I wanna knock City, Reds off their perch: Ratcliffe

SIR JIM RATCLIFFE has revealed plans to restore the greatness of Manchester United within three years and knock Manchester City and Liverpool “off their perch”.

Speaking at his INEOS office, United’s new part-owner set out a vision to refurbish Old Trafford for around £1bn or build a new stadium on the same site with the hope of securing public funds.

Ratcliffe also confirmed United’s pursuit of sporting director Dan Ashworth, who has been placed on gardening leave by Newcastle, a decision he feels is “absurd”.

The billionaire, who on Tuesday completed the purchase of a 27.7 per cent stake in the club through his INEOS conglomerate, said the women’s team could be handed Old Trafford for their use if the men’s team has a new stadium.

On more problematic matters, Ratcliffe said Manchester United will be deliberating over whether Mason Greenwood returns to the club at the end of the season.

The Crown Prosecution Service discontinued its case into Greenwood for attempted rape, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault against him in February but he remained suspended until the conclusion of an internal club investigation.

United decided Greenwood should recommence his career away from Old Trafford after a public outcry saw them U-turn on their plans to re-integrate him into the first team.

The 22-year-old, who is contracted until June 2025, signed for Spanish club Getafe on loan for the season on the final day of the summer transfer window.

On Premier League struggles

Ratcliffe said: “It’s been a complete misery really in the last 11 years and it’s just frustrating if you’re a supporter during that period of time.

“That’s football isn’t it? It has its ups and its downs. I remember pre-Ferguson it wasn’t great for quite some time - for a more extended period of time actually, for about 25 years.” “Eleven years is a long period of time, isn’t it? “Fundamentally you want to see your club being where it should be.

“It’s one of the biggest clubs in the world. It should be playing the best football in the world, it hasn’t been doing that for 10 or 11 years. So it’s certainly related to the decision [to invest].”

“They are one of the best teams on the planet,” Ratcliffe said of Man City, champions of England for three years running.

“We have a lot to learn from the noisy neighbour, and our other neighbour [Liverpool]. They are the enemy at the end of the day and there’s nothing I would like better than to knock both of them or one of them off their perch.

“But equally, we are the three great northern clubs and we’re all quite close to each other,” he added.

“They’ve been in a good place for a little while. Both of them. There are things to be learned from both of those clubs.

“They’ve got sensible organisations, great people in the organisations and a driven elite sort of environment that they work in. And as a consequence, the results have dropped out of the bottom. So I’m very respectful of them, but they’re still the enemy.”

Returning to glory

“It’s not a light switch. It’s not one of these things that changes overnight.

“We have to be careful we don’t rush at it in a way, you don’t want to run to the wrong solution rather than walk to the correct solution.

“We have two issues — one is the longer term, getting Manchester United to where, where we would like to get it but there’s also the shorter term of getting the most out of the club as it stands today because we would like to see the Champions League for next season if we can.

“The key challenge here is that longer term. We need to do things well and properly, and thoroughly, and not rush at it, so it’s not an overnight change, it’s going to take two or three seasons. You have to ask the fans for some patience.

“I know the world these days likes instant gratification but that’s not the case with football really.

“Look at Pep Guardiola at Man City, it didn’t happen overnight, it takes time to build a squad...”

Assessment of Ten Hag

“I’m not going to comment on Erik ten Hag because I think it would be inappropriate to do that,” said Ratcliffe.

“But if you look at the 11 years that have gone since David Gill and Sir Alex have stepped down, there have been a whole series of coaches, some of which were very good. And none of them were successful, or survived for very long. And you can’t blame all the coaches.

“The only conclusion you can draw is that the environment in which they were working, didn’t work. And Erik’s been in that environment. I’m talking about the organisation, the people in the structure, and the atmosphere in the club.

“We have to do that bit. So I’m not really focused on the coach. I’m focused on getting that bit right. And it’s not for me to judge that anyway. I’m not a football professional.”

Signings ‘top of the list’

Ratcliffe said: “I think recruitment in the modern game is critical. Manchester United have clearly spent a lot of money but they haven’t done as well as some other clubs.

“So when I was talking about being best in class in all aspects of football, recruitment is clearly top of the list. I’m more thinking about getting recruitment in a good place in the future.

“There’s not much I can do about what’s happened in the past, so there’s no point they never want me going there really.

“So our thinking is all about how we become first in class in recruitment going forward. Which means you need the right people.”

Redeveloping Old Trafford

“What our plan is, is that we are going to work on the refurb, which is the obvious one and the one we know that we can afford,” said Ratcliffe.

“But we’ll put together a small task force which probably we can talk about next week, at arm’s length of people who have useful opinions and explore whether a bigger project makes sense.”

Sir Jim added: “What we’ve seen of the stadium so far, there is a really good case to refurbish Old Trafford, probably about £1bn in cost, or something like that.

“You finish up with a great stadium, it’s probably an 80 or 90,000-seater. But it’s not perfect because you’re modifying a stadium that is slap bang up against a railway line and all that type of stuff, so it’s not an ideal world.

“But you finish up with a very good answer. Manchester United needs a stadium befitting one of the biggest clubs in the world and at the moment, it’s not there. —Skysports.