Sir Jim Ratcliffe is right about Manchester United's first transfer window under Ineos

Sir Jim Ratcliffe's words sound very familiar. Jose Mourinho needed two or three summer transfer windows. He had three. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer needed two or three. He had three.

The Bryan's Gunn X account would not struggle for clips of pundits recommending "two or three windows". Now the Ineos-era Manchester United need two or three.

There is a glaring problem. The incumbent manager has had two summer windows and is into his third. Another squad rebuild is underway after the previous rebuild crumbled.

And under the same manager whose recruitment hit rate is iffy, at best. This, despite Ratcliffe and his Ineos cohorts sounding out numerous potential alternatives to replace Erik ten Hag.

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As Ratcliffe noted to those of us who had an audience with him in February, the environment is the "central issue" at United, rather than the coach. Still, United actively sought an upgrade on Ten Hag.

With the recent Southampton director of football and a former cycling team principal at the Carrington coalface, Ineos lost their nerve. Omar Berrada and Dan Ashworth are still on gardening leave, which has admittedly compromised United's restructuring and decision-making process. A 17-day end-of-season review that drew conclusions established long before the FA Cup final hardly tallied with the "high-performance" jargon Brailsford purportedly pioneered.

Football has a habit of making the rich look poor and Ineos's about-turn will only be vindicated if United improve immeasurably under Ten Hag next season. The minimum aim has to be Champions League qualification and