INEOS aren't playing games at MUFC. Ever since taking over 25% of the club, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his band have been making changing left, right and centre, and at a relatively rapid pace.
INEOS were announced as the new co-owners of the club on Christmas Eve (what a time to make such an announcement, right 😐?), in which time they have brought in the former Man City Chief Football Operations Officer Omar Berrada (who decided he wanted to work for a big club 😉) as the new CEO, Jason Wilcox as Technical Director, the recent appointment of Dan Ashworth as Sporting Director and in the last couple of days, Christopher Vivell as Head of Recruitment albeit on an original short-term basis.
They've also triggered Erik ten Hag's 1-year extension on his contract keeping the Dutchman as manager until June 2026. This is something new as in previous years, the club decided to sack the manager and bring in a new one rather than stick with the current one.
INEOS are also looking to bring in new coaching staff with the likes of Rene Hake and former striker Ruud van Nistelrooy as assistant managers to Erik ten Hag.
The new co-owners have been trying to bring in new players as well with Matthijs De Ligt (ten Hag's former defender at Ajax), Manuel Ugarte and Joshua Zirkzee all with a good chance of joining the club. This is new as well because in previous years, the club would tend to do one deal at a time whether it be players, board members or otherwise.
The fact that they seem to be doing multiple things at once is a MASSIVE step forward for the club.
On top of all this, INEOS are redoing the tunnel at Old Trafford, the executive seating in the Stretford End, as well as a £50m investment into the training ground as the club look to modernize and improve the men's first-tem building at Carrington.
INEOS have said that they want a "world-class football facility with a positive culture to support future success".
Again, I must repeat that this is all new to us United fans because we haven't seen such work being done so quickly to improve the club.
Admittedly, I will say that this is a bit of an 'open goal' for the new co-owners simply because the major owners the Glazers didn't do anything for quite some time so it's not as if INEOS have to improve upon something that is already great.
Doing this will definitely get the fans onside even those like myself who would've preferred the full Qatari takeover.
But in saying all this, it still doesn't make the task ahead for INEOS any easier. Much needs to be done.
The Structure
As mentioned, Sir Jim Ratcliffe has made several changes to the club despite being the official co-owner for just four months. It is quite impressive to see what they have done in such a short space of time.
Speaking of Sir Jim Ratcliffe, this is how the new footballing operations structure will look:
Sir Jim sits at the head of the table as the INEOS Chairman. He is followed by his big mate and fellow knight Sir Dave Brailsford who is the Director of INEOS Sport along with Jean-Claude Blanc, the CEO of INEOS Sport.
Directly underneath is kind of the same thing but this is centred around Man Utd only whereas Ratcliffe, Brailsford and Blanc handle everything to do with INEOS not just MUFC.
Omar Berrada made the switch across town to become the big boss at Man Utd as he is now the Chief Executive of the club. Underneath him (which sounds wrong) is the recently-appointed Dan Ashworth - the Director of Sport - along with the new Technical Director, Jason Wilcox who was also formerly of Man City as part of their youth setup.
Another new addition in Christopher Vivell will be part of the structure as well as the Head of Recruitment. Vivell is best known for his time at both Red Bull clubs, Salzburg and Leipzig. He also had a small stint at Chelsea last season. His role at United is short-term but with a chance to make it permanent.
And then comes the main man Erik ten Hag followed by his two new coaches Ruud van Nistelrooy and Rene Hake who haven't been appointed yet but it's more a question of when rather than if.
I'm liking this new structure at United because for 1, we actually have a football structure instead of just clowns, and 2, they are all the best in class or at least some of the best in what they do. Before, it was just a group of businessmen who didn't know what they were doing whereas now, we seem to have a lot of football people with a good reputation.
To have such a board above a manager will give that coach all the advantages to make the team successful on the pitch.
I always felt that in the last decade, the manager had to do a lot of these higher-ups jobs. Erik ten Hag would need to scout players, try to lure them to Old Trafford and sell to them why they would be the right player to help United get back to the top.
This is probably the reason as to why he went for a lot of players that he was familiar with. He then also had the job of actually managing the team which is no easy feat. These are perhaps reasons as to why the football wasn't too grand as the manager wasn't completely focused on well, managing.
However, the club will allow the manager to have a veto on all signings. Erik ten Hag will be allowed to have an input on players coming and going and will have the last say.
This further indicates just how much the club and new co-owners trust the Dutchman.
Final Thoughts
The fact that INEOS appear to be walking the walk and not just talking the talk is fantastic.
I always like the way Sir Jim Ratcliffe speaks as he sounds like a man who knows what he's on about. I mean duh, bro is a chemical engineering billionaire!
But the fact that he does come out and speak as a (co-) owner is also not something that we've been accustomed to as the Glazers hardly ever came out to speak. The same goes for all the others that were employed by the American owners. Ed Woodward, Richard Arnold and John Murtough never really spoke to the public that much and while it was just words on paper/online, Dan Ashworth coming out and speaking straightaway about Erik ten Hag's new contract just a couple of days after being officially confirmed by the club is wonderful.
When those in power come out and speak just makes the fans a lot easier to hear the people behind what makes the club tick.
I'm really happy with this new board and structure. I think it has all the makings of a great hierarchy to get Man Utd back to the top.
Background Image: Image credit: Getty Images via Goal