It is possible that this week, the request to buy 25% of Man United shares from Jim Ratcliffe will be approved by the Board of Directors of the "Red Devils". The richest person in the UK will take control of the club and some of the power in finance and business. This information has angered many Man United fans because they are hoping that the new owner can completely replace the Glazer house, not in the current half-crazy way.
The Telegraph revealed that Jim Ratcliffe and his colleagues at INEOS Group were impressed with the way Erik ten Hag has turned Manchester United over the past 17 months. Ten Hag's position as captain is certainly guaranteed when Ratcliffe takes charge. However, the rest of the club's leadership such as CEO Richard Arnold and director of football John Murtough are still quite vague.
The reason for this doubt is that when deciding to spend money, Jim Ratcliffe wanted to directly participate in the club's management, specifically football expertise issues. It would be no surprise if Murtough lost his job to give up his position to another factor appointed by Ratcliffe. Ten Hag will not be able to interfere in this because in theory, he is not the one who manages or has an impact on Murtough's position. Ratcliffe's trust in Ten Hag does not mean he will do the same for Murtough, especially when Man United's performance is declining. If he had kept Ten Hag and needed to "pmake" someone to clean up the apparatus, Ratcliffe could have targeted Murtough first.
Although the current changes are half-hearted, after 18 years, the Manchester United leadership is in disarray. It is not known whether Ratcliffe's next steps will bring negative or positive impacts, but when Glazer leaves professional matters, at least Man United will not repeat past mistakes. American owners currently own 69% of the club's shares but have 96% of the voting rights due to the complex mixed-use structure.
In his request, Ratcliffe made it very clear that he wanted to "control the club's football problem". This shows that the English billionaire wants to improve the "Red Devils" performance as the number 1 priority after a poor start to the season (losing 6/11 matches). Despite many problems such as debt, cash flow, and infrastructure degradation, the first thing that hit the eyes of fans was still the performance on the field. If the team's success does not improve, all changes on the sidelines for Ratcliffe will become meaningless.
25% is the first step for Jim Ratcliffe to take over the entire Man United. Man United fans have the right to be angry when Glazer is still in charge, but if their new owner is truly dedicated and wants to change positively, in the near future everything will be less gloomy.
