Yes, you can build a spanking new stadium, Jim. But you haven’t got the leaders to build a winning team
THERE was some great chest-thumping from Jim Ratcliffe this week about what Manchester United need to do to knock rivals off their perch, and let me say, out of all the challenges he outlined, building a new stadium will be the easiest one.
If you have the money that will be simple, but building a football team is something else.
Ratcliffe said they would need a three-year plan. But, you see, when you apply logic to football is when you come unstuck.
My assessment is United are three to five years behind Liverpool and Manchester City, two to three years behind Arsenal and of a similar level to Tottenham. Three years means six transfer windows and in that period you have to get into the Champions League.
United’s huge turnover means financial fair play shouldn’t be as big an issue for them as for others so here is where Dan Ashworth, Jason Wilcox and whoever else is on their transfer committee really earn their corn. Recruitment is paramount to success. You have to get that right and I’d even suggest signing a top manager is secondary to signing top players.
Manchester United are one of the most glamorous clubs in the world, the public demand success. It’s great to put out soundbites but the hard work starts now that Ratcliffe’s feet are under the table and they have a lot of ground to make up.
I would be the last person to diminish the roles Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Ronnie Moran played in our success during my time at Liverpool. Part of their job was to keep us motivated, hungry, to knock us on the head at every opportunity and constantly tell us our best wasn’t good enough.
But when you have good senior players in the squad that should generally be self-regulating. We had some of the best players in their positions in Europe so everyone was demanding of high standards before the coaches had to intervene. I am sure that today, Liverpool and Manchester City have it. I’m sure there are confrontations on the training pitch at City and Liverpool most days of the week with the levels they keep, but I’m not sure there are at Carrington.
There was footage last week of Marcus Rashford going through the motions of trying to press Luton Town’s Ross Barkley. Ross almost walked past him. Rashford is a senior player, an England international.
That action, that standard, would suggest he does that in training and neither his teammates nor the coaching staff have nailed him for it. That’s the worry for Ratcliffe. Have United got players who take responsibility, carry the flag into battle and are prepared to fall out with team-mates?
The general problem today is you have players who earn so much money they think they’re all-important and never have a bad game because of the people who surround them. When the pressure starts, they are more than happy for the manager to take all the flak, and in the difficult times, will quickly lay blame at the manager’s door.
Who are the senior players with big character who are going to help Ten Hag in that dressing room? Who will point the finger at the lesser lights and drag them to a higher level? I’m not sure they exist there.
So you can talk about plans as much as you like, but paramount to Ratcliffe’s challenge is to find the right characters to bridge this gap.