Sir Jim Ratcliffe has labeled Manchester United a 'mediocre' football club paying the price for 'very poor' recruitment before Ineos came in.
In an impressive interview with fanzine United We Stand, Ratcliffe gave his assessment of the state of the club and addressed the controversial decision to scrap concession ticket prices.
'The club has been drifting for a long time, about ten years. Manchester United has become mediocre,” he said.
'It's not an elite club and it would be one of the best football clubs in the world. That's how it was under Alex.
'Big changes are in store to achieve elite status. But there is already a huge change happening at this club.'
Signing statements such as the £82 million spent on Antony and the £70 million spent on Casemiro have previously been held up by Ineos as an example of United's misguided recruitment strategy.
Data analytics is also an area where Ratcliffe has remained baffled by the extent to which United have fallen out of reach compared to their rivals.
'Until we're as good as anyone in the world, it's not good enough for Manchester United. We have to have the best recruiting in the world,” the United Minority owner said.
'Data analysis comes next to recruitment. It doesn't really exist here. We are still in the last century here in terms of data analysis.
'There is a huge amount of useful data that we can get from data analysis and we are in the 'very poor' category here in terms of data analysis. These things don't happen overnight.
“You can't just turn on a light switch and do the recruiting. It's all about people and we have to find the right people.'
Comments