BBC economics expert says Sir Jim Ratcliffe comments very revealing about his Manchester United intentions

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Manchester United are moving towards progress behind the scenes with billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe set to buy a stake in the club.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is set to buy a 25 per cent shareholding in Manchester United, with a condition for a major say in football decisions, BBC Sport report.

This is not the whole takeover Manchester United fans wanted, but it could still lead to improvement on the pitch.

The Telegraph reported last week that Ratcliffe’s £1.35 billion investment is ‘within sight’, with talks ongoing to finalise an agreement.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s plans

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is yet to comment publicly since the news broke that he was the preferred bidder for Manchester United.

But he has previously given his view on the club, long before the takeover process began.

His planned investment was discussed on BBC’s How To Buy A Football Club podcast, and economics editor Faisal Islam believes Ratcliffe wants to shake things up at Old Trafford behind the scenes.

He said: “When you look back at what Ratcliffe has said, he’s said very little on the record, but he said something that I thought was quite revealing, [which] was that he’s studied the connections that made football teams successful, and he said the biggest correlation was money, obviously, but it wasn’t the only correlation.

“And I think what he said that was revealing and almost said it, was since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, United have been managed quite badly.

“There’s enough money flowing through United in its revenues and its merchandising TV rights, to run a very successful club, but it hasn’t been run very well, and so it is about management.”

A report this week via the Manchester Evening News said Ratcliffe’s Ineos are holding talks with the Glazers about the structure behind the scenes, and chief executive Richard Arnold and football director John Murtough‘s jobs may be at risk.

What Sir Jim Ratcliffe said

In an interview with The Times back in 2019, Sir Jim Ratcliffe criticised the way Manchester United had operated.

He said: “They are in quite a big pickle as a business. They haven’t got the manager selection right, haven’t bought well. They have been the dumb money, which you see with players like Fred.”

While a crushing verdict on the former Brazilian midfielder, who had a really difficult start to his Manchester United career, Ratcliffe was not wrong.

At the time he had just agreed to buy OGC Nice, and that has not been an instant success, yet now in 2023, they sit in first place in Ligue 1.

Ratcliffe added at the time: “Ineos has always tried to take a sensible approach. We don’t like squandering money or we wouldn’t be where we are today. It’s part of our DNA, trying to spend sensibly.”