Ratcliffe plans Ten Hag change at Man Utd with deal to go through next week ‘at the earliest’
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is planning to take recruitment responsibility away from Erik ten Hag if his investment in Manchester United is agreed, according to reports.
The INEOS owner is set to buy 25 per cent of the Premier League club from the Glazers after he downgraded his offer for the club from a full purchase.
Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim pulled out of a deal to takeover the club after it became clear that he wasn’t going to be able to agree a fee to buy 100 per cent of the club.
And that left Ratcliffe to agree a 25 per cent deal with the Glazers in principle with the offer still needing to be officially confirmed and ratified.
The Times have previously claimed it is just ‘first stage of a full takeover’ by Ratcliffe and another report has insisted that the British billionaire is planning ‘a radical overhaul of Manchester United’s football department’.
And now the i newspaper says that Ratcliffe has a ‘deep audit of the club’s football operation is in the pipeline when his investment is finally confirmed’.
That will include ‘putting player recruitment in the hands of experts, leaving Ten Hag to coach’ with the Dutchman’s fingerprints on many of the new recruits from the past three transfer windows.
Man Utd, who have the fourth highest net spend in the Premier League in 2023, have now lost five of their opening ten Premier League fixtures this season after arch-rivals Manchester City comfortably beat them 3-0 on Sunday.
The Man Utd boss is ‘likely to have his responsibilities reduced’ if Ratcliffe is put in charge of the football department and the INEOS owner’s ‘faith in Erik ten Hag remains seemingly unshaken by Manchester United’s recent dip in fortunes’.
On when Ratcliffe’s investment into the club will concluded, the i added that ‘neither a resolution nor an announcement on a deal is anticipated this week’ and that ‘it will be next week “at the earliest” although the expectation is the deal will be rubber stamped well before the end of November’.
And a source told the i that Ratcliffe has “only ever been positive about” Ten Hag in private and that the former Ajax boss is ‘unlikely to be under any immediate pressure even after the most awkward results of his tenure’.
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