Manchester United insiders see Sir Dave Brailsford’s influence in persuading Manchester City chief executive Omar Berrada to defect to Old Trafford as the beginning of the end for the Glazers, regardless of their status as the club’s owners.
Brailsford came into Ineos’ mammoth United project with a reputation for being a master at the art of persuasion, but nobody expected him to have quite the impact he has had already, having played a key role in securing Berrada’s incredible move to the red half of Manchester.
While United are trying to push that it was Joel and Avram Glazer who were the main drivers in the club poaching one of the best CEOs in the business from their bitter, all-conquering rivals, Brailsford’s and Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s prints are all over the deal.
So early into their United tenure, before Ineos’s stake is even ratified, this is a statement appointment of epic proportions, despite City trying their utmost to downplay it.
Throughout his career, Berrada has thrived when taking on the biggest challenges, something that was key to Brailsford selling Ineos’ United project to a man not actively seeking a new employer.
During the initial meetings Ratcliffe and Brailsford held at Old Trafford and Carrington earlier this month, Brailsford kept repeating one mantra to anyone who would listen: this club is a “performance challenge”.
And that is what persuaded Berrada to jump ship, insiders said. A “performance challenge” is just what someone so driven needed.
Berrada’s work at City was pretty much done and the club are perfectly set to carry on their domination of the English game without him, such is the ferocity of the behemoth created in east Manchester.
Having to start all over again takes some persuading, but Brailsford knows his targets and is aware of what makes the likes of Berrada tick.
To get the deal over the line, without so much as even a suggestion in any media publication that such a gargantuan steal was possible, is another example of the slick operation Ratcliffe and Brailsford intend to instil.
While plenty of aggregator accounts have been linking United with several big-money player arrivals in the January transfer window, an overhaul above the manager has always been at the heart of Ineos’s initial plan. The idea is to get a transfer committee on par with City’s in place before then going after suitable signings. In the summer, when Berrada will start.
Massive upheaval was always expected, especially after Ratcliffe battled for so long to obtain his share of the club that gives him and Ineos control of the footballing side of United, but nobody foresaw an appointment of this grandeur coming so soon.
It is the perfect move to begin the Ineos revolution.
Berrada can do it all – growing City’s commercial department from the other club in Manchester to revenue market leader, all while helping oversee Erling Haaland’s arrival and expertly guiding the club through many tough player contract negotiations.
Inside their first month, Ratcliffe and Brailsford have poached the best in the business, a figure City would not have been able to gatecrash the English footballing elite without.
Brailsford now has his sights, with a laser focus, set on Newcastle United’s Dan Ashworth to be the new regime’s sporting director.
Such a move initially seemed fanciful, given Ashworth is still in the early stages of his Newcastle project and insists he is very happy there, but if Brailsford can persuade Berrada to leave the most well-oiled unit to join a club with a penchant for giving Anthony Martial new contract after new contract, then talking his long-standing friend in joining him in Manchester could all be just in a day’s work.
Paul Mitchell is still a figure of interest, but for the head of recruitment role. Like City, there is no such thing as too many cooks in Ratcliffe and Brailsford’s eyes. The man everyone thought would be the next CEO, Jean-Claude Blanc, will still be part of the United board and will work alongside Berrada. The best can work with the best and not need autonomy.
Mitchell has other options, too, with reports in Italy suggesting Roma are looking to make the former Tottenham Hotspur head of recruitment their new sporting director – a senior role sources told i would be more appealing.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/F1O6wnb
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