OLIVER HOLT: Here comes Sir Jim Ratcliffe with a God complex and faux genius Sir Dave Brailsford in tow. Desperate Man United need more than a messiah this time

The timing of the completion of Sir Jim Ratcliffe's £1.25 billion deal to buy 25 percent of Manchester United was exquisite. I have no idea if Britain's second richest man has a God complex, but when it was Christmas Eve that confirmed his investment in England's most famous football club, it certainly seemed that way.

The savior symbolism was so obvious that the press release might as well have been etched into a stained glass window.

United need a savior. No one is about to dispute that. Their season swings from one low point to another. One measure says they have made their worst start to the season since 1930, finishing bottom of their Champions League group and languishing in eighth place in the Premier League, where only Sheffield United have scored fewer goals.

They have no identity on the pitch, their recruitment has been a disaster, their players are playing like strangers, their wingers don't match up to their striker, their star player looks like he would rather be somewhere else and their captain is fresh off the pitch. they missed their biggest game of the season as he was shown a yellow card in the last minute of a match they had already lost.

Their stadium, Old Trafford, is a run down, dilapidated disgrace, they have a tendency to ban the media for stories they don't like, they have made a terrible mess of the Mason Greenwood situation, their training ground is outdated and Aston Villa is visiting on Boxing Day to remind them what a well-run club looks like. Everything else is fine.

The Glazers still own a majority stake in the club and will benefit financially from any improvements in on-field fortunes that Ratcliffe brings about.

So it's a low bar for the new stakeholders to clear now that they've taken sporting control at the club to try and lift the malaise that has descended upon it. It is not as if the contingent from Ratcliffe's Ineos organization has a difficult task to fulfill. United are in disarray. Of course, things can't get any worse than they already are.

Probably not, but it would also be wrong to think that Ratcliffe's involvement at United will be a silver bullet. History does not support the idea that he is a Midas-minded man in sports.

Sir Jim's problem when he casts himself as the Manchester-born messiah, who will come to save the club from its many misery, is that he will still have to deal with the Glazers, who United fans see as the devil, who still always own a majority interest in the shares. the club and who will benefit financially from any improvements in on-field fortunes that Ratcliffe brings about.

Many are wondering how the club can really move forward with the Glazers exercising ultimate control over Old Trafford, raising the specter of split authority. That is one of the reasons why there was a lukewarm response from United fans to Sunday's news of the conclusion of the Ratcliffe deal.

Then there's the fact that Ratcliffe would have to commit £245 million to upgrade the stadium. It's a lot of money, sure, but compare it to the work just completed at the Bernabeu, the renovations taking place at the Nou Camp and the majesty of the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and it certainly feels like a halving. -heartfelt.

Ratcliffe (left) and Sir Dave Brailsford (right) will now try to turn United's fortunes around

Ratcliffe may be a phenomenally successful businessman in the Badlands of the petrochemical industry, but his track record in sports reads like the curriculum vitae of a wide-eyed superfan who loses his business acumen when he moves away from his core territory .

I'm sure, you've heard of 'the INEOS curse'. Most of what Ratcliffe touched in the sport has turned to dust. The fortunes of former cycling team Sky, the Mercedes F1 team and the All Blacks have all deteriorated sharply after Ineos became involved. Ratcliffe bought the Nice football club more than four years ago. Only now is it starting to perform well in Ligue 1.

And then there is the presence of former cycling guru Sir Dave Brailsford, who is prominent among Ratcliffe's lieutenants and will sit on United's British club board. Brailsford's fame has already raised many eyebrows.

United's embattled boss Erik ten Hag will be looking over his shoulder now that Ratcliffe has taken over

If Ratcliffe is a messiah, some have accused Brailsford of being a very naughty boy. Suffice to say, his squeaky clean image in cycling has long since evaporated.

Brailsford's 'marginal gain' theory, once considered revolutionary, is now widely regarded as a sham. Still, he may not have to work too hard to make some marginal gains at United. If he gets the number of passes from Antony to Rasmus Hojlund from zero to one, he will once again be hailed as a conceptual genius.

Perhaps more problematic for Ratcliffe is the possibility that Brailsford's presence in a structure above a director of football will deter some leading candidates. There is a bad feeling about Brailsford's involvement in a sport he knows very little about.

Some have already compared it to Southampton's fateful decision to award a position of responsibility to England's World Cup-winning rugby coach, Sir Clive Woodward. And some of those who have already witnessed Brailsford's attempts to integrate himself into football are less than impressed by the level of his knowledge.

Ratcliffe once told a newspaper interviewer that 'they', meaning United, 'were the stupid money, you see that with players like Fred.' He was absolutely right about that. And the situation has only gotten worse. Paying £85 million for Antony is unbelievable, but he is just one of many spectacular arrests.

If INEOS can improve that trend, if they can attract a director of football with proven pedigree like Dougie Freedman at Crystal Palace, who is widely respected, if they can improve recruitment, if they can stop dumping money in the bin, then maybe things will start to improve.

United have no identity on the pitch, their recruitment has been a disaster and their players play like strangers

If they think things will get better because Brailsford sends the players home with comfy cushions or lets them eat kale in the canteen, they will be disappointed. Modern football players already eat kale. If you believe some reports, they eat little else.

Brailsford is rumored to be attending the Villa match on Boxing Day, sitting in the directors' box at Old Trafford. United's embattled boss Erik ten Hag will be looking over his shoulder. Speculation surrounding the manager's position will only increase now that Ratcliffe is in charge of football operations.

There is an easy win here for Ratcliffe. He and his team can't make things worse than they already are at United, but can they make a difference big enough to close the gap on Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool over the next four or five years? Maybe. But god complexes are being quickly dismantled at Old Trafford these days.