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The Manchester United squad were said to have left a meeting with Sir Dave Brailsford by “rolling their eyes and shaking their heads” at what the INEOS Sport Director had said to them, according to a source at the club.
ESPN reveals Brailsford “held a meeting with the first-team squad shortly after INEOS took charge” of the football operation at Old Trafford, following Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s ratification as the club’s new co-owner in February.
In this meeting, the source tells ESPN, the 60-year-old executive told players that he “lived on the most exclusive street in Monte Carlo, but that he was coming to Manchester because he was going to help make United better.” The source describes the appearance of Brailsford while delivering this borderline pompous speech as someone “sat there in a cream shirt and a pair of cream chinos”.
Predictably, these miscalculated words from a cycling coach fell on deaf ears amongst a group of young footballers.
ESPN‘s source reveals the players “left the room rolling their eyes and shaking their heads” at Brailsford’s speech. “It was like they were supposed to be grateful that Dave had given up his idyllic lifestyle to save them all. All they’ve seen since is cost-cutting and people losing their jobs.”
Three months on, ESPN describes this promise to “make United better” as one with a “hollow ring to it”, with the focus from INEOS in the first six months of their tenure at Old Trafford seemingly on the club’s balance sheet, as much as performances on the pitch.
Following United’s triumph over local rivals Manchester City in the FA Cup final at Wembley, the club had decided the travelling party would return to Manchester by bus. Some senior players “pushed back” and insisted they would instead purchase their own plane tickets home.
“The players and senior staff thought it was unprofessional to travel back to Manchester on a bus, simply because it was the cheaper option, so they told the club they would pay for their own plane,” a source tells ESPN. “The club backed down pretty quickly, but it was embarrassing for them. This is Manchester United, and the players were being treated like a League One team.”
This cost-cutting approach has seen INEOS seek to “streamline United’s operation” by implementing 250 job cuts across the club. They have told staff that the ambition is to “reduce the workforce to the same size as Real Madrid.”
“Ed Woodward wanted us to be like Barcelona, Richard Arnold thought we should adopt the model used by Formula 1 and now INEOS want us to be like Real Madrid,” a United source revealed to ESPN about former club CEOs. “Everyone tells us we’re the biggest club in the world, so why should we constantly be trying to copy somebody else?”
The most eye-catching economic choice INEOS have made is to end Sir Alex Ferguson’s role as a £2 million-a-year ambassador to the club. While this decision was believed to be amicable, it was not well-received by former stars at Old Trafford. Eric Cantona described it as “lack of respect” while another former player reveals the ruthless approach by INEOS makes it feel as if they are “ripp[ing] the soul out of the club.”
Many of the current first-team squad are described as “underwhelmed” by the impact of INEOS, but there has also been “anger within the dressing room” at the manner in which several long-serving staff members have been shown the exit door.
“One member of the ground staff had been at the club for over 30 years,” a source said. “He was let go by the club and was sweeping up on his own on his last day with tears rolling down his face. Nobody did anything for him, despite all the years he had given to the club.”
It’s difficult to compute this image of a staff member with over a lifetime of service to the club being sacked without a proper goodbye, with one of United’s new executive donning cream chinos and speaking of a Monte Carlo residence, assuring players he is going to “make United better”.
If United cannot continue to be an exemplary organisation off the pitch, will anyone at the club care too much if they then reach an exemplary standard on it? What good is a healthy body without a healthy heart?
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