Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s mind appears to already be made up regarding whether to sack Erik ten Hag, and a report has revealed two major changes are on the horizon at Manchester United.
Ratcliffe, 71, is primed to buy a 25 percent stake in Man Utd. According to the i newspaper, his partial takeover could be ratified next week, though should cross the line by the end of November at the latest.
The British businessman is expected to assume full control of sporting matters at the club. As such, whether to stick or twist with underfire manager Erik ten Hag will be Ratcliffe’s call to make.
“The only person to decide the sporting future of Manchester United is going to be Sir Jim Ratcliffe, as we know very well guys,” said transfer guru Fabrizio Romano over the weekend.
“In the next weeks everything will be completed, that is the expectation, so that Sir Jim can buy into Manchester United with a 25 percent minority stake – but with sporting control.
“That means he can decide on the manager, the board, the directors and all of the sporting activities. This is really important.
“The feeling at United is that there could be a big change in terms of the board and in terms of the operations at Manchester United.
“It means a new sporting director, so the whole transfer process could change at the club with people coming from Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos Group.”
Ten Hag safe, but powers will be stripped
On the back of the humbling 3-0 defeat to Manchester City in the derby, the big question on many people’s minds is will Ten Hag survive.
Now, according to the i newspaper, Ratcliffe’s mind is already made up and Ten Hag is safe.
They state ‘Sir Jim Ratcliffe won’t sack Erik ten Hag’, with the Ineos chairman’s faith in the Dutchman ‘seemingly unshaken’. However, Ten Hag is set to have his responsibilities reduced as part of two major changes.
It’s claimed Ratcliffe will sanction a full audit of the club to see for himself what is and isn’t working.
But one change is already in the pipeline and that relates to player recruitment being taken out of Ten Hag’s hands.
Ten Hag has generally moved for either players he’s previously managed or stars from the Eredivisie during his time in the United dugout.
The most expensive of the lot – Antony (£86m) – has flopped so far, while there are huge question marks regarding Andre Onana between the sticks.
The strategy of signing those he’s familiar with is stated to have ‘brought little reward thus far’ and as such, player recruitment is set to be put ‘in the hands of experts’, thus leaving Ten Hag to simply coach the team.
On the subject of who will head up the new recruitment strategy, the i point to former Monaco chief, Paul Mitchell.
Mitchell is labelled a ‘frontrunner’ to become the sporting director at Old Trafford and ‘operated in the same circles’ as Ratcliffe while at Monaco. Ratcliffe also owns French club Nice and lived close to Mitchell while in France.
Since leaving his post at Monaco Mitchell has moved back to Manchester and is ‘interested’ in joining Ratcliffe at United.
But while depriving Ten Hag of transfer responsibilities and appointing Mitchell are two major changes on the cards, the i reaffirm Ten Hag will not be removed as manager.
The article concluded Ratcliffe believes a mid-season sacking would ‘send the wrong message’. Furthermore, Ten Hag is still held in high regard for winning the EFL Cup and securing Champions League qualification last season.
Ratcliffe is also keen to avoid a repeat of the mistakes made by Todd Boehly and co since taking charge at Chelsea in 2022.
The Blues have spent over a billion pounds on new recruits in that time and are on their third permanent manager in less than 16 months.
Despite the colossal financial outlay, Chelsea are as far away from being title challengers as they’ve ever been in the last 20 years.
