Will Ratcliffe honeymoon last?

Newly-minted United shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe finally broke cover this week to outline his vision for the club after buying a minority stake. In an hour-long meeting with journalists, including Scoreboard, in London he talked through the bidding process that resulted in his $1.65bn investment, his immediate priorities, and his long-term aspirations.

First on the agenda, fix the club’s shoddy recruitment strategy. United have spent big under the Glazers, but expensive signings have often disappointed.

To do that, Ratcliffe wants to bring in top executives, and upgrade the club’s often-criticised culture. New chief executive Omar Berrada was the first in what will be a series of big hires. “We need to populate all the key roles with people who are best in class, 10 out of 10s”, said the chemicals billionaire.

The message was that United’s off-field success as a commercial entity needs to be matched by challenging for trophies. “This is going to be a very sports-led club. It’s all going to be about performance on the pitch.”

But while the bar is high, there is also expectation management. This supertanker is not going to turn around overnight. He wants the club to be back on top within three years. “If we give people false expectations, then they will get disappointed. So I think the key thing is our trajectory, so that people can see that we’re making progress.”

With revenue last year of €742.8mn last year, according to Deloitte, United are still high on football’s rich list. That gives the club a clear advantage over rivals at a time when spending rules begin to bite. Ratcliffe noted that Financial Fair Play regulations had limited the financial muscle of state-backed clubs — such as Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain — by a “considerable margin”.

Where he does favour a helping hand from the government is in rebuilding Old Trafford. He put a £1bn price tag just on upgrading the current stadium, but floated the idea of a far bigger regeneration project akin to the one that revived large parts of east London for the 2012 Olympics.

I just don’t see money coming from a government of any colour when there is a desperate shortage of public money and many claims on it – NHS, defence, local government etc.   This could be portrayed as a vanity project even if it did add real community and city value.

Ratcliffe’s record in football is patchy. Ineos bought OGC Nice in France’s Ligue 1 in 2018, but it has taken until the current season to see any pick-up in performances on the pitch. Ratcliffe acknowledged that it had been a steep learning curve, and that Ineos, which has investments in cycling, sailing, and motorsport, had made “a lot of cock ups” and “some really stupid decisions”.

“We have made mistakes in football so I’m really pleased that we made those mistakes before we arrived here in Manchester United. If we hadn’t, this would be a much tougher job for us. Because it is huge and it’s very exposed.”

United fans have good reason to feel excited, relieved and optimistic about the future. But fixing a big club is hard work. Just look at Chelsea, Olympique Lyonnais, and Barcelona. And Ratcliffe will be trying to repair United’s fortunes while still just a minority shareholder. Honeymoons often get curtailed in football.