fenway Sports Group, had plenty of early missteps at Anfield including clashes with fans over ticket prices, clumsy handling of managerial changes and recruitment mistakes including Mario Balotelli and Christian Benteke. Nobody remembers those mistakes now, largely because Jürgen Klopp was an inspired managerial appointment and the club’s recruitment team worked in tandem with him to turn Liverpool into world-beaters again.
1:43
Dawson: Players uncomfortable benefitting from Man United redundancies
On “The Football Reporters” podcast, Rob Dawson says morale amongst Manchester United staff is as low as he’s ever seen it.
United desperately need clear leadership and a strategic plan to move forward, and they had neither under the Glazers, so Ineos might just be in the first, chaotic stages of getting it right. But that’s the positive outlook. The flip side is that the new decision-makers aren’t as smart as some of them believe themselves to be, and football is a much tougher business to crack than anything they have worked in before.
Much will depend on the summer. If Ineos clears out the deadwood and makes smart signings, then Amorim could be the coach to put United back on top. Amorim needs Ineos to deliver if he is to deliver for them.
Dawson: It’s easy to be very pessimistic about the future. Clubs need money to be competitive, and United are openly saying there isn’t any. On top of that, Ratcliffe and Ineos want to build a new stadium at a possible cost of £2 billion, though there has been little concrete information about how they plan to pay for it. The danger is that if the club foots the bill, there will be an even smaller budget to reshape the squad. Amorim has already said that funds for next summer will depend on whether United can get players out.
In the short term, the biggest worry is Amorim. It’s not yet clear whether he’s the right man for the job. He has been dealt a tough hand, and he has been fighting fire after fire since his arrival in November. If it turns out he was the wrong appointment, it will be a huge setback for Ratcliffe and Ineos.
The hope is that Amorim’s appointment works out, high earners like Rashford and Casemiro leave in the summer, some money is freed up to reinvest and, next season, United begin to take small steps forward. It’s not certain by any means, and most fans are in the position of wanting to see it to believe it.
