What Sir Jim Ratcliffe Brings to Manchester United
Ben Jacobs and Angus Scott are joined by Chris Wheeler of the Daily Mail to discuss the immediate and long-term impact of Sir Jim Ratcliffe on Manchester United. Plus, Fabrizio Romano drops in to provide the latest on January window.
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hi folks and welcome once again to the debrief live We are never busier than when the transfer window is open and that's certainly true this month but here we are again to bring you the latest from the window with fabito Romano but also to discuss the latest on the Manchester United takeover or should that be partial takeover so Jim Ratliff has almost got the keys to the sporting equipment cupboards but they haven't quite been cut yet if only the key cutting service was as quick as timson then s Jim would have his feet under the desk already and no we're not sponsored by timson but there's a thought anyway cutting a dashing figure is the debriefs Ben Jacobs Ben hi there disheveled I think because remember we're two weeks almost into the transfer window so lack of sleep lot of caffeine looking forward to talking Manchester United X absolutely more sleep than fabito as we will learn later uh it's a great welcome to the debrief a man who who seems to have spent half his working life covering the Takeover at Old Trafford it's the daily M Chris wheeler Chris thanks for joining us my pleasure how's things okay Angus all good yeah all all very good following it uh from afar you are obviously a lot closer to the scene than I am at the moment um what do you think s Jim will bring to Manchester United well hopefully I think a new pair of eyes and that's what's been needed for a long time I think it's a Club that's become very much um set in its ways and not always good ways either um it's been obviously what 10 years since not only Ferguson went but also Gil and I think people maybe Overlook that as being a huge factor in the downturn in the club's fortunes over this past 10 years um to lose two figures of that importance um and that ability I think was was absolutely massive and and and so you've seen since then not only that the managers fail but also the management fail the actual management of the club the middle management the recruitment everything that follows from it and and it's um it's been a mess for a long time and I think what Jim Ratliff brings is obviously in Theos is brailsford is um you know a forensic eye on how it should be done how how it should be run and hopefully that Fresh Approach will bring fresh fortunes but we'll have to wait and see yeah might be a long time coming Ben what does this deal really look like I don't know if you can sort of outline it for us well I think to outline it in full we need about five hours and hundreds of pages in the paperwork but exactly but in basic terms you've almost got three aspects you have B shares you have the a shares and then you have an injection effectively of equity to the tune of $300 million which is 200 million up front and then another another 100 million in 2024 so the B part is done those are the glazers shares and it's 25% of them which is about 177% then there is a a share tender which forms part of the completion process and that is also 25% of the a shares so an equal amount percentage wise of each so 17 and about eight taking you to the 25% then in addition the 300 million will get sjim rat 15 just over 4% which means that his total ownership will be about 29% and crucially that means that he is the most powerful individual shareholder even though he only has a minority so on the one hand he's the most significant individual at the club sharewise but on the other hand the six glazers are still there so if they choose to block vote and gang up on him if there's any disagreement then the Glazer still control the club and the brand but Jim Ratcliffe highly significant along as Chris said with SED braford and Jean Claude Blanc and it's going to be fascinating to see how this Dynamic of football control and brand or Club control works in practice on paper it all looks very neat but obviously the glazers and Ratliff and inos have to find a way to coexist I almost wish I hadn't asked that question Ben it's quite quite complicated when you go through A and B shares thought oh my God here we go uh no wonder it's taken so long um is that part of the reason it's been been difficult to cover for you Chris and it seems to have dragged out and and twisted in all sorts of different ways incredible yeah I mean since that first announcement November 202 um2 it did drag on awfully so you know and it felt for a long time I think because the fans maybe maybe in some ways the media and thought with their their hearts rather than their heads I think the idea of a 100% takeover by Shake jasim of Qatar um appeal because it would have seen the end of the Glazer family which of course has been a very unhappy um time in in the club's history or certainly the second half of it a very unhappy time in the club's history and I think maybe people didn't see the intricacies that Ben explained to you there you know where people thought the complete takeover makes sense it means more money um and therefore that's what's going to happen and of course it turns out that a Jim R very can you know realize what the GL were all about what they were looking for and he realized the only way to get his foot in the door was to do a deal with the devil as it were or the kind fans would say it that way um to to keep the glazers in a majority ownership and to pay a 1.3 billion pound stake I I say to get his foot in the door for what he hopes will be a whole lot more down the road yeah to cover it it was very twisty very turny quite torturous um and yeah I mean it obviously became clear for quite some time now that inos had won the race and then from that point onwards it's then been a whole other um bit of pain that we've been through for even more months and to announce it on Christmas E I mean what they were thinking on that I mean I mean if that was that was just cruel um to go and do it then you know so it's been hard it's been long um at least now we're getting to the interesting bit where it's stuff we can see stuff we can hear in the past they were sort of bound by all sorts of different rules and regulations about what could be said um but now we're hearing from them we're seeing them obviously DAV ord's been at the last uh last three games we're seeing Jim rli we believe um at Old Trafford on Sunday for the Tottenham game hopefully be speaking to him at some stage this month if not next month and we'll see a bit more transparency now for many about what their plans are and what's going to happen next I'm suppose the big question is when did you wrap your Christmas presents because like you know most men you're clearly waiting for Christmas Eve to do all that and then this bomb shell drops you go oh my god did you get it all done in time well this is it being a being a Brit I mean Jim should have known what we were all doing at christeve four o' you know that's that was really unfair appreciate that at all not no we got over the line we got there in the end but why oh why they thought that was a good idea or was even needed it was they gone on so long I think everyone felt once we got past whatever the day was Friday evening um on like the the Friday PR of that the the business was then closed we be kind of safe until the new year no one saw that one coming uh New Year you know to go and do it on Christmas Eve at four o'clock just felt like completely wrong but um yeah we we all got through it and we're all here to tell aail so there you go look we yeah we will see a lot more of s Jim at Old Trafford as well as deid braford who we obviously already seen there what specifically do you think those two and inos will bring you've talked about that sort of forensic look at the sporting structure what will they specifically be doing do you think at Old Trafford which will be noticeably different from previous regimes well in terms of right now they are looking learning watching there be a lot of very uncomfortable people Old Trafford right now we've had jobs uh very secure jobs for a long time who will never looking over their shoulders they're being watched they're being um assessed in every sense and so that's their current situation of course as you all know they can't do anything tangible until it's all been okay next month but they are in the building they they are looking and learning and I think with Dave rsford you have to look at his history um in cing of course but in an amateur movement and a professional movement where he is one of these people who actually accepts his own limitations I mean he knows and he said he's not a football expert but in other sports where he's operated outside of cycling he has been able to surround himself with the right people with the best inclass kind of right people so what he' been looking to do is to get the right guys around him I think as I mentioned earlier you know since Ferguson and Gil left man united what they've lacked is that expertise um you know obviously much has been said and written about eded woodwood and maybe having too much of a say in transfers people talked about John mer was he the right man for the job um I think John Mera might well stay in the new setup but not in his current role I think they will look to get in a football director and head of recruitment um but I think brailsford will will look to bring in you know key people Key Senior Management people that he will sit on top of of that but he will leave them to do what they do best it's interesting what you say there because I always use this analogy when I go back to the 2003 Rugby World Cup and a different Woodward so Clive Woodward was in charge he wasn't the best coach in the world but he gathered the right team and the right expertise so that England had that extra half of 1% uh to beat Australia H or anyone that stood in their way and that's why they were ultimately successful and I think that's that's clearly what we're going to see with the inos um takeover as it were in the that that assembly of the right parts to make it an Elite Sports organization again is going to very much come to the forth exactly that and I mean and even Ferguson himself was never the best coach people talk about you know Ferguson been the best coach of all time he wasn't he was a master man manager that's what he did well that's what he he he he sat at the top of that pyramid he was the ultimate leader uh but he knew his own limitations and he knew that he wasn't maybe the best guy on the training pitch and his best moment always came with a good number two next to him on the few occasions whether it was Kiros whether it was Walter Smith you know whe it was kid all of these people whenever Fergie was left to his own devices it never went so well you know that that he was always better doing what he did best and having the the staff around him did what they did best and that's how it's always worked and I think with Dave rsford you know he comes from an Olympic movement where where they operate in a way that the people in charge of each sport aren't always experts in that sport what they're very good at and then that includes him more than anybody else what they're very good at is they they know when to get involved and when to stand back and that the experts take control and I think Dave will be very much of a mind the exact same thing here that he he has of course um jeanclaude Blanc coming in as the CEO um every chance we're going to see Dan Ashworth as a football director you know maybe even Paul Mitchell who like Ashworth has links to raford you know coming in in terms of head of recruitment but Key Personnel coming into key positions which in the past they've not really had it's interesting what you say Chris and I you could react to this Ben about how many nervous people there might be at Old sheer at the moment you know everyone is being assessed ultimately this is this is a club right for um processing in the right direction yeah and I think this started during the process when sir Jim rackliff made a point of going to Manchester in the earlier part for meetings it was Builder's due diligence but it was also about every Department presenting their situation to Ratliff and inos and since then there's been a movement strategically speaking by inos to work out what they're going to need if they're successful because my understanding is that the Ratcliff deal for a majority stake was effectively dead and there were very vocal protestations some formal basically stating that originally if Ratcliffe was to buy a majority stake of glaz's B shares then the a shareholders would be cut out of a deal and they would gang up and there would be a potential legal case and then Ratcliffe pivoted because he and inos have been flexible and they move to this minority 25% as early I'm told as the summer even though we were hearing reports that the process was paused or that the glazers wouldn't sell at all so since May really of last year or certainly the late part of the summer transfer window inos have been assessing and that continues now concurrent with the completion process and probably I would say for four even eight weeks afterwards this strategic review you could be six or seven weeks but it could be a 100 days and that will be led to my knowledge anyway by S Dave brailsford and in that 100 days and based upon meetings that took place in Manchester last week there will be an assessment at all levels and that will include the football department and you can't move Manchester United forwards Chris unless you don't just think of things in terms of immediate results or managers there has to be foundational change and that Foundation change may be in a football Department it may be in a commercial department but if you don't start with a strategy and be patient and get the right names and structures in then my feeling anyway I don't know if you agree Chris is Manchester United will go round and round in circles because managers since Alex Ferguson have been so scapegoated and there's been such an urgent need for results and Champions League football but chopping and changing even though Abramovic maybe had some success at Chelsea doesn't traditionally work not in modern football you need a strategy you need foundational change you need a modernization at all levels of Manchester United and then it will eventually who knows maybe instantly but eventually lead to more consistent football success and my feeling is that's why everyone is being assessed and that's my feeling from talking to inos sources and maybe some nervous people at Manchester United but I think it's probably still fair to say Chris that inos and Ratliff won't be rushing this process 100% yeah I mean it they haven't got to where they are now overnight and the way back will not happen overnight it just can't you know they've they've gone a long route um down the wrong turn if that makes sense you know and it's going to be I I don't think it's 10 years back again I think you only have to look at Liverpool and klopp to see how quickly if you get the right coaching and the right guys around him how quickly a club can turn around it doesn't have to be 10 years back you know I mean they can they can get this done relatively quickly if they have the right people there but you're absolutely right um inos won't be charging in there thinking they can tear it all up and start again and somehow turn things around in months it will not happen that way it can't happen that way you know but they are business people they are smart people they've got involved in sports of course they know how these things work even though up until now football you know has been maybe only part of their portfolio but um no I mean they know what they're doing they will come in they will will be real IC I'll give people a chance and that includes tenh um to to show what they're all about um absolutely it's been 10 years of a slow decline in every sense every part of the club from the stadium to the to the team to to the managers who who come and tried and failed and as you say it can't always be on the manager it can't be that one guy's fault you can't keep just sucking the manager and starting again and hoping that will bring about some sort of kind of seismic change that can't happen it it runs deeper than that it runs to the heart of the club it runs I mean if you look at now an Marshal he's still there he might be gone this month more likely gone in the summer um he he he dates back to the Vanguard era and then you've got you know you got Mourinho you got Sola and now you got tenh you can't just keep sucking managers keeping the same Squad and thinking that it's going to change again tomorrow it will not happen so I think change obviously is needed huge change at every level of the club NEOS know that um they will kind of oversee that change how fast they can do it given the finances um again that's one I guess Point against rat Cliffe that wasn't counting against the shake there was his feeling there was kind of bottomless pit of money because people expect that these days from the Middle East and it's going to happen that way would it we'll never know now but obviously with rat Cliff because um of its apart ownership um he can only do so much be interesting to see actually how this now plays out this this sort of Fel control of who puts the money in um who pays for the stadium Renovations or whole new stadium have to wait and see but you're absolutely right yeah I mean huge change needed and inos will not be rushing into this one at all we we'll go into uh more on that in just a minute with Chris and Ben thanks for your comments keep them coming in um as Mike Scully said it's long overdue we need to turnaround ASAP well uh yeah do let let us know on the comments section and we'll ask any questions that the guys might be able to answer but for the moment let's chat chat to our transfer Guru the one and only for Brito romano and find out what the transfer news is from Old Trafford and the rest of the world fabrio thanks as ever for joining us let's start with Manchester United uh Jim Ratliff is officially coming in in February any word yet on a leading candidate to become the sporting director yeah work in progress on that there is still the same list of names we mentioned many times including Paul Mitchell including many other people but the name of danworth I think is the strongest name in this moment is the most appreciated by people Latinos I'm hearing they really like his his work his ideas the potential idea of project with danworth being the new director of Manchester United so he's the leading candidate in inios ideas then obviously he's under contact at Newcastle and Newcastle believe that he's only focused on their so Newcastle keep playing down all the rumors because they want to continue with the nworth and he's absolutely focused on on Newcastle but I think Kos will try to push in the next weeks again and again for him because he's considered the best candidate for their for their project and then we have to see if they want to go with a structure with one single person or if they want to involve maybe two three people for example as Chelsea did recently so I think also the structor is going to be important to understand how many people will join Manchester United well on the field at the time we recording Jaden Sancho to Dortmund it's nearly done isn't it give us the details of of that one yeah he's almost completed Bia dund and may United are speaking again today even in the morning contacts were very positive now it's really about the final details and then the deal will be will be done on player side is already done it's almost 10 days now because he wants to go to Dortmund so the two clubs are completing the deal in terms of details of the loan but it's going to be around four or five million EUR loan fee and Sal coverage so this will be the final package the player is ready to travel so he just waiting for the green light already since last w