Sir Jim Ratcliffe sends warning to Manchester United over summer transfer window

Sir Jim Ratcliffe said he doesn’t expect to resolve them all Manchester Unitedproblems this summer as he warned it could take several transfer windows.

United’s new co-owner also marked a break with the past by saying that buying a superstar will not be the answer, as he claimed that no one in his hugely expensive squad is worth €100 million now.

Ratcliffe spoke of a goal of achieving Real Madridbut accepts that won’t happen anytime soon as he looks to transform the atmosphere at Old Trafford.

He spared the manager Erik ten Witch part of the blame for United’s worst result in the Premier League, after finishing only eighth, counting Bloomberg: “The coach is not the central issue at Manchester United.”

United decided to keep Ten Hag after he won the FA Cup, but only after an end-of-season review in which they considered the cases from a series of other managers.

Ratcliffe’s attempts to turn around United were stymied by other clubs putting their off-field signings on gardening leave, with new chief executive Omar Berrada scheduled to start in July and the club is yet to agree a deal with Newcastle to hire sporting director Dan Ashworth.

That will make it harder for United to buy this summer and Ratcliffe added: “We are a bit lacking in that sense so I think we will do a good job. It will take two or three summer windows to get to a better place. I am not confident that we will solve all the problems in the first transfer window.”

United’s squad includes the £85 million buys AntonyRasmus Hojlund, signed for £72m, and Marcus Rashford, who scored 30 goals in 2022-23, but Ratcliffe admitted he does not have either of the game’s most valuable footballers at the moment.

“Manchester United do not have players valued at €100 million or more,” he said. Under the previous regime, the club bought a number of big names – players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alexis Sanchez and Angel Di Maria – but Ratcliffe said landing a star “is not going to solve the problem”. problem at Manchester United.”

Ratcliffe came out against the The Premier League’s new plan for anchoring and the idea of ​​a independent football regulator. He also said he can understand why Manchester City is taking legal action against the Premier League’s associated party transaction rules.

The billionaire also criticized UEFA for ruling that United cannot buy from Nice, the French club owned by Ratcliffe, with defender Jean-Clair Todibo considered of interest.

“They said we can sell him to another Premiership club but we can’t sell him to Manchester United,” Ratcliffe said. “But that’s not fair to the player and I don’t see what that means.”