Sir James Ratcliffes’ company Ineos wants to buy Manchester United, and a spokesperson confirmed to The Times on Tuesday that they were in the process of making a bid for the Premier League club.
Ratcliffe’s firm is involved in several sports and is the owner of, among other things, the cycling team Ineos Grenadiers, the Formula 1 team Mercedes-AMG Petronas and the football clubs Nice and Swiss Lausanne.
Gabirel Rasch knows well Sir James Ratcliffe who is interested in buying Manchester United. Photo: Torstein Wold / TV 2
– The idea behind it is to link the sports together, such as the Olympic summit or Red Bull, for example. That you gather expertise in one place, that you build a competence centre.
That’s what Gabriel Rasch tells TV 2. Until recently, he was sports director of the cycling team Ineos Grenadiers, formerly Team Sky.
– Not afraid to get rid of people
During his many years there he was close to Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford, who is sporting director of the Ineos regime and has a central role in the sporting operations in the football club Nice.
– I will not be surprised if Brailsford gets a central role at Manchester United. Now he has been able to practice in Nice, so he has probably gotten more into football, says Rasch.
Rasch believes in success if Ratcliffe were to become Manchester United’s new owner, but also predicts a possible clean-up at the club.
Manchester United fans have voiced their displeasure with the club’s current owners, the Glazer family, for a long time. Here from the match against Manchester City. Photo: Phil Noble, Reuters.
– The way I know Dave and Ratcliffe, they turn over all stones. They are not afraid to get rid of people if they are not passionate about the task. It is often the case in sports or business contexts that you need a tidy up every now and then. Even if it’s ugly, it’s just the way it is, says Rasch.
I think United can benefit from the Ineos regime
Back to Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s ideology; Rasch has extensive experience of benefiting from each other’s expertise, and says that the Ineos Grenadiers made use of expertise from several of the sports during the Ineos regime.
– We used people from both the sailing team in terms of aerodynamics, radio communication and also a bit for training. We also used the engineers from Mercedes for the development of the bikes, says Rasch, who also says that they brought in expertise from football.
Rasch believes Manchester United could benefit from, should it happen, becoming part of such a sports community.
Watch: Suarez scored a hat trick on his Gremio debut
– In the Premier League, they have come a long way in terms of training, rehabilitation and training facilities, but preferably with Manchester City in the driver’s seat. It is probably something that Ratcliffe and Brailsford will look at if they take over the club, predicts Rasch.
– What do you think a possible acquisition can give Manchester United?
– It can take United a step further, for sure. Dave (Brailsford) once told me that he had monthly meetings with others in his role where they shared experiences and got input. Whether it was from football, rugby or other sports. It can be very good in this context here, he points out.
Journalist: – The intentions have been good
The French ESPN journalist Julien Laurens has a good knowledge of the French league and what Ratcliffe and Ineos have achieved in Nice after they took over the club in August 2019.
“Since they bought the club, their intentions have been good, to be honest. You can tell they want to succeed. The investments have been good, says Laurens in an interview with Sky Sports.
Laurens states that Ineos has spent 200 million euros during the three and a half years they have been Nice owners.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe in place in Nice shortly after the acquisition of the club in 2019. Photo: Eric Gaillard, Reuters.
– Before Manchester United fans say that this is the sum they need to spend in one summer and not over three years, Nice does not have the income Manchester United has. Ligue 1 does not earn the same sums as the Premier League does. One must remember the difference in size of the leagues, points out the ESPN journalist.
Laurens also points out that Ineos has spent a lot of money on young players.
– It has worked to a certain extent. Still, in terms of results, it has been a little disappointing. This season is currently a bad season because Sir Jim Ratcliffe has made some bad choices, says Laurens, referring to the appointment of Lucien Favre as head coach:
– He was not the right choice. He is still learning, but there is no denying that Ratcliffe loves football and I believe he has good intentions for every club he owns.
The former PL star allowed himself to be convinced
When Ross Barkley decided to become a Nice player after four seasons at Chelsea, it was after convincing talks with Ratcliffe and Brailsford.
After four seasons at Chelsea, Ross Barkley allowed himself to be persuaded to become a Nice player. Photo: Damien Meyer, AFP.
– They presented me with a multi-year project. This is a club that wants to go far, and that wants to be a big club in a European context, said Barkley in an interview with TalkSport i september 2022.
He also described Nice as an “ambitious club”.
– Has not been successful in Switzerland
Luke Entwistle, who lives in Nice and specializes in French football, said in an interview with Cycling Weekly in October 2022 about what challenges Ineos, Ratcliffe and Brailsford experienced in Nice.
Among other things, there have been doubts about what ambitions the owners really have, especially after it emerged that Ratcliffe was at one point supposed to have been interested in buying Chelsea.
– They thought Nice was the crown jewel of the multisport project. But how devoted is he (Ratcliffe) really to Nice? Does he really have big plans? Only Ratcliffe knows what the long-term plan with Ineos and Nice is like. “There’s a lot of well-founded and fair doubt from the fans,” Entwistle said at the time.
In addition to Nice, Ratcliff, as previously mentioned, is also the owner of the Swiss club Lausanne. Former sports director at Monaco, Tor-Kristian Karlsen, says the following about Ratcliffe’s involvement in the world of football:
– Not even in Switzerland has Ineos been completely successful with its football operations. The idea was that the second best players of Nice, or players who were in the network of the club, should develop at the same time as they were successful in Switzerland. It is quite possible that the English underestimated the challenge and the level in the Alpine country, Lausanne in any case moved down and is a long way behind a direct promotion place, says Karlsen to TV 2.
