Ratcliffe: I took over Man Utd to knock City and Liverpool off their perch

In his first briefing to the press, Ratcliffe made it clear he has his gaze firmly fixed on the Premier League’s ruling elite

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has outlined his vision to knock Manchester City and Liverpool “off their perch” by restoring Manchester United to the top of world football within three years.
In an hour-long briefing at his Ineos HQ, Ratcliffe also spoke of using state funding for a major regeneration around Old Trafford and said he still had a decision to make on Mason Greenwood’s future.
The Ineos owner, finally confirmed as co-owner on Tuesday, has promised an end to 11 years of “complete misery” – but also asked for “some patience” as the team closes the gap on their “enemy” neighbours in the North-West.
However, as the lifelong United fan described his hopes of bringing in a talisman like Eric Cantona, he said the club must take lessons from the success City and Liverpool have enjoyed in recent years.
“We have a lot to learn from our noisy neighbour and the other neighbour,” he said. “They are the enemy at the end of the day. There is nothing I would like better than to knock both of them from their perch.”
Ratcliffe, 71, has already spent an initial £1.03 billion securing 25 per cent of the A shares and 25 per cent of the B shares from the Glazers – but investments in the club take his ownership to 27.7 per cent.
He cited player recruitment and the stadium as two key areas in which he can guarantee immediate improvement as closing the gap on the big clubs will be restricted by financial fair play restrictions.
“It’s not a 10 year plan,” Ratcliffe told reporters. “The fans would run out of patience if it was a 10-year plan. But it’s certainly a three-year plan to get there. To think that we’re going to be playing football as good as Manchester City played against Real Madrid last year by next season is not sensible.
“And if we give people false expectations, they will get disappointed. So I think the key thing is our trajectory, so that people can see that we’re making progress. I think it’s the club’s 150-year anniversary in 2028 … if our trajectory is leading to a very good place in that sort of timeframe then we’d be very happy with that. Because it’s not easy to turn Manchester United into the world’s best football team.”
Ratcliffe, who has already swooped to hire Omar Berrada from City as United’s new CEO, said the club has lessons to learn from their rivals.
“They have been in a good place for a while and there are things we can learn from both of them,” he said. “They have sensible organisations, great people within the organisations, a good, driven and elite environment that they work in. I am very respectful of them but they are still the enemy.”
United are also heavily pursuing Dan Ashworth, who has been placed on gardening leave by Newcastle United. “I think recruitment in the modern game is critical,” Ratcliffe said of his ambitions to bring Ashworth to the club as sporting director. He was dismissive, however, over the prospect of paying £20 milion to Newcastle so he could start immediately. “Ashworth is one of the top sporting directors in the world,” the billionaire said, adding that he is “interested in United because it’s the ultimate challenge.”
Ratcliffe declined to go into specifics about Erik ten Hag but said a series of managers at the club had suffered since the Sir Alex Ferguson era with poor recruitment.
“Manchester United have clearly spent a lot of money but they haven’t done as well as some other clubs,” he explained. “So when I was talking about being best in class in all aspects of football, recruitment is clearly top of the list.”