FOOTBALL LONDON
Manchester United are said to have enlisted the services of American recruitment firm Pace in order to identify a new talent scout for young players as Sir Jim Ratcliffe looks to compete with Todd Boehly and Chelsea.
The 71-year-old, who is reportedly worth over $22billion (£18.5billion), finally looks set to join Red Devils as his move to purchase a 25% stake in the club nears completion after a lengthy saga that almost saw the entire club sold to Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim. Ultimately though, the Glazer family will retain a 52% majority stake in the club, with Ratcliffe coming in to oversee the footballing operations at Old Trafford.
It’s not the first time Ratcliffe has tried to get involved in the Premier League though, having previously been linked with a potential takeover at Chelsea in 2018 before registering a late offer for the club in 2022 as well. However, he’d be beaten by Boehly and those at Clearlake Capital and BlueCo., but is set to use his staggering $35billion portfolio in order to revamp Man United.
It’s believed that the British businessman will ‘accelerate’ plans to modernise Old Trafford, with stadium upgrades set to be a ‘significant part’ of his investment into the club. He is expected to pump £1.3billion ($1.58billion) into the club with money set aside for the Old Trafford changes, with the capacity to go from 74,310 to 90,000, making it the joint largest venue for sport in the UK.
Old Trafford is already the largest stadium in the Premier League by over 10,000 seats – Tottenham are second with nearly 63,000 after their new ground opened in 2019 – but the new changes are set to make it rival Wembley Stadium. But the changes to the stadium won’t be the only ones he makes.
To change the club internally, he’ll be using Pace, the recruitment firm, based out in Los Angeles, in order to bolster their scouting department. According to the Sun, the club has arrived at the decision that they must improve their intake of youth talent in order to rival the likes of rivals Chelsea and Manchester City.
Both clubs, but especially the Blues, have seen a recent spike in young players making their way into the senior squads, with Chelsea’s most glaring example being that only two of Mauricio Pochettino’s first team are above the age of 25 – those being 28-year-old Raheem Sterling and 39-year-old Thiago Silva.
