Dave Brailsford, the team principal at Ineos Grenadiers, formerly Team Sky, has begun work on trying to transform Manchester United into the best football club in the world. He is already working on the task on behalf of Jim Ratcliffe.
The British billionaire, who owns multinational chemicals company Ineos, has interests across sports, including owning the Ineos Grenadiers pro cycling team. He is now in the process of trying to buy Manchester United, from the American Glazer family, and is confident he will beat a consortium from Qatar to secure control of the club.
As Brailsford is now head of sport at Ineos - which already has interests in football and sailing, among other sports, as well as cycling - reports in Britain state he has been asked by Ratcliffe to recruit the expertise needed to transform Manchester United.
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Ratcliffe has said he plans to “to invest in Manchester United to make them the number one club in the world once again”. And Brailsford, who has been working at French Ligue 1 football club, OGC Nice, on behalf Ratcliffe has ben tasked with "securing a team of individuals capable of overhauling United’s sporting organisation," according to a report in The Times newspaper.
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It states Brailsford has already "opened conversations with best-of-class practitioners in recruitment, analysis, sports science and training infrastructure" in a bid to undo some of the ground lost by United to their rivals in the near two decades the Glazers have owned the club.
The Glazers value the club at over £5 billion and since flagging last year they were interested in selling all, or part, of the club they have received bids for full ownership from a Qatari group as well as a majority ownership bid from Ratcliffe.
The British businessman is already making moves to change the club, apparently confident his bid will be successful. He also has a six-year deal with New Zealand Rugby while Ineos is also the principal partner in the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team.
While Brailsford was never announced as having formally left his role as principal with Ineos Grenadiers, Rod Ellingworth has effectively taken over that job while Brailsford is now lead in the Ineos sports business, which includes the cycling team as one part.
