'In the last century' - Sir Jim Ratcliffe makes brutal admission about Man United transfer business

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has said Manchester United's data analysis is still stuck in the last century after criticising the state of recruitment at the club.

The 71-year-old admitted United's recruitment had been below par for a long time and reserved his harshest criticism for the club's use of data, saying it doesn't really exist at the club.

Ratcliffe took a 27.7% stake in United in February and has since reshaped the football structure at Old Trafford, installing a new chief executive in Omar Berrada, sporting director in Dan Ashworth and technical director in Jason Wilcox.

Ineos' first summer window still saw the club spend around £200m on players for Erik ten Hag, before sacking him in October, and the outlay across his three summers came in at more than £600m.

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Ratcliffe has previously accused United of being the "dumb money" in football and has been critical of the way United have operated in the transfer market. That is something he is now trying to fix and investing in the use of data is a key part of the plan.

“We’ve not been good enough at recruitment, you probably agree with that," Ratcliffe said in an interview with fanzine United We Stand.

“And until we’re as good as anyone in the world, then it’s not good enough for Manchester United.

“We must have the best recruitment in the world. Data analysis comes alongside recruitment. It doesn’t really exist here. We’re still in the last century on data analysis here."

More and more Premier League clubs have turned to data to help them make recruitment decisions, with Brighton and Brentford two pioneers in that department,