The hidden figures that show why Sir Jim Ratcliffe plan is key for Manchester United

Change is afoot at Manchester United, but quite how long it will be until some real green shoots of recovery will appear is an unknown.

There hasn’t been too many cases of a minority stake in a football club being acquired as there has been with Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s purchase of 27.7% of the club, a deal that was ratified in January.

The reason for that, of course, is that Ratcliffe and his INEOS team have been handed football oversight as a result of the deal, the absentee ownership of the Glazer family seemingly more than happy to pass over that particular baton.

The last time that Manchester United won a Premier League title was in 2013, the final season of Sir Alex Ferguson’s illustrious reign.

Since then the club has seen David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, Ralf Rangnick, and now Erik ten Hag in the dugout. Aside from the odd bright spot here and there, it has been a case of rinse and repeat, where the club pivots from manager to manager and hopes for a different outcome without addressing the root cause of the problem why there has been such failure.

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Football has changed immeasurably even since when Ferguson was at the helm last. For many years now clubs have invested in putting the right people in the right places behind the scenes to focus on the underlying numbers and data when entering the transfer market. United have flirted with it, but it has never been the identity of the club or a thread that can be pulled through regardless of who is in the hot seat.