Change is inevitable when a new regime takes power at any organisation and Sir Jim Ratcliffe hasn’t wasted any time bringing it about.
From CEO to medical department, not many have been spared and there is a new look to the executive staff at Old Trafford.
While personnel hires like Dan Ashworth, Jason Wilcox, and Omar Berrada are marquee names on their own, people which Sir Jim Ratcliffe brought with him are now flying under the radar.
Outside hires are made to bridge any gap in quality that might be present in the organisation but promoting from within and grooming quality individuals has been Ineos’ way of doing things.
United have now been told that it is one of these people who will make the biggest difference at the club in the time to come.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s trump card
When Sir Jim Ratcliffe took part ownership of the club, he installed his own men on the board as he waited to hire people.
In the meantime, one person had already started working at the club, auditing its departments from top to bottom and that is Sir Dave Brailsford.
In an interview with TalkSport, Sir Jason and Dame Laura Kenny, who have a combined 12 Olympic Gold Medals in cycling, worked with Sir Dave during Great Britain’s glorious era in cycling.
Laura Kenny won two of her five golds under his guidance and she has credited him for his qualities that enabled her success.
She said: “For me, I think it’s actually that [human qualities]. He really looked into everything and anything, but he cared so much about the bike riders.
“But it wasn’t just the bike riders, I think Dave had this way, like I’ve seen no other person do, of managing to convince so many people to buy into these gold medals.
“He rewrote everything, he came in and he just went ‘Nope! We’re starting this again, and this is the way we’re going to work.”
United fans can relate to it as widespread change has taken place at the club after Sir Dave completed his initial audit of its departments.
Jason Kenny expanded on Brailsford’s famous marginal gains philosophy, saying: “A marginal gain is the time you go to bed, the time you wake up.
“Planning when you go shopping, not just what you buy because when you go shopping is important to your recovery, and things like that.
“And that’s the marginal gains, it’s the things that people don’t think about, but it all feeds into the same port which is ultimately performance.”
This will also sound familiar to United fans, who have seen reports like minor changes to how things work at United, from staff working together to players eating separately, or a redesign of the players’ tunnel at the club and so on.
A much-needed culture shift
Many experts and pundits have accused United of fostering a comfortable, “jobs for boys” culture at the club which has led to incompetence.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his team have come in like a whirlwind and shook things up heavily.
The results of that will be visible in the time to come but not many United fans will disagree that the club desperately needed a jolt to wake up from its Glazer-induced slumber.
Sir Dave’s set of qualities feels ideally suited to bring that jolt without alienating people, a unique skill that can get United back on track.
For all the outside expertise United have brought in, titans of their sport, Jason and Laura Kenny, are convinced he’s the key to unlocking it all.