Every now and then it’s important you refer to the Ineos compass of buzzwords to remind yourself just how much the decision-makers at Manchester United are failing against their very own metrics.
‘If you do a job, do it properly,’ is one of the key messages in the ‘words we like’ half of the compass, a compilation of aphorisms devised by Sir Jim Ratcliffe that features prevalently on the company’s website.
‘Wasting time’, ‘losing money’ and ‘don’t do dumb s**t’ all feature in the other half, the ‘words we don’t like’ half.
The Ineos compass tells us a lot. It gives us an insight into the mindset of those running the football side of Manchester United these days.
‘Spend it like it is your own money’ is supposedly a good thing. ‘Making the same mistake twice’, unsurprisingly, is bad.
Then there is ‘walk the talk’, something Ineos are failing miserably on, frankly. ‘Best in class’ is Ineos’ mantra. Yeah, right.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos’ management of Manchester United has been a failure in myriad ways, not least their misguided transfer policy over the summer
Ineos’ compass of words they do and don’t like – words that Ratcliffe is failing to live by
As the boos rained down on United’s players and boss Michael Carrick after a dire collapse from 2-0 up against Brighton to crash out of the Carabao Cup at the first time of asking – again – director of football Jason Wilcox stood aghast in the directors’ box before heading for home.
In light of the Brighton debacle, it is fair to say that Ineos are wasting time, losing money – United do not win a trophy and qualify for the Champions League as things look today – and, with the phased fixing of each position in the team, doing dumb s**t.
No top team in world football subscribes to a model whereby you ‘fix’ one area of the team only per transfer window. Even then, fixes look temporary at best.
Ineos were said to have ‘fixed’ United’s attack under Ruben Amorim when they recruited Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo, ideal player profiles for Amorim’s 3-4-2-1 system as his No 10s. They also recruited Benjamin Sesko to replace Rasmus Hojlund.
They are good players, better than what they had, but none of them are in discussions for being ‘best in class’ in the league.
This summer there was a laser-like focus on overhauling a midfield that lost Casemiro and saw Manuel Ugarte, an Ineos signing that has long been a non-factor in the team, pick up a long term injury.
So, after missing out on their very top targets, they recruited Carlos Baleba for £70million, Andrey Santos for £50m, and Youri Tielemans for £35m. It is too early to judge whether the fix has worked. But the early impressions, with United still so easy to play through, are alarming.
‘Don’t avoid doing the difficult things,’ is another quip on the Ineos compass. And yet they did. They desperately needed a left back, already riding their luck with the fitness of Luke Shaw, and the window closed without one. Negligence that has left the team short.
The defence will get sorted in the summer of 2027, has been the message for many months. Next summer. In a year we’ll fix it. Promise.
Fix it as a Champions League club? Debatable.
Michael Carrick and his players trudge off following United’s embarrassing loss at home to Brighton in the Carabao Cup
United left themselves short in the transfer window, reliant on Luke Shaw at left back. Shaw has now missed the last three matchday squads
Carrick has been left with Shaw, who has not played since a designated rest day prior to the Sabah Champions League game a week ago. He has missed the last three matchday squads.
He’s got Patrick Dorgu, signed specifically to fit Amorim’s wing-back system, and is now in a halfway house between not being the first choice left winger and not being a left back.
There’s Noussair Mazraoui, solid enough but not elite at the end of the Premier League United want to be challenging at.
There’s Ayden Heaven and Leny Yoro, the latter a £52m Ineos arrival, who both look raw and perhaps haven’t kicked on as ownership hoped at this point.
Matthijs de Ligt hasn’t played for eight-and-a-half months. Diogo Dalot just passed 250 games for United but his deficiencies are as glaring as ever – and some fans after the Brighton game hurled fierce abuse in his direction.
There’s Harry Maguire, still key to propping up this haphazard defensive unit, and Lisandro Martinez, who does often stand up to be counted, and Carrick finds himself navigating choppy waters with a defence that Ineos felt comfortable enough to muddle through with for another 12 months.
A phased rebuild may well be seen as thinking outside the box by Ineos. Zigging where others zag. It may well be that United simply cannot compete financially with the league’s best anymore, a bitterly tough pill to swallow. Or it may be that it’s a nonsensical idea that means one year the floor is broken and the next the roof is caving in and it’s a home that’s never free from problems.
Next summer, when this major defensive rebuild is required, they are still going to have just one main striker on the books in Sesko.
Carrick finds himself navigating choppy waters with a defence that Ineos felt comfortable enough to muddle through with for another 12 months
United are at a stalemate in contract talks with captain Bruno Fernandes. A new deal would require investment that would reduce the budget for a defensive overhaul
They are currently at a stalemate in contract talks with captain and best player Bruno Fernandes. Club sources aren’t panicking, they say, but those two moves would require enormous investment that would obliterate the budget for a defensive overhaul.
Marcus Rashford has been bright since coming back into the fold but if he were to move on at the end of this season another left winger would be required and any managerial change, while not on the agenda this early into the campaign, may well require a totally different skillset and profile for a particular system.
Ineos-owned Lausanne Sport sit bottom of the Swiss league with just one win from eight games.
Similarly Ineos-backed Nice are rock bottom of Ligue 1 with the third-worst defensive record, albeit four games in.
There’s Manchester United Women, they are bottom, too, after a wretched start to the new WSL season.
And then there’s United’s men’s team, who have conceded two goals in three of their four Premier League games so far, are out of the Carabao Cup at the first hurdle and were beaten in the Manchester derby by 10 men. Whatever the opposite of a Midas touch is, Ineos have it.
‘I think the whole standard has dropped at Man United,’ Roy Keane, speaking on The Overlap’s Stick to Football podcast, said.
‘All the decision-makers, the way they’re treating fans, whatever is going on, the women’s team, the standards have dropped throughout the club.
‘What does this team stand for? What does the club, what does Man United stand for? I think all the standards have 100 per cent dropped.’
Ratcliffe’s other teams – Nice in France and Lausanne in Switzerland – are both rooted to the bottom of the table
There are coaching issues at play, undoubtedly, and poor player performances to boot.
But Keane is right. The boos that rang around Old Trafford were as much for Ineos as they were for Carrick and the players. Is this really the best in class they vowed to bring to United?
It’s about time those upstairs look at their own moral compass.
