10 Nov 2023 10:12:13
BBC reporting that the SJR minority stake is expected to be ratified in the next few weeks. Will be interesting to see what changes arrive when that happens. Talk of Dave brailsford being involved and others. A fresh set of eyes gazing over the current shambles is no bad thing and we can only hope it leads to positive changes being implemented at all levels.

1.) 10 Nov 2023
10 Nov 2023 11:34:10
It feels like we need to all get our head around the Ratcliffe minority stake and the Glazers being around for a while yet. let's hope they have structured a future phasing out over the coming years whilst taking a hands on role during this period.
Personally I will be excited if he brings the right people in, talk of Jean Claude Blanc and Paul Mitchell suggest that he is looking at experienced people. If this is the case I would expect a change in direction for future transfer windows.
This along with investment in the infrastructure that is rumoured is all a good start and will offset the potential negativity from the Glazers remaining.

2.) 10 Nov 2023
10 Nov 2023 14:13:52
Fantastic news. The majority will be delighted.
Not the result we all wished for but it's the best we can hope for at the moment.
Super.

3.) 10 Nov 2023
10 Nov 2023 16:22:31
Interestingly Nice only started to improve when Brailsford stepped back from the club to focus on United, so I'm not convinced he should be too involved at the club.

But anything that slowly removes the Glazers from our club is a good thing, unfortunately I can see the Glazers just sitting there, creaming even more cash from the club, and expecting the SJR to put more money in.

Funny that the SJR £1.25bn purchase and £300m investment is more than the Glazers have put into the club in the last 20 odd years.

4.) 10 Nov 2023
10 Nov 2023 17:55:35
Nice improved once they realised how tough it would be to run a football club so they hired people who knew how to run a club. Yes Brailsford left but it wasn’t anything to do with Utd. It was because they hired a DOF.

5.) 10 Nov 2023
10 Nov 2023 19:29:24
Brailsford's role is to ensure the right structures in place for each of Ineos sporting endeavours. If the club has sustained success he has done his job.

If Nice are doing well right now then as of right now that should be a positive for Brailsford.

Nice having success is not a stick to beat Brailsford with, rather it's evidence albeit a very limited sample size with caveats that he might actually have done well by Nice.

6.) 11 Nov 2023
11 Nov 2023 08:02:23
Wasn't Brailsford out buying players for Nice without Favre's approval.

If that happens at United it seems we are just going to be repeating the same mistakes the current structure have made repeatedly.

7.) 11 Nov 2023
11 Nov 2023 08:27:46
In order to achieve success, seems logical to bring in expertise starting at the top, then filter downwards.

Looks like DB and SJR bring in Jean Claude Blanc as new CEO and Paul Mitchell as DoF to replace amateurish RA and JM. Will expect other changes also.

Looks likely that, once a club-wide footballing philosophy agreed, appointments will be made to suit that vision, including potentially changing the manager to more of a coach-type role, with DoF running club day to day.

Am personally very much looking forward to all if this - and jyst highlights just what awful and negligent owners the Glazers have been, aside from the greed.

8.) 11 Nov 2023
11 Nov 2023 08:42:24
Had the Glazers selected a person who actually knew how to run a football club as the CEO back in 2012, rather than Woodward, we would arguably not be in the mess we are today. In the last 11 years we have spent plenty money to be a top contender. While debt servicing and FFP (which won't be helped if we don't get back in the Champions League), are not gong to get resolved in the short term under what we know of Ratcliffe's plan, the primary problem of poor club management will at least be addressed. That's the starting point whoever is the owner.

The key to a resurgence is not the ownership per se but who the owners select to manage the club. The benefit of Jassim would reportedly be debt elimination and funds for investment in infrastructure. There is no guarantee that the club would be run any better if he took over. With no experience whatsoever, nor any clear indication of where the funds are coming from, Jassim's offer may be less attractive than one might initially think. Success on and off the field, including debt and FFP issues, will not be instantaneous, but if SJR provides the management nous we need then it will come again. And if it does I don't care if the Glazers still own a significant stake in the club, but remain in the background. Unfortunately it's taken them 18 years to realize the level of there incompetence when it comes to owning a successful football club, which requires as the #1 priority the hiring of a competent management team that can install and maintain a winning footballing structure.

9.) 11 Nov 2023
11 Nov 2023 14:48:07
If SJR chucks in a fiver to the club he will have put more money in than the glazers have for the last 20 years. We have an estimated borrowing after continuing transfer commitments of 800m of debt from the glazers. That wasn't there before they arrived.

The just turned down 5bn for something they paid nothing for and people wonder why the fan base hates them.

It will be a big stride forward to put some competent football people in charge. Not bankers. I am not celebrating them still surviving this though, there had better be a plan to remove them.

10.) 11 Nov 2023
11 Nov 2023 19:13:19
Maybe on the flip side Brailsford sorted out the structure and helped get the right people in the right places. If sjr gets the right people in it will be a massive step forward for us, even If we can't see it immediately.

11.) 12 Nov 2023
12 Nov 2023 06:08:33
Is Dougie Freedman the right person?

12.) 12 Nov 2023
12 Nov 2023 10:34:19
SJR is 100% more qualified to run a football club than anyone we currently have at the club.

He's worked with Nice and while everything hasn't always gone to plan he has learned from those mistakes. Found out what works and what doesn't, made actual contacts within the sport and has sporting expertise from other sports that could be useful.

Nice are currently 2nd in Ligue 1, and are playing some very good football and punching well above their weight. Which suggests that SJR and his team have learned fairly quickly and are getting the rewards from that.

I'm excited to see what he can do with our club, I'm 100% sure it'll be better that what we would get without him.

13.) 13 Nov 2023
13 Nov 2023 06:53:50
Nice wage bill is 22/ 23 mill euros. psg wage bill 270 mill euros. I think they know what they are doing even with some early set backs. Need to build a sustainable model that works to a plan and not reactive like we have been for so long now.

People who question them on their venture in nice, nice last won the French league in 1960 and never been considered in the same bracket as Marseille, lyon, lille, Monaco. Their revenues are tiny and not a case study or comparative to United.

They basically bought a midtable team and fans and their expectations is typical football fans. They made a mistake of saying they wanted to challenge PSG and have walked that back a bit now. Their biggest single sponsor is Ineos btw, go figure:)

14.) 13 Nov 2023
13 Nov 2023 15:54:59
Ahmad, it's about realistic expectations and about maximising the return on the pitch.

The reality is to get a relatively small club like Nice to challenge PSG would require a similar amount of outside investment. The club cannot create the kind of income that the big clubs being in. Therefore the money has to come from elsewhere.

SJR and INEOS are not looking for a bottomless pit in which to pour all their hard earned money into.

They will want to create a club that can get the maximum on pitch return within that clubs own means.

We see clubs perform really well and succeed without billions of outside investment. Well run clubs that either have an excellent youth system that enables them to efficiently add quality to the first team. Ultimately producing players that they wouldn't be able to afford to buy. Them either keeping them as key players in the first team or selling them on for a massive profit to be reinvested elsewhere. Think of a club like Ajax, a great academy but not able to financially compete with the richest teams, but who regularly punch above their weight in terms of out performing clubs who have similar financial restraints.

Or you have clubs who have an excellent scouting system. A clear well run recruitment policy that enables them to find value for money players. Either players who are "hidden gems" or high ceiling young players who they can develop into top stars. Clubs like Benfica are famous for it, or Brighton recently in the EPL.

I think if SJR can get Nice consistently finishing in the top four in France. While the club remains spending within its own means then that would be a great success as it would mean the Nice would regularly be finishing higher than clubs with far more financial and historical significance.

At United he will have a similar job. He will need to maximise the on pitch return compared to investment. How to create the best squad available with the resources the club has available. Where this differs obviously is that the funds available to Manchester United absolutely dwarf that of Nice. Yet fundementally the task is the same, there won't be billions pouring into the club to go on a fancy shopping spree. What they need to do is make sure that the considerable funds the club has available are spent in a way that maximises the return on that investment and we see value for money out on the pitch.

The reality is that we have spent enough money over the past 10 years to have a team every bit as good as City, maybe better. But we have spent it so poorly. If that's corrected over the next 10 years then we'll have a squad capable of challenging for all the major honours.

15.) 15 Nov 2023
15 Nov 2023 07:07:46
Shappy

I think the stuff written about Ineos and nice good or bad is of no relevance to what is happening at United.

Its like comparing apples to oranges and just noise. We are a much more complicated project if you want to call it that given our size and magnitude of things to deal with.

What would be very interesting is when this deal gets announced, if they also announce a change of leadership at the same time, which would speed things up.

16.) 16 Nov 2023
16 Nov 2023 09:54:28
Ahmad, of course it has relevance. It's a direct example of them running a football club.

It at the very least provides some sort of blue print for what they will likely look to do. The only thing that really changes is the scale of the club.

With Nice they looked to get the club running within its own means, without the mind of massive outside investment that we have seen from Abramovic at Chelsea, or at clubs like City, PSG and now with Newcastle. They aren't sugar daddy owners. Which is something I'd expect to see carried over to United. They aren't going to come in and subsidise the club to the tune of hundreds of millions a year.

They seem to favour a director of football/ head coach model of club rather than a manager having greater control. This approach has often been looked at with skepticism in England. Manchester United fans have been accustomed to having Sir Alex Ferguson as the manager, and see that as the model to follow. Yet if you scratch beneath the surface then you'll see that SAF was a director of football in everything but name. He would control the club's football in activities and plan it's future. While he would also go through a lot of assistant managers who would in many cases be given far more control than is typically seen in assistant managers. This is reflected in just how many left Old Trafford to become managers in their own right.

The real issues at Manchester United hasn't been replacing the SAF from the training pitch, but the SAF who would direct the footballing activities from his office.

So I actually think the model that SLR and INEOS have seemed to settle on at Nice is a good fit for our club.

It seems like they have been doing a good job behind the scenes to line up all their dominos before they kick the first one over.

It sounds like they have Jean-Claude Blanc lined up as CEO. Which seems like a sensible choice, someone who knows INEOS and SJR as well as having great experience at Juventus and PSG. Knows football and knows how to run a top club.

Paul Mitchell seems in line to step into a director of football role. He's been free for a while and instead of taking up any of the offers he's had he's instead decided to buy a new house in the north west of England. It does seem like he's waiting for something. Almost like there's some kind of gentleman's agreement for a job at least, if not something more formal. Again a man with a great track record in football. Also highly likely to know SJR on a personal level. When Mitchell lived and worked in Monaco they would have practically been neighbours. Two Englishmen born and bred within a few miles of eachother living in the south of France at the same time. I'd imagine their paths will have crossed on more than a few occasions.

While Dave Brailsford seems like SJR's right hand man in terms of sporting ventures. So it's probably fairly safe to assume he'll definitely have some sort of role to play both in both an official and a personal capacity I suspect.

I'm not sure how many of his ideas from cycling can be carried over, but most elite sports learn and adopt ideas from eachother. His marginal gains concept should at the very least be something that could be adapted to football and with it bring better performance. That attention to detail to look to improve every single facet by 1% does add up and it means you easily spot the easy wins the things that can make big changes first.

It looks like those three along with SJR will have a big part to play. I'm particularly excited by JCB and Paul Mitchell as they have a proven quality and track record in football. They also seem likely to be able to work well with eachother as a team.

Either way exciting times.