NINE AND A HALF MONTHS
In a recent interview he conducted with the excellent United We Stand fanzine, Big Sir Jim Ratcliffe spoke of the major changes required at Old Trafford to regain the “elite status” Manchester United once enjoyed as a football club under Alex Ferguson. The public face of the club ever since he handed over £1.25bn to the Glazer family for the privilege of becoming a lightning rod for the torrent of fan abuse that used to be exclusively reserved for them, Ratcliffe always likes to convey the impression he is the smartest guy in the room – and quite possibly is until the precise moment a couple of smirking Americans named Joel and Avram walk through the door and pull up chairs.
In the nine-and-a-half months since he volunteered to became the world’s most expensive human shield, Big Sir Jim has sermonised at length about United’s need to get on a financially even keel, while simultaneously making big and often bad decisions that end up costing the club millions. In the summer he backed Erik ten Hag with a brand new contract and added several more Ajax alumni to his squad, only to sack him at great expense a few months later. By way of replacing him, he brought in Ruben Amorim and his team of coaching staff, who also didn’t come cheap. A tax exile, Ratcliffe made an unsuccessful demand upon the treasury to pay for a much-needed refurb at Old Trafford and saved the price of a couple of months’ worth of Antony’s salary by laying off 250 staff, largely washing his hands of the United women’s team and taking the unprecedented step of jacking up ticket prices in the middle of a season.
A self-made man who likes to let people know he grew up on a council estate without a backside in his trousers, Big Sir Jim insists he knows what it’s like to be poor and has no intention of pricing the ordinary working man or woman (or child) out of taking their families to Old Trafford … despite the upshot of pretty much every decision taken by him or his coterie of yes-men and flunkies suggesting nothing could be further from the truth. And on Sunday it was revealed he had spaffed several more millions up against the wall by “mutually” bouncing Dan Ashworth, United’s head of football recruitment, out of the club just five months after the suit he had once spoken so highly of had spent a similar amount of time on gardening leave from his previous gig at Newcastle.
While Football Daily is not in the business of saying “we told you so”, it behoves us to recall that our antennae started twitching feverishly as soon as Big Sir Jim, along with his sidekick and fellow marginal gains maestro Smaller Sir Dave Brailsford first started rocking up at Old Trafford, putting out very public feelers before their bid for a stake in the club. Previously best known for his ability to cajole bike-racers to Tour de France wins with little more than scented pillowcases and post-race warm-downs, Smaller Sir Dave has recently rebranded himself as a football executive at a time when the all-conquering and entirely scrupulous cycling team he once managed has been plunged into a state of staggering mediocrity under Big Sir Jim’s Ineos stewardship and has just controversially lost its star rider to a rival outfit.
The original high-performance guru and purveyor of world-class basics that other high-performance gurus and purveyors of world-class basics doff their caps to, it is worth noting that Brailsford and his fellow sharp-suited execs are currently overseeing Manchester United’s worst opening to a league campaign in almost 40 years. Their most recent reverse, at the hands of Nottingham Forest on Saturday, suggests Amorim has a hell of a job on his hands if he’s to return United to the “elite status” they enjoyed under Ferguson, a lofty standing that quickly eroded when the Scotsman got greedy and fell out with one of the club’s previous and eminently more sensible owners over a horse.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Michael Butler from 8pm GMT for hot Premier League MBM coverage of West Ham 2-1 Wolves, aka El Sáckico.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Everyone at the club wishes Michail a speedy recovery and wishes to express its sincere gratitude to the football family at large for the overwhelming support shown since [Saturday’s] news, as well as extending a heartfelt thank you to the emergency services and first responders who attended to Michail in the immediate aftermath of the incident, and the medical team who continue to aid him in his recovery” – West Ham issue their latest update on Michail Antonio, who is expected to be sidelined for at least a year after being involved in a horrific car crash in Epping Forest on Saturday afternoon. The forward underwent surgery on a broken leg and it still remains unclear whether the 34-year-old’s injuries will force him to retire.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Re: Friday’s Football Daily letter. Ange Postecoglou said about his colloquy with disappointed Spurs fans: ‘They aren’t behind me, they are behind the club. I have got no interest in who is behind me.’ This reminded me of the modern serial music composer Milton Babbitt (well, we all have our odd links in the brain). Babbitt wrote virtually unlistenable music and, when criticised, wrote an article in 1958 – ‘Who Cares if You Listen?’ Babbitt said his and other modern music had become ‘isolated’ from popular opinion and argued that was a good thing: ‘Why should the layman be other than bored or puzzled by what he is unable to understand, music or anything else?’ Of course, Babbitt was a tenured academic – I don’t think ‘tenure’ is in Daniel Levy’s vocabulary – so if Levy and Spurs fans get ‘bored and puzzled’, Ange better start caring” – Richard McGahey.
So, the Club World Cup has a non-winning team from Miami, which sponsors, TV, etc in the USA USA USA want to take part. I also note, tucked away in the draw, are FC Salzburg. Now I have nothing against such a lovely city, birthplace of Mozart and kindergarten for fine players. However, I ask what Salzburg have done to be there instead of say, well, a number of teams in Europe. Ah, a little red bull is whispering in my ear” – Tim Diggles.
Sela advertises itself on the pitch-side hoardings at St James’ Park as: ‘Spectacular. Everyday.’ So which is it?” – Collin Gribbons.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winners are … Richard McGahey, who wins a copy of the new David Squires book, Chaos in the Box, plus Collin Gribbons, who lands their very own Football Weekly merch. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
