Sir Jim Ratcliffe has revealed plans to restore the greatness of Manchester United within three years and knock Manchester City “off their perch”.
Speaking for an hour at his INEOS office, United’s new part-owner set out a vision to refurbish Old Trafford for around £1bn or build a new stadium on the same site with the hope of securing public funds.
The billionaire, who yesterday completed the purchase of a 27.7% stake in the club through his INEOS conglomerate, said the women’s team could be handed Old Trafford for their use if the men’s team has a new stadium to be based in.
On more problematic matters, Sir Jim said Manchester United will be deliberating over whether Mason Greenwood returns to the club at the end of the season.
After an attempted rape charge against the player was dropped last year, he moved to Spanish club Getafe for this season.
On Man Utd not winning Premier League since 2013
Sir Jim said: “It’s been a complete misery really in the last 11 years and it’s just frustrating if you’re a supporter during that period of time.
“That’s football isn’t it? It has its ups and its downs. I remember pre-Ferguson it wasn’t great for quite some time – for a more extended period of time actually, for about 25 years.”
“Eleven years is a long period of time, isn’t it?
“Fundamentally you want to see your club being where it should be. It’s one of the biggest clubs in the world. It should be playing the best football in the world, it hasn’t been doing that for 10 or 11 years. So it’s certainly related to the decision (to invest).”
Who is Sir Jim? How billionaire Man United owner made fortune
A timeframe on the glory returning
“It’s not a light switch. It’s not one of these things that changes overnight.
“We have to be careful we don’t rush at it in a way, you don’t want to run to the wrong solution rather than walk to the correct solution.
“We have two issues – one is the longer term, getting Manchester United to where, where we would like to get it but there’s also the shorter term of getting the most out of the club as it stands today because we would like to see the Champions League for next season if we can.
“The key challenge here is that longer term. We need to do things well and properly, and thoroughly, and not rush at it, so it’s not an overnight change, it’s going to take two or three seasons. You have to ask the fans for some patience.
“I know the world these days likes instant gratification but that’s not the case with football really.
“Look at Pep Guardiola at Man City, it didn’t happen overnight, it takes time to build a squad…”
On player signings
Sir Jim said: “I think recruitment in the modern game is critical. Manchester United have clearly spent a lot of money but they haven’t done as well as some other clubs.
“So when I was talking about being best in class in all aspects of football, recruitment is clearly top of the list. I’m more thinking about getting recruitment in a good place in the future.
“here’s not much I can do about what’s happened in the past. So there’s no point they never want me going there, really.
“So our thinking is all about how we become first in class in recruitment going forward. Which means you need the right people.”
How minority stake will work with Glazers still biggest shareholders
Sir Jim added: “We have a really good relationship with Joel and Avram, who are the only two of the siblings that we’ve got to know and have met, actually.
“And there’s a fair amount of trust, I think, between those two parties. And they obviously are very comfortable with us running the sports side of the club.
“This is going to be a very sports-led club, it’s all going to be about performance on the pitch.
“I’m still a significant shareholder, even in respect of all the other things in the club. We’re obviously going to be on the ground, whereas the Glazer family are a fair way away.
“So I don’t see an issue in us being able to influence the club in all the right ways going forward, to be honest.”
He continued: “I don’t think we’re going to be taking the legal agreements out of the bottom drawer. I just hope they gather dust and we never see them. Which it should be. It should be on the basis of a relationship.
“As long as we’re doing the right things, then I’m certain that relationship is going to go very well.”
On protracted process to buy the stake
Sir Jim went on: “I remember at the Monaco Grand Prix, which was in May, we opened a bottle of very expensive champagne and all celebrated. That was in May… but that was a false dawn and we went through several more false dawns after that.
“We had a few surprises on the way. Not at the Glazers’ making. We just kept bumping into problems, particularly with the non-executives on the board.”
On scale of challenge against financial regulations
“[It’s] certainly the biggest challenge in sport that we’ve undertaken. It’s enormous – and the club is enormous.
“The tentacles reach around the world, don’t they? Everywhere I go in the world it’s Manchester United. It affects an awful lot of people on the planet and getting it right is not easy.
“We’ve got to get so many aspects of that club right. And the right people doing the right thing at the right time and doing it well.
“It’s a very complex problem, really, football. That’s surprising considering it’s just putting 11 players on a football field, and they run around. But it’s very complex getting there.
Is £1.3bn a lot for 27.7% of the club?
Sir Jim said: “To be honest, I don’t think I’ll ever lose money. For me it’s not about a financial investment. The objective was to get involved and being influential in the future of Manchester United Football Club.
“I don’t believe I’ll ever lose money in it and I’m not interested. I’ve just put that aside. It’ll sit there forever but I don’t see that the value is going to devalue. I don’t believe that.
“In that sense I don’t think I’ve been financially stupid, but it’s not my motivation in life at all.”
On growing the club’s revenue
“We’re really, really clear about that – It’s football-led. So if we’re successful on the pitch, then everything else will follow,” said Sir Jim
“In monitoring clubs, Manchester United a bit, I think, in the last 10 years or so, that if you’re really good in commercial and you make lots of money, then you’ll be successful in football because you’ve got lots of money to spend.
“But I think, that’s flawed because it only starts for a certain while and you start to degrade the brand if you’re not careful.
“But we’re really clear that football will drive the club. If we’re really successful at football, then commercial will follow. And we’ll make more money.”
On challenging clubs with nation-state funding and Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules
“The nation state bit helps to a degree, but FFP limits the degree by a considerable margin, doesn’t it?
“So ultimately, it becomes about how successful the club is because that dictates your FFP.
“With FPP you have to operate the club within its own means. So clearly that means that if you’ve got a bigger club it ought to be more successful than a smaller club, sort of, by definition, because you’ve got more means they can spend more money and recruitment.
“FFP has become a new aspect of running the football club, and it’s clearly a really critical part of running a football club.
“And you have to think about how you can manage FFP to the benefit of the club.
“There are different ways in which you can do that. But ultimately FFP says you have to operate the club within its own means. And, effectively, it takes into account your prior expenditure, and the club’s spent quite heavily in the last couple of seasons.
“So that does impact FFP going forward, because they’ve used quite a large part of their allowance if you like. So we need to be quite clear in the summer as to what the extent of… I don’t know the full answer to that question at the moment.
“It’s obviously related to sales as well as purchases, and so we need to get our heads around that well before the summer window, so we understand the number but there’s no question that history will impact this summer window.”