Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s deal to buy a 25 per cent stake in Manchester United is built on a crucial assumption: that the chemicals billionaire and his team have a better idea of how to win football matches than those currently in charge. His experience in European football has the most direct relevance to United. His time as owner of French top tier club OGC Nice charts a steep learning curve, costly mistakes, sporting underperformance and bad luck, but some more recent signs of promise. Football has been part of the Ineos empire since it acquired Swiss club Lausanne-Sport in 2017. The team was relegated soon after. Bob Ratcliffe, Jim’s brother who was then in charge of Ineos’ football interests, admitted afterwards that as owners, the company had been naive by overspending on big name players and “not getting advice from the right people”. Yet some of those mistakes were repeated following the €110mn takeover of French club Nice OGC in the summer of 2019. The new owners arrived...