Manchester United thoughts following Sir Jim Ratcliffe interview
A detailed discussion where a lot was revealed.
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00:00 I'm here with Michael Plant of Manchester World. Michael, let's start with Manchester United.
00:07 Let's start with Sir Jim Radcliffe. He's made a fair few headlines, a few of the clips released from his interview,
00:14 talking about wanting to catch up with City in Liverpool and it's not going to happen overnight, for example.
00:19 What sort of feelings does that give United fans and what have we learnt from his little discussion?
00:26 Yeah, a lot actually. A lot more than I thought we were going to learn.
00:31 He spoke about so many topics in that and really interesting angles that he took.
00:38 I mean, I think the big one is that he just wants to get Manchester United competing on a football basis.
00:44 He spoke about the fact that money isn't a driving factor in this or isn't a factor at all, I think he said in this,
00:49 that it is basically just to get Manchester United back competing with England and Europe's top sides.
00:55 He referenced Manchester City so many times in that interview.
01:00 And look, Manchester City are the best club in the world, I think, on and off the pitch.
01:04 And they are a club you would want to emulate. And it's not a surprise, I suppose, that he said that.
01:10 But I got to the point where you read through the interview and you think, wow, he has referenced City about 10 times now.
01:15 And he was actually asked about the fact that he mentioned them so many times. So that was interesting.
01:20 He did the Man United back on the purchase line, which I think fans will absolutely love, given the history of that kind of comment.
01:27 Though, we talked about Nice and the fact that whether United can play in the Champions League against them.
01:34 He spoke about, which he said, by the way, he said wouldn't be a factor that if Nice were in the Champions League, that wouldn't impact Manchester United.
01:43 He spoke about so many topics. He spoke about Stratis Ferguson, his relationship with Stratis Ferguson.
01:49 And all these kind of topics and so many interesting stuff.
01:53 I think two that perhaps were slightly controversial were the Mason Greenwood stuff, where he basically didn't say that Greenwood's time at United is done.
02:04 But I also then thought there was a bit of an implication where he spoke about, are they the right character for Manchester United?
02:10 Where I also think you could read into that to say that he's potentially not got a future at the club.
02:15 So that was a bit of an ambiguous one. And I think the one that will interest fans a lot is he spoke about Old Trafford and he spoke about basically confirming his plans.
02:23 He wants to build a new stadium that they're already in talk with the local council and with lots of other kind of interested parties in that regard.
02:33 And he sees it as a regeneration of the Manchester Ship Canal, which is great.
02:38 And I think from a United perspective, they will be absolutely delighted. Fans will be kind of really encouraged with that.
02:44 I think the thing that's stuck in my throat a little bit is that he has said that he wants to use taxpayers' money to help build this new stadium,
02:53 which when you consider that Sir Jim Ratcliffe is the second richest man in the country, that he has spent most of his time in Monaco to avoid paying UK tax,
03:03 sticks in the throat a little bit when you also consider the Glazers haven't put in a penny for so many years and that Manchester United earned so much in terms of funds.
03:10 It just it just I really didn't I just thought that came across terribly. The thought that he expects taxpayers to pay it.
03:16 Kind of kept talking about how the north needs a stadium to rival Wembley. Well, why should that be Manchester United to get that?
03:22 You know, I just thought he got he got that one completely wrong in terms of that.
03:26 So, look, I think overall really encouraging and United fans will be very encouraged.
03:31 And just to confirm that he is now officially co-owner of Manchester United.
03:36 He owns 27.7 percent of the club now. That will increase to just to just under 29 percent in a year's time or by the end of this year.
03:45 So, listen, a lot of going on. And I think now the attention will turn to what is his hierarchy going to look like.
03:51 Omar Barad is obviously in, has been appointed from Manchester City. He'll start in summer.
03:56 Dan Ashworth, we could do a whole video on that. But listen, I think that will get wrapped up.
03:59 And United certainly want to bring him in. There's Jason Wilcox at Southampton that they want to add.
04:04 And look, there'll be more names that will come over the weeks and months and years to come.
04:10 But listen, I think it's a very encouraging start for Jim Ratcliffe.
04:13 And that interview, he got eight or nine out of 10 things right, shall we say.