Key Man Utd executive ‘begins work' as Sir Jim Ratcliffe waits for investment approval with first job clear

Sir Dave Brailsford is starting work at Manchester United as Sir Jim Ratcliffe waits for his 25% stake in the club to be approved by the Premier League. Seen in the stands watching the Aston Villa win and Nottingham Forest defeat, the former British cycling supremo is a trusted aide of the INEOS boss whose top team are taking control of football operations at Old Trafford. 

With the Premier League rubber stamp set to take four to six weeks, they will not be in place to make major changes to a struggling squad in the January transfer window. There is also a lot of focus on Erik ten Hag’s future but it is off the field that Ratcliffe, Brailsford and Co are likely to start their work in earnest. 

Patrick Stewart is working as an interim CEO with a permanent person in the role expected. There’s also no sporting director or head of recruitment in place. Former Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain man Jean-Claude Blanc is widely expected to be named chief executive with Newcastle’s Dan Ashworth a possible for the football director role and Paul Mitchell - formerly of Monaco, RB Leipzig, Spurs and Southampton and originally from Stalybridge - also believed to be well thought of by INEOS bosses. 

The lack of a real management structure was a point hammered home by Gary Neville after he watched United lose 2-1 at Nottingham Forest. 

“They’re currently operating without a sporting director, without a CEO and without a known head of recruitment,” Neville said. “Which other club in the world does that? So I would think at this moment in time Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Dave Brailsford and his team are looking at getting those three appointments fixed straight away because that’s your biggest exposure as an owner - if you get recruitment wrong it costs you a lot of money.

“Once that’s right, then you can start to look at the manager who is the other part of the quartet of really important people at the football club that will determine if you’re successful on and off the pitch. They haven’t got three of those roles filled at this moment in time, Erik ten Hag is operating without a management team around him. It’s incredible to think that, but it’s true.” 

According to The Athletic, Sir Dave Brailsford’s first official day at Carrington came on New Year’s Eve which was seen as “light touch” with formal meetings, including with Ten Hag, to come.