SIR JIM’S CHARM OFFENSIVE WELCOMED BY CLUB STAFF

SIR JIM RATCLIFFE, whose purchase of a 25 per cent stake in Manchester United is awaiting approval, appears to have made a better start to his involvement with the club than the Glazers.

Ratcliffe and Ineos sports director Sir Dave Brailsford headed to Carrington and Old Trafford last week for a series of meetings with staff, which many commented was the first contact they’d had with those at the top since the Americans took over in 2005.

Ratcliffe also wrote to the Manchester United Supporters Trust, although he did not do likewise to The 1958, a vocal protest group. MUST were seen as the closest to an official fan club and a safer option. In the meetings, Ratcliffe is not thought to have commented on reports he is planning to make job cuts. However, he did point out that his role was purely to work on the football side of the club and said the commercial operation — which relates to a large number of United employees — was not his business. Instead, he told staff his job was to address the ‘performance gap’ and to return United to the top of world football. Reaction from those present was said to be positive.

GOOD news from the Carabao Cup. Agenda can reveal there will be no VAR in the semi-finals — and we can thank Middlesbrough for that. Given the Championship side do not have VAR equipment installed at the Riverside for tomorrow’s first leg against Chelsea, the view is that — in the interests of consistency — the competition will remain a VAR-free zone. Sadly, such equipment is a fixture at Wembley, so VAR will rear its head in the final.

THOSE seeking to scrap FA Cup replays may want to have a word with some Premier League players if they are looking for support. Insiders have disclosed that a large group were desperate to avoid draws in their third-round games because replays would wreck their winter-break plans. Indeed, some needed to cancel their luxury getaways having failed to win (or lose) at the first attempt.

PAUL HECKINGBOTTOM is due a sizable bonus should Sheffield United stay up — despite getting the sack. The former Blades boss was replaced by Chris Wilder last month. And should Wilder complete what many consider to be mission impossible, Heckingbottom will be raising a glass to his successor after ensuring a Premier League survival clause in his old contract will be honoured on a pro-rata basis.

FEW sportsmen, let alone cricketers, are honoured with their image on a bank note. So it shows how much Sir Viv Richards is revered in his native Antigua that he appears on the new Eastern Caribbean two dollar note (worth about 60p and previously denominated only by a coin) issued to mark the Central Bank’s 40th anniversary.

The Master Blaster has been obligingly autographing the notes when approached by fans in Antigua.

A PRACTICE hit with a top-20 tennis player was among the raffle prizes being offered at the British Tennis Journalists’ Association awards lunch at Wimbledon, raising money for the Give It Your Max charity. As it turned out, the lucky ticket holder was someone who would not exactly struggle to arrange such a thing — Helen Norrie, whose son Cam happens to be GB’s highest ranked player and the world No 18.

KEITH BRADSHAW’S autobiography An Outsider at Lord’s is being published later this month to coincide with a Test at Adelaide, where he became chief executive after five years running MCC. The book is unusual in that it is coming out two years after Bradshaw’s death from cancer at the age of 58. It contains some entertaining yarns including the time the Queen’s security team came to his grace-andfavour house in advance of her visit and their dogs found traces of cocaine on Jamaican bank notes he had brought home from the 2007 World Cup. ‘I thought if the press, particularly someone like Charlie Sale of the Daily Mail, heard of this, that could be the end for me,’ he writes. Bradshaw adds that, following another visit two years later, he asked a guard if they had found any drugs at the house again. ‘Same story, sir, just the dollars so we didn’t worry about it,’ was the response.

CONTRIBUTORS: Mike Dickson & Harry Slavin