Welcome to the new world. At first glance it looks a bit old world. There may be a new and extremely wealthy sheriff in town. But Manchester United have had the chance to return to a more familiar state of disarray in the last few days, despite a midweek FA Cup win.
Erik ten Hag talks about TikTok videos with all the easy command of your uncle teaching Latin trying to understand dirty music. The new Marcus Rashford has fallen (themes: pain and longing; mentions of working hard or supporting the manager: zero).
Relating to: ‘How nice’: Pep Guardiola relishes City’s title-defining treble
A visit to the Etihad, now known as The Perch, looms on Sunday afternoon, and for all the combined messaging there’s still the feel of an institution that has a habit of feasting on itself.
At this point, it may be tempting to step away from daily life and look to the medium-term future. Sir Jim Ratcliffe made one thing clear during his opening interviews last week. First of all, he’s very, very good at giving opening interviews. He’s so good that his skills extend to an incredible ability to say the exact same thing to shy people in different rooms.
Manchester United’s new minority owner told the BBC: “This isn’t flipping a light switch. We have to walk towards the right solution, not run towards the wrong solution.” Ratcliffe would later inform the national press: “This is not a light switch. “We do not want to run towards the wrong solution instead of walking towards the right solution.” Finally, he was heard reassuring the in-house media channel, perhaps still worried at this point, by saying “this is not a light switch, we can’t just flip a switch.”
The script was comprehensive on every point, from word-for-word United’s origin story, to stadium-related policies on north-south cultural bias, to word-for-word repetition and, of course, the main topic of these briefings, the roost issue.
This was followed by the line “There’s nothing I’d like more than to knock them both off their place” – “I’d like to knock them all off their place” and the club’s website said “of course we’d love to knock them off their place”.
This is not a criticism in any sense. Being faced with your brief at the launch of a £1bn investment: that’s a good thing. These were all simple, simple things; short keys, lead notes, Ferguson mnemonics, Stone Roses guitar jingle. After decades of silence and testy official communication, very slick public relations also appear to be part of the new deal.
It leaves a mark. Given that these lines are planned, they also demand that we take them at face value, that the standards also tell us something. Decoding Sir Jim’s corporate message: There are two important points about the derby match.
First, what does the pre-audited scenario actually tell us about Ten Hag’s location? It is clear that this is not a very good thing. When asked to make a judgment on Ten Hag, Ratcliffe responded in three ways that it would be “inappropriate” to comment; This – imagine for a moment this is your brutally opinionated boss speaking – seems like a narrative in itself.
It doesn’t take much insight to see that this is an organization whose core skill is hiring its own people and finding margins in hiring. Selecting a new head coach is the most obvious means of improving performance and is almost part of the corporate mission statement. But Ratcliffe was still referring to Ten Hag, laying out a very clear structure for retention or dismissal.
It has been repeatedly mentioned that Manchester United must qualify for the Champions League this season; For the avoidance of doubt, the need to hire the best people was discussed. The message is simple. If the coefficients allow for the top four and top five, Ten Hag can continue his job. It seems like he’s falling short, and there was also some crude talk about the basic ability to make “ruthless” decisions.
However, it may not be enough. Playstyle was a big topic of discussion, along with the klaxon warning idea! – jumping, gamboling spring lamb style as part of the marketing plan. Also on the downside of the ledger was a pessimistic outlook on recent hiring. Was this the manager’s fault? “I’m thinking more about hiring in a good place in the future.” Perhaps the sound of the defensive positions taken by Ten Hag’s midweek speech about the “unstoppable” Antony was a leap of faith that even Unstoppable Antony might find a little difficult to bridge.
The message seems clear. United need to follow Tottenham and Aston Villa to offer any hope of keeping the current coaching setup in place. Three of the last 12 league matches were played against Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal. Defeat at the Etihad could leave them 11 points behind Villa in fourth.
None of this is made any easier by the fact that the Perch events are full of surprisingly strong language about enemies and – look away, please, Erik – “I want to crush them on the football field” catchphrase.
This is again playing the hits to the fans, assuaging Glazer’s complacency. But the pre-match noise is less than ideal against opponents who have beaten United five times in the last six games (18-7 aggregate score). Pep Guardiola will not be hanging Sir Big Jim’s video message on the dressing room wall before kick-off. Instead, he will give a very detailed, data-driven briefing on half-spaces. However, this difference is so large that even a three-season time frame looks promising.
Of course, the pedestal itself is more of a remote plateau, the mountain stronghold of a sovereign wealth fund with boundless ambition. Is this really possible? It took eight years for Fenway Sports Group to reach this level at Liverpool and making that leap forward with Jurgen Klopp was certainly the perfect appointment. Abu Dhabi achieved this by spending heavily for five years, then went fully nuclear with Pep in two years. Manchester United served for six years under Alex Ferguson’s management, thanks to the significant increase in its revenue.
On the plus side, there are plans to solve three very obvious problems. Presence of internal appointments in important positions etc. Terrible transfer record. And the underperforming stadium is a vital component of financial fair play. Competition talk is also a cover for a very logical attempt at imitation. The stark details of the Ratcliffe tapes suggest an attempt to emulate the City model, from partly publicly funded stadiums to the best people in the right jobs, to the style of play and low-key talk of regeneration.
There are other obstacles too. Most importantly, Guardiola himself, who remains an absolute managerial alpha, now operates in an arena of complete clarity. The chances of every other team in the Premier League remain the same: when Guardiola comes out of the set.
The other issue is about scale. Ratcliffe is an excellent soloist. He also owns 27.7 per cent of the club and attributes his ability to bring the Glazers with him to “a fair amount of trust, I think, between those two parties”. In one of his rare unscripted moments, Ratcliffe revealed that he had actually only met Joel and Avram Glazer. “I’m sure the relationship will go very well as long as we do the right things.” Onward to The Perch.