MIRROR
Sir Jim Ratcliffe should have known not to tempt fate with this current Manchester United side.
“We normally do well against Spurs,” said a smiling Ratcliffe before Sunday’s 2-2 draw, echoing Sir Alex Ferguson’s infamously dismissive “lads, it’s Tottenham ” pre-match team talk. Yet when a team has lost almost half of its matches, you cannot take anything for granted, as Ratcliffe discovered at his first match since making his £1.25billion investment in United.
A couple of hours before kick-off at Old Trafford, Ratcliffe conducted a meet and greet with the media, although he was tight-lipped, citing the need for his investment to be ratified by the Premier League before he could speak candidly about the challenge ahead.
But over the course of the match, the 71-year-old boyhood United fan, sitting alongside Ferguson in the directors’ box, saw first-hand the size of the task that awaits him when he is granted control of football operations in three to four weeks.
Ratcliffe saw what United fans have endured for too long this season – a side consistently inconsistent, one incapable of controlling games and with no discernible identity or style. Ange Postecoglou has been in charge of Spurs for a matter of months, but his players have bought into his philosophy and way of playing, the same as Unai Emery at Aston Villa. Erik ten Hag has been at United longer than both, yet his side remain a work in progress, a frustrating conundrum.
Even with Spurs missing a host of key players in Son Heung-min, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Yves Bissouma, they were still the dominant team, enjoying 64 per cent of possession and registering 16 efforts on goal to United’s nine.
Twice United led, only to relinquish that advantage, and you felt had Spurs been equipped with their full complement of attacking players – as Erik ten Hag’s side were – they would have left victorious. Recruitment is one of the biggest single issues facing Ratcliffe and his team once they are able to start wielding influence at United. More than £1bn has been spent on players since Ferguson retired in 2013, yet United are further away than ever from mounting a credible title challenge.
Inflated fees have been paid for players with potential – £82million on Antony, £73m on Rasmus Hojlund – rather than those who are the finished product, while lucrative long-term contracts handed to those not worthy of them have fostered a culture of complacency, which has exacerbated United’s demise.
