Watch your backs, Reds ... Sir Jim’s a born winner and will have big say
EVERYONE at a shambolic Old Trafford will be looking over their shoulder — not just under-fire boss Erik ten Hag — with Sir Jim Ratcliffe close to finalising his purchase of a quarter of Manchester United.
Absolutely no way is Ratcliffe going to spend well over a billion quid – and spend another £250million or so on rebuilding the stadium – unless he gets a direct influence over the sporting side of the club.
And by influence, I mean the people he has appointed recently to look after his company, Ineos’s, sporting interests. You look at his head guys in Jean-claude Blanc and Sir Dave Brailsford, and they are both seriously big hitters.
You don’t appoint people like them on huge salaries to oversee your sports operations, and then sit idly by and watch the jewel in your sporting crown – as United will ultimately be – fall apart.
United have become what I call one of those ‘chasing’ clubs – they’re always chasing the flavour of the month, on the pitch and off it. They are always looking for short-term hits rather than a long-term plan.
So they appoint the likes of Van Gaal, Mourinho and now Ten Hag, even when there were far better managers out there.
And it’s the same with players. The recruitment has been woeful, and Ten Hag has to take a lot of blame. They’ve gone for the experienced campaigners – as they did with managers like Mourinho – and it didn’t work.
Casemiro, anyone? How can you pay £70m for a midfielder who was almost 31, when the selling club Real Madrid thought his legs had gone?
Then they try to follow the likes of City and Liverpool by signing younger players… but without the quality. Antony at £89m is unfathomable, and there have been plenty more.
Ten Hag has clearly been involved in many of those deals, because the signings have direct links to his previous club, Ajax. And yet, we’ve witnessed a full-strength United side lose to Copenhagen in the Champions League. That simply shouldn’t happen.
I feel it was probably the final straw, and it doesn’t matter what happened against Luton on Saturday. That result, and the prospect of not qualifying for the Champions League knockout stages, could mean the end of him.
I know there was a red card but defeat there, even with 10 men, is unthinkable. In the league they’ve been equally unconvincing, despite a few scrappy results lately.
Blanc, with his background in turning around Juventus, then installing Paris Saint-germain as a European force, has not been sitting around doing nothing while Old Trafford burns.
It looks to me like Ratcliffe signed the Frenchman up as soon as he thought some sort of deal to buy into United would be done. So he’s a natural figurehead at the club, and he’ll have spent the last six months or so looking at where it has gone wrong.
You don’t have to look too far to see Ten Hag’s management style hasn’t worked. He’s fallen out with players, and quite often then had to go back to them, like Harry Maguire and Scott Mctominay.
He’s also got a player they spent £75m on training with the kids, because he’s not allowed to use the first team facilities. If Jadon Sancho leaves in January, it will be for a massive loss, or on a loan where United pay most of the wages.
That is not good business, and the fact Ten Hag (above) has no solution is damning. It’s not the way Blanc or Brailsford operate and they will already have looked at prospective new managers. But there are no blindingly obvious candidates.
Michael Carrick and Kieran Mckenna have some credentials and obvious Old Trafford connections. They’re just not ready yet though.
A manager with a proven track record over a long period at the top level is not going to walk away from a big job to join United. Pep Guardiola won’t and neither will Jurgen Klopp.
Carlo Ancelotti fits the bill, but is he going to walk away from Real Madrid? Is he hell!
So it will have to be a younger manager with a good track record, who can step up to the next level. Unai Emery has that, and he’s doing a decent job at Villa after winning several European trophies.
Then there’s Roberto De Zerbi. Brighton are balancing the Europa League and Premier League well, and in a good position to move forward in both. I know how highly-rated he is in football, so a move for him at some point is likely… though would he take it?
He’s so rated by Klopp, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Liverpool manager saw him as a natural successor.
Maybe Blanc will have other ideas. Michel has performed miracles at Girona, but then you wonder if that story can be transplanted into a massive, massive club like United.
Surely there is a plan in place, though, and Ten Hag should be looking over his shoulder now.