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Manchester United’s abject surrender at the hands of Manchester City only further strengthened the notion that the gulf in class between the two sides is vast.
Despite what manager Erik ten Hag claimed at the end of the game, INEOS, the new minority stakeholders, have a huge task on their hands to return this once-great institution back to the top of the English game.
They need to get the recruitment spot on after years of exorbitant purchases under the Glazers with no clear end goal in sight hurting the club financially.
For that to happen seamlessly, a proper structure is the need of the hour and Sir Jim Ratcliffe has wasted little time in getting to work.
Proper structure
A new CEO is on his way while it is only a matter of time before Dan Ashworth lands up at Old Trafford and takes up the mantle of sporting director.
As The Peoples Person relayed on Tuesday, Dougie Freedman has been identified as the head of recruitment and an official approach is expected this week.
Once these are out of the way, the team in place will start the summer recruitment drive. As transfer guru Fabrizio Romano put it in his Caughtoffside column, an emphasis on youth will be the way forward.
Since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, the club have thrown money at mercenaries and the ploy has backfired massively. And INEOS are unlikely to repeat that mistake.
Another lesson the new co-owners are expected to take from Sir Alex is using their network to ensure young players keep developing even away from Old Trafford.
During the legendary Scot’s time, United used to send plenty of their future stars to Royal Antwerp, who were at that time a feeder club of the 20-time English league champions.
Current United star Jonny Evans was also loaned out there. Players got competitive exposure while in some cases, the more relaxed Belgian laws allowed players to receive European work-permits.
INEOS loan plans
INEOS plan to use OGC Nice, the Ligue 1 club owned by the petrochemicals giants, in a similar way. FC Lausanne-Sport also falls under the same INEOS umbrella.
“One thing I’m hearing from sources in the industry is that Man United under INEOS will try to work to bring in top young talents to the club.
“These young players could also generally become part of the Man United ‘galaxy’, because they also have the connection they can use at Nice in France – perhaps a place they can send youngsters on loan to develop.”
This sounds like a solid plan on paper and how INEOS navigate these waters will be interesting to see. Nice fans want their club to be successful and might not be too enthused with the prospect of being used as a feeder club of sorts.
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