- Sir Jim Ratcliffe visited Carrington for the first time this week as co-owner
- Erik ten Hag had a private audience with Ratcliffe on the club’s training field
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Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford have appealed to Manchester United’s management and staff, urging them all to work together to return the club to its former glory.
The club’s new football aces are said to have delivered the same message during a series of meetings with staff over the past three days, making it clear that United’s on-pitch performance in recent years has been unacceptable and that they call for a return to basics will demand. world-class standards established during the Sir Alex Ferguson era.
Mail Sport has been told that INEOS sporting director Brailsford did most of the talking during introductory calls with United’s staff, although Ratcliffe was also present and highly visible at Old Trafford and at the club’s training ground in Carrington this week .
Manager Erik Ten Hag attended at least one of the staff meetings and also had a private audience with Ratcliffe, who also met most of United’s players on the training ground.
Ratcliffe and Brailsford have yet to formally address the players as a group, because they consider the dressing room to be Ten Hag’s domain. Their priority this week was to meet and reassure the club’s non-playing staff.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe visited Old Trafford and Carrington for the first time as new co-owner of Manchester United
The club’s new football chiefs made it clear that the recent performances were unacceptable
Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford have not yet addressed the players, with the dressing room being Erik ten Hag’s domain
A uniform message was conveyed at several meetings that United were not meeting the world-class standards expected at one of the biggest clubs in the world and that hard work was needed from all staff to turn things around.
The pair also stressed that they expected the Premier League to ratify Ratcliffe’s purchase of a 25 percent stake in the club next month and made it clear that Ineos would run United’s football division from then on.
Brailsford is said to have repeatedly referred to tackling what he called United’s ‘performance challenge’, a diplomatic way of describing the side’s poor results this season, which saw Ten Hag’s side crash out of the Champions League in the group stages and dropped to eight. in the Premier League table.
The former Team Sky and British Cycling boss also urged staff to work together to diagnose the cause of the problem and provide positive solutions.
