Sir Jim Ratcliffe has branded Manchester United ‘mediocre’ as he doubles down on his plan to raise standards at the club.
The INEOS owner became a minority shareholder of the Premier League giants earlier this year and has set about revamping numerous different areas of the club, including Old Trafford, ticket pricing and of course, their on-field performances.
While Ruben Amorim’s start to life as United boss has been bright – two wins, a draw and a defeat to Arsenal in four games – there is still a long way to go.
The Red Devils are currently rooted in a mid-table position and a long way from challenging for the top four or rekindling their title-winning heyday.
In order to get back to dominating domestic and European football like it was under Sir Alex Ferguson, Ratcliffe didn’t hold back in assessing what needed to happen.
Speaking to United We Stand, he said: “To get Manchester United to where we need to get it — it’s a bit like the country.
“We have to make some difficult and unpopular decisions. If you shy away from the difficult decisions then nothing much is going to change.
“We won’t get everything right and it won’t happen overnight, but we haven’t been sat on our hands for nine months. There has been a lot of change. Here at Carrington as you can see.
“We didn’t waste any time to get Old Trafford on the agenda. Changes in the football and executive structure. New players. Ruben [Amorim] has arrived.
“We still have a long way to go and we still have a number of difficult decisions to make but we have to do that for the better. The club has drifted for a long period of time, a decade or so.
“Manchester United has become mediocre. It’s not elite and it is supposed to be one of the best football clubs in the world. That’s what it used to be under Alex.
“There is major change to come to achieve elite status. There has already been huge change.”
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A huge topic of frustration has been the club’s efforts in the transfer market, something that Ratcliffe didn’t shy away from addressing.
“We’ve not been good enough at recruitment, you probably agree with that,” says Ratcliffe.
“And until we’re as good as anyone in the world, then it’s not good enough for Manchester United.
“We must have the best recruitment in the world. Data Analysis comes alongside recruitment. It doesn’t really exist here. We’re still in the last century on data analysis here.
“There’s an immense amount of useful data that we can get from data analysis and we’re in the ‘very poor’ bracket with data analysis here. These things don’t happen overnight. You can’t just flick a light switch and sort out recruitment. It’s all about people and we need to find the right people.
“The other big one is we need to run the club efficiently and well. We need to sweat every pound so that we have more capacity for the investment in players. Those are the big-ticket items which take up time.
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“The other point here is how you grow the amount of money that you can spend on players. You can run the business more efficiently. And you can grow the top line.”
Ratcliffe then added: “I don’t enjoy losing.
“I find that very difficult. I quite like the picture of Pep Guardiola [with marks on his head]. He does not like losing.
“Our results have not been fantastic and I don’t like where we are in the league. I like the challenge. It’s one of the biggest challenges in the sporting world, taking United back to where the club should be.
“That’s a very rewarding challenge if we get there, but it’s a rocky road with ups and downs.”