Sir Jim Ratcliffe is nothing if not an optimist.
The Manchester United co-owner and CEO has had his work cut out since purchasing 24 per cent of the club’s shares in December.
Since that date he’s seen his club get thrashed 4-0 by Crystal Palace on their way to a worst-ever Premier League finish of eighth.
He’s also had to contend with, among other things, the embarrassment of a leaky Old Trafford roof, but ultimately the season ended on a high with an FA Cup win, beating Manchester City in the final.
The 71-year-old INEOS CEO is now heading into his first summer transfer window with the club, and sat down for a frank assessment of the job so far.
Speaking at The Times CEO summit, Ratcliffe was asked about if there’s been any surprises moving into football ownership, and had the room in laughter with his initial answer.
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“Lot’s of bad surprises,” he said, before continuing. “The way I look at it is you’re either a half glass full or a half glass empty person.
“The world splits into two and I’m a glass half full person. I see every problem as an opportunity because there are so many opportunities to improve a lot at Manchester United, everywhere we look really.”
One of Ratcliffe’s most public challenges in the past months has been deciding who his manager will be for the 2024/25 season.
Ultimately the club have stuck with FA Cup winner Erik ten Hag, but that decision didn’t come without media reports that he met with potential replacements, including Thomas Tuchel.
Speaking about the decision to retain the Dutchman, he said: “He’s a good coach. He’s a very good coach, very good at Ajax.
“The man in the street likes to think that the coach is everything, so the world revolves around the coach, and maybe it did in the days of Sir Alex Ferguson because he was more of a general manager than just a coach, he was a lot more than that.
“If you look at the 11 seasons at Manchester United we’ve had a whole series of coaches and some of them were very good ones. We probably had seven coaches and none of them succeeded at all.
“You can’t prescribe the root of the problem to the coach, it’s the environment that they work in, and that’s really where we’re putting all our effort into – the management, the practices, the quality of the people, all those things we have to address.”
News Summary:
- Sir Jim Ratcliffe has found a lot of ‘bad surprises’ at Manchester United but has turned it into positive
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