Sir Jim Ratcliffe lays bare his brutal review of Man United, who ‘don’t have €100m players’, will take ‘three summers’ to fix – and are ‘handicapped’

Manchester United’s new co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has given a brutal assessment of the state of the club as he heads into his first summer transfer window in charge at Old Trafford.

Ratcliffe and INEOS struck a £1.3 billion deal earlier this season to become the new co-owner of the Old Trafford club, having taken control of the Premier League club’s football operations.

Since his arrival, there have been a number of reviews with INEOS taking stock of their latest signings, one of which in particular concerned the position of manager Erik ten Hag.

After a lengthy process, it was ultimately decided to keep the Dutchman at the helm, despite Ratcliffe holding personal talks with Thomas Tuchel in Monaco, although the team have since pledged their support to Ten Hag.

In a broad format interview with Bloombergthe new co-owner discussed a range of topics; of United being ‘disabled’, the lack of £85 million (€100 million) players at Old Trafford, and the timescale for United’s revival.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe gave a brutal assessment of the state of Manchester United in an interview

Ratcliffe suggested it will take more than ‘three summers’ to make the club contenders for top honors again

Ratcliffe also claimed the squad is short of superstars worth €100m (£85m).

Perhaps most interesting for United fans is how long Ratcliffe thinks the revival will last: will it be a quick turnaround? Maybe closer to a decade?

Supporters can then take comfort in the fact that the 71-year-old has a slightly faster process in mind before the club can really compete for top honors again.

“Everywhere we look at Manchester United there is room for improvement and we will improve everything,” he said. ‘We want to be where Real Madrid is now, but that will take time.’

Ratcliffe added: “We’re a bit handicapped in that regard, so I think we’ll do quite well. It takes two or three summers to get to a better place.”

One of the perceived handicaps Ratcliffe may see at the club is the composition of the backroom staff, suggesting the focus of the claim may have drifted from football to economics.

“We have more accountants than sportspeople at Manchester United,” he revealed.

‘If you’re not careful, the Premier League will end up spending more time in court than thinking about what’s good for the league.’

Overall, two or three summers is a fairly quick return, with Arsenal completing their own renaissance in a similar time frame under Mikel Arteta.

Ten Hag’s position at the club came under intense scrutiny before his future was confirmed

The club had held talks with Thomas Tuchel over a takeover after the German manager left Bayern Munich

Ratcliffe admitted there is ‘room for improvement’ across the board at Old Trafford

However, there is an argument that there are much bigger problems to solve at Old Trafford than in North London.

Although United have now publicly backed Ten Hag and the manager is reportedly looking for a new contract, it is far from an ideal situation with the whole world watching as the boss is placed under intense scrutiny.

However, Ratcliffe stressed that there are indeed other issues at play beyond the manager’s position, adding that it is all about the club’s ‘environment’.

“The coach is not central to Manchester United,” Ratcliffe said.

‘It’s a sports club. It needs to be competitive, it needs a certain level of intensity, but with a supportive side because you are dealing with players who are relatively young. Historically, the country has not had such an environment.”

The club’s recruitment policies have come under scrutiny in recent years – largely for the wrong reasons – and with Ratcliffe at the helm, that will only increase further.

High-profile big-money deals have not delivered the fruits they promised, with the likes of Paul Pogba, Antony, Jadon Sancho, Harry Maguire and Romelu Lukaku all costing a combined £402.5 million, to name just a few.

To make matters worse, Pogba left on a free, Sancho appears to have been banned from the club while Ten Hag remains, and Lukaku left for £74 million, £1 million less than his £75 million purchase, meaning the Red Devils still not have to make a profit. on one of their big cash acquisitions.

Antony is just one of many big signings that have failed to pay off at United

The 71-year-old claimed United’s problems would not all be solved in one summer

As such, recruitment was another sector of the club that bore the brunt of Ratcliffe’s blunt assessment, and he remains unconfident that the club will be able to solve their problems within a single window.

“Manchester United do not have players worth €100 million or more,” he continued, adding that one superstar “is not going to solve the problem at Manchester United.”

“I am not confident that we will solve all the problems in the first transfer window,” he added.