Manchester United’s new co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe does not want to make the same mistakes that previous club chiefs have in recent years.
Ratcliffe wants a new approach to the transfer market, insisting he will not splash the cash on big-name signings like past regimes.
The British billionaire completed his purchase of 27.7 per cent of United in February, ending a long-running takeover saga at Old Trafford.
He is in charge of all football operations at Old Trafford and has also committed to either renovating the stadium or building a new one from scratch.
Man Utd news: Sir Jim Ratcliffe doesn’t want to make the same mistakes as previous regimes
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United have often spent big in the transfer window in the last decade but have not won a Premier League since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013.
Big-money signings such as Paul Pogba, Harry Maguire and Antony are among many to have proved largely unsuccessful.
Ratcliffe insists he will not do what his predecessors did ‘over the last 10 years’ and will have a team in place to ensure it doesn’t happen.
He told The Geraint Thomas Cycling Club Podcast: “It’s not where our focus is, the solution isn’t spending a lot of money on a couple of great players. They’ve done that over the last 10 years.
“The first thing we need to do is get the right people in the right boxes who are managing and organising the club and make sure we get recruitment right.
“It’s such a vital part of running a football club today, finding new players.”
Ratcliffe has already lured Omar Berrada from Manchester City to become his new CEO, while talks are ongoing with Newcastle sporting director Dan Ashworth.
INEOS director of sport Sir Dave Brailsford has followed Ratcliffe to United and will be ‘in the middle of it all’.
But the former British Cycling chief will not have a say on the players who are signed.
Ratcliffe added: “It’s not the only part but it is a big part of it. It’s a collective at the end of the day.
“Dave is the one who is right in the middle of it all. It is where you start.
“You need the right organisation structure. In the days of Sir Alex Ferguson, he was the manager. We don’t have managers today, we have a coach.
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Man Utd news: Sir Jim Ratcliffe is determined to make a difference at Old Trafford
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“And the coach would report to a sporting director and they would report to the chief executive.
“You need to figure out where you put recruitment and strategy, you need to get your organisation right and then populate it with people who are best in class.
“It’s not a light switch at Man Utd, it’s a much longer road to travel, because there’s so many aspects of that club and that game that you need to get right.
“Dave wouldn’t profess to ever say, ‘we need to buy that player because I think he’s a very good player’, Dave would never do that, it’s not his skill set. But we need that skill set at Manchester United.”
Man Utd news: Sir Dave Brailsford is playing a big part in a new-look United
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On his own involvement in the process, Ratcliffe said: “We all talk on a daily basis, there’s a group of us involved in Manchester United but the two people most focused on it would be Dave and myself.
“We’ve now got Omar Berrada, of course, who’s on gardening leave at the moment but he’s become a big part of a trio when he settles in. He’s come from Man City and will be the chief executive.”
