At Manchester United, it doesn’t take much to be painted in a better light than the Glazers, who might just be the worst thing to happen to the club in the 21st century.
Still, credit where it’s due, Ineos have, despite some unpopular decisions, mainly seemed to have their intentions in the right place.
From Man Utd’s new stadium plans to investment in the youth, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Co have made decisions fans have been crying out for years.
It is ironic, therefore, that one decision they had to fight the fans against is turning out to be a masterstroke. It’s a call the Glazers would have happily listened to the fans for.
Ineos avoid repeating Glazer choice
The year is 2024 and the month is November. Ineos have already made a mistake by extending Erik ten Hag’s contract, getting swept up in fan euphoria.
The FA Cup final win proved to be a false dawn and after dragging this team to a few months of sunk-cost fallacy, Ten Hag was finally given his marching orders.
Before quickly pivoting to Ruben Amorim, Ruud van Nistelrooy was given four games as interim manager, and true to form, he won three of those, scoring plenty of goals in the process.
There was a clamour among fans to lean into the nostalgia and give him the job permanently, much like the Glazers did for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
However, Ineos didn’t deviate from their long-term plan and taking the risk of short-term pain, appointed Ruben Amorim despite some fans asking for Ruud van Nistelrooy to stay.
Appointing Ruben Amorim, not Ruud van Nistelrooy a masterstroke
Ineos learned from their FA Cup mistake and didn’t allow a small sample size or fan sentiment to dicate their decision making and that is turning out to be masterstroke.
There was always an inkling that Van Nistelrooy’s immediate success was down to refreshing the vibes around the squad and giving the morale a lift.
His tactical acumen and the ability to impose a long-term structure and philosophy were unproven and are now coming to the fore at Leicester City.
After the initial bounce wore off, the Dutchman has struggled to get any semblance of identity going at the club as the team lurches from one embarrassment to another.
The Man Utd legend will hopefully be better off for this experience in the long term but it just hammers home the point that if he was appointed Man Utd manager full-time, United would have been back to square one after the initial bounce wore off.
Instead, they are not starting to show signs of a long-term vision that the club has lacked all this time.
All because Ineos didn’t make the choice Glazers did.
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