I remember going to away matches at Manchester City’s old home at Maine Road, a stadium that had seen better days in a run-down area with Old Trafford a stark contrast. Now Old Trafford is showing its age with Sir Jim Ratcliffe aiming to replace it or renovate it.
One of the most striking things about the round of
interviews Sir JimRatcliffe conducted upon purchasing his minority stake in
United lwas how happy he was to compliment City on their success.
Ratcliffe praised the “very sensible structure” and “driven
competitive environment” at the Etihad. On the question of the Premier League’s
charges against the defending champions, he said he would not wish
punishment upon them, preferring to “smash them on the football field”.
United have maintained their long tradition of youth
development and promoting talent to the first-team level.. However, they have
been challenged by a City academy setup that has combined strong on-pitch
results with a healthy revenue stream through sales of young players, while
still offering first-team opportunities to the best.
Snaring City’s highly respected chief football operations
officer Omar Berrada to become United’s next chief executive is the clearest
indication of how INEOS regards the operation at the Etihad. City took United’s poaching of Berrada as a
compliment, believing it was a vindication of their methods. That could be
interpreted as an attempt to downplay the significance of his defection, but it
is also a fair assessment.
Urban regeneration
In 2010, Manchester City Council and the Abu Dhabi United
Group (ADUG) — City’s majority owners — entered into a partnership that led to
more than £400m of private and public investment in east Manchester.
There has been criticism of the council and ADUG’s
relationship given the Emirati state’s human rights record and questions over a
perceived lack of transparency and accountability regarding the partnership,
although it is broadly viewed as a positive development by local political and
business leaders.
Ratcliffe sees the benefits in a similar project around Old
Trafford and outlined as much in meetings with local authority figures in
January. Last month, Trafford Council announced masterplan proposals for the
regeneration of the Wharfside area surrounding the stadium, which were welcomed
by the club.
My way
INEOS’ admiration for what City’s owners have achieved is
clear, but it is not without caveats. Sources insist that the last thing
Ratcliffe will do is simply seek to replicate City. Originality and innovation
will be essential ingredients of INEOS’ approach — just because something has
worked on one side of Manchester, they believe, does not mean that will work on
the other.
Then there is the concern of implication in the ongoing
matter of the more than 100 Premier League charges against City for
alleged breaches of financial regulations. City deny any wrongdoing,
Despite holding City in high esteem, with a Manchester derby
on the horizon, Ratcliffe was careful in his dealings with the press last week
to cast them as a rival — United’s “noisy neighbour” — before anything else.
That was not the only Sir Alex Ferguson allusion, either.
Equally, there is an acceptance within Ratcliffe’s team and
United as a whole that the club has fallen behind and that there is work to be
done to catch up. City remain “the enemy”, in Ratcliffe’s words, but one that
United must learn from.
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