Sir Jim Ratcliffe's silence on Manchester United's 'no expert in football' speaks volumes

Transfers dominate pub talk and it was in a pub where Richard Arnold, the former Manchester United chief executive, talked to disgruntled supporters about transfers.

Arnold admitted United had "spent a billion pounds on players... What’s happened is we have f*****g burned through cash, through £1billion" on duds. That was in 2022. Arnold then signed off on nearly half-a-billion to fund a few more duds.

Little wonder Arnold jumped before he was pushed by Ineos. Sir Jim Ratcliffe dismissively dubbed Arnold a "rugby man, he didn't understand football" in his chats with The Times and The Telegraph the other week. The same accusation was often levelled at Ed Woodward, whose enthusiasm for rugby occasionally irked Jose Mourinho.

And yet Ratcliffe has a cycling team principal overseeing performance at the most scrutinised football club on the planet.

It was only last year that Sir Dave Brailsford admitted to the former England cricket captain Nasser Hussain, "I'm no expert in football, I never will be." That would certainly legislate for United's current joint-worst position since they were relegated in 1974.

Amid more redundancies at United that will break the 400 mark within a year, it seems dubious to retain a football board member responsible for implementing sleep and meal windows, a hydration plan, advocating exposure to natural light and recommending compression garments.

"Every measure has been taken to give the players the best platform to adjust quickly to maximise performance through the tour," a staff member cheerfully said in July. The tour ended with a 3-0 defeat to Liverpool.

That could easily be dismissed. Twelve Premier League defeats before March and a -3 goal difference cannot be.

Ratcliffe used the word