Recruiting superstars at a high price? “Not smart,” believes the new strong man of Manchester United, billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, who prefers to try to find the “future Mbappé or the future Bellingham”.
To revive the Red Devils, currently sixth in the Premier League and who have not won the championship since 2013, “the solution is not to spend a lot of money on a few big players”, declared the boss of the petrochemical giant Ineos , who now owns 27.7% of the shares of the Mancunian club, in the Cycling Club podcast by Geraint Thomas.
Asked about the case of English attacking midfielder Jude Bellingham, who shines in the colors of Real Madrid, Ratcliffe dismissed the idea of recruiting him: “He’s a good player” but “the first thing to do is to put the right people in the right place to manage and organize the club,” said the man who also owns OGC Nice and Lausanne, as well as the Ineos-Grenadiers cycling team.
“If you look at the last ten years, they spent a lot of money on some great players,” he recalled of Manchester United.
Asked to choose between recruiting Kylian Mbappé – who announced his departure from Paris SG at the end of the season – in Manchester or Tadej Pogacar in his cycling team, Jim Ratcliffe hit the nail on the head: “I would rather sign the next Mbappé instead than spending a fortune to buy success (…) It’s not very smart to buy Mbappé. Everyone can realize this. “It’s a bigger challenge to find the future Mbappé, the future Bellingham or the future Roy Keane.”
Ratcliffe took control of Manchester United’s operations after acquiring a 25% stake in the Premier League club for £1 billion ($1.2 billion) in February.
The founder of the petrochemical group Ineos then invested an additional $200 million (around 185 million euros) to increase his stock portfolio, bringing his commitment to “around 27.7%” according to the club. The agreement with the Glazer family, majority shareholder, grants control of sporting affairs to Ratcliffe.
