by The beginning of the end for the Glazers or a consolidation of their dominance over Manchester United? It is the key question surrounding Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s acquisition of a 25%, £1.3bn stake in the club, and its answer may take years to resolve. For now, the main issue addressed is closing the “full sale now” demand made by fan activists during the 11 months since the Florida family began “a process to explore strategic alternatives.”
Was a full sale ever realistic? That depends on his faith in Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani. When the Qatari billionaire retired in October, more details of his thwarted plans for the Jim Bowen-style “what you could have earned” club were revealed than during his courtship. Complaints about “a fanciful and extravagant valuation” figured prominently in what became an admission that Ratcliffe had “won” the process. From the sources it appears that the acquisition of a minority stake would be the first step towards full control, the final price of which will depend on the success of the association in the coming years.
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Some United fans will never forgive Ratcliffe for allying himself with the Glazers, but again realism comes into play. How else was an agreement supposed to be reached? Ratcliffe’s reputation in the business world is that of someone who gets things done, a decisive and innovative negotiator. A minority stake can have significant power, as United fans may remember from the days of the club’s plc partnership two decades ago, when Irish consortium Cubic Expression and the Glazers themselves caused a significant stir.
Ratcliffe will not be a fairy godmother, but infinitely benevolent like Sheikh Mansour or Roman Abramovich, but United always washed its face as a company until the current economic tailwinds, high inflation and rising interest rates, began to push debt levels close to £1 billion. What former chief executive Ed Woodward once likened to “selling diamonds” never required state ownership of the kind that is arguably now out of fashion, with financial restrictions on Newcastle’s Saudi consortium much tighter than during Manchester City’s profligacy and the light of Qatar’s cost reduction. at Paris Saint Germain.
That Ratcliffe and his Ineos team take over sporting control suggests a form of executive power. If the Glazers are detested for using the club as their ATM and never properly repaying the debt their late patriarch, Malcolm, placed with the club in 2005, it is United’s sporting failure that most damns their reign. The fact that the Glazers have endorsed spending £1.5bn on players since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement is used as mitigation by a dwindling number of defenders, but an accepted truth of their management is that the club is painfully suffering. due to lack of direction and experience.
It has long been a truism that even the sharpest business brains can be baffled by the football boardroom. Mike Ashley and Lord Alan Sugar were shrewd operators much admired in retail, but they made the mistake of trying to operate their football clubs, Newcastle and Tottenham, like their other businesses. Both left football with benefits, but with few friends. Doing sums is not a path to popularity. Both entered football without experience, while Ratcliffe, compared to Ashley and Sugar, is several times richer financially and has previous, if not impeccable, sporting success.
Critics declare that his Team Ineos-Grenadiers cycling team is not as conquering as the Team Sky he renamed, that Sir Ben Ainslie has never captured the America’s Cup under Ineos sails. The fate of FC Lausanne in Switzerland and Nice in France is analyzed, although the latter’s second place in Ligue 1 represents promise. There are those who are wary of the “marginal profits” of key adviser Sir Dave Brailsford, but the fact that Ineos runs the sporting side while the Glazers look after the business side has faint echoes of the Glazers’ early years, when Ferguson had the David Gill support in United’s football side. and Woodward headed the business side. Repeating the successes of that era is the end, even if it is a distant dream.
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In Ratcliffe’s previous raid for a club, Chelsea, in 2022, he bypassed Raine’s sales process, the same group that operates for the Glazers, only to pull out almost as quickly. More suspicions of opportunism against the self-proclaimed “top red” born in Failsworth? Some Chelsea fans might now wonder how his regime might have compared to that of the winning bid led by Todd Boehly.
From within United itself, as the bidding process has progressed, there has been a wounded defensiveness in the face of criticism. Last season’s successes have been trumpeted when the team is already falling behind this season’s goals. Mason Greenwood’s handling and subsequent allegations made (and denied) against Antony have made unwanted headlines. Richard Arnold, the chief executive who attempted a more open-door policy than his predecessor Woodward, came under heavy criticism and left even before the new structure was officially in place. The arrival of Ratcliffe, a no-nonsense player who was reportedly critical of operations during initial exploratory meetings, puts the future of the club’s entire executive class in doubt. His faith in Erik ten Hag was said to be stronger than that of many other United fans, although recent weeks may have changed that. John Murtough, a low-profile, low-energy football director, is likely to be on the casualty list.
Ratcliffe’s 25% stake raises many such questions, including the composition of the divisions between the Glazer brothers: who wants to cash out, who wants to stay? – now burdensome debt, a complicated “A” and “B” capital structure and an outdated stadium with a leaky roof. Even a self-made man worth almost £30bn can’t cure all ills, but perhaps his new approach can lighten the dank air at Old Trafford. The only credible alternative outcome after so many months of wrangling turned out to be the desolation of the Glazers retaining complete control.
