Manchester United investor Sir Jim Ratcliffe is leading by example and is setting the right tone straight away.
Speaking for myself, I am proud to be a Manchester United supporter and always will be, but that does not mean I have always agreed with the club’s decisions over the past few years.
The past decade has been a patience-testing one, with the club’s priorities diverging from where the focus should be.
How can you be proud of a club which pays millions to greedy owners in dividends, and attempts to quit the Premier League to create a European Super League?
Majority owners the Glazers have failed to communicate at all with supporters over the past 20 years, save for an attempt at damage limitation after the Super League fallout. Promises made then, all proved to be empty gestures.
New investors Ineos are not even waiting for their 25 per cent stake to be formalised by the Premier League, they are getting their feet under the table already, and making their presence felt in a good way.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is bringing decency and ambition to Manchester United
In an interview with Five this week, former Manchester United chief executive David Gill explained there are plenty of good staff at the club, who simply need direction and something to believe in.
That just has not been there under the Glazer ownership, who have run the club remotely from America, failing to engage with supporters in any meaningful way.
United fans have had to watch the club fall behind, on and off the pitch, with Championship side Leicester City boasting a better training ground than the one at Carrington, for instance.
What has mattered to the Glazers has been how much money they can make, and when Avram Glazer flew into Wembley twice for cup finals last season, he charged the club a £500,000 private jet bill for the two trips, per The Mirror. An absolute disgrace.
Ratcliffe and Ineos restoring the club’s values
Sir Jim Ratcliffe won the battle to invest in United, and while many fans were split, some preferring the Qatar bid because it meant total removal of the Glazers, the Ineos deal is currently looking like it might just be the better fit for the club’s identity.
Ratcliffe was in attendance for the Munich memorial service at Old Trafford for the 66th anniversary of the disaster, along with advisor Sir Dave Brailsford.
This simple gesture matters. Ratcliffe was joined in attendance by Sir Alex Ferguson, while Bruno Fernandes and Erik ten Hag were also present, along with women’s team captain Katie Zelem.
Manchester United is, at the heart of everything, a family club. But in recent years there has been no head of the family, and no direction. Ratcliffe is immediately taking on the responsibility of his new role.
While he has admitted he will not be able to attend every single game, the Ineos group are maintaining a very visible presence around the club, which is essential to imprinting their philosophy on the club, from top to bottom.
Paying tribute to the club’s fallen heroes is just basic decency. If the club’s owners can’t do this, then you can’t be proud of what the club represents. Ratcliffe and co are making a positive start of restoring faith.
from United In Focus https://ift.tt/fZNtzSF