United owner Ratcliffe admits INEOS made 'a lot of cock-ups' at Nice & Lausanne

Manchester United's new part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has admitted INEOS made 'a lot of cock-ups' at both Nice and Lausanne but has revealed that he is glad his team made those mistakes before arriving at Old Trafford.

The British billionaire's deal to purchase a 27.7 per cent stake in United was approved by the Premier League on Tuesday.

It means INEOS, who also own FC Lausanne-Sport and OGC Nice, will now take control of football operations at Old Trafford after Ratcliffe's £1billion investment in the club.

But the petrochemicals magnate and his right-hand man, Sir Dave Brailsford, both have experience of managing and operating top-level sports teams.

In fact, Ratcliffe revealed that INEOS had made several big errors in the past, that he believes have now put them in good stead after arriving at Old Trafford.

Speaking to the media for the first time since the deal was approved, Ratcliffe, who had also tried to buy Chelsea, was asked whether the London club had shown how not to do things, given their recent spending but lack of on field results.

'I don’t want to finish up criticising Chelsea,' he answered.

'But what I would say is that, in having bought other clubs in Lausanne and Nice, we have made a lot of cock-ups.

'We’ve made some really stupid decisions in both those clubs. There are a lot of organisations in the world where, if you make a mistake, you get shot, so nobody ever puts their head above the parapet.'

The organisation completed a deal to purchase Ligue 1 side Nice in 2019 for £88m. INEOS also bought Swiss club Lausanne back in 2017.

Ratcliffe has big plans to help change things at United. He stressed Old Trafford is 'in need of refurbishment' and has ambitious plans to transform the decaying 74,000-seater stadium into a 'Wembley of the North'.

United are also attempting to poach Newcastle's sporting director, Dan Ashworth, who has also been placed on gardening leave.

But the 71-year-old admitted that if he and his team hadn't made those mistakes then they would not be unprepared for the challenge that awaits them at Man United.

'But at INEOS, we don’t mind people making mistakes — but please don’t make it a second time.

'So with that, we’re much less than sympathetic when they make the same mistake twice.

'We have made mistakes in football, so I’m really pleased that we made those mistakes before we arrived here at Manchester United.

'If we hadn’t, this would be a much tougher job for us. Because it is huge and it’s very exposed.'

The chemicals company owns and partners with several successful sports teams around the world, the most notable of which are the INEOS Grenadiers cycling team and the Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 Team.

And he gave an indication of why INEOS wanted to invest into Man United, stating: 'We have a collection of quite interesting sports clubs, Formula 1, America’s Cup, cycling etc. But we’ve always recognised that the biggest sport in the world is football and the Premier League is the biggest league in the world.

'So we’ve always had an interest in having a Premier League club — but they don’t come up very often, and at the time we had no inkling that Manchester United might ever be sold. So that’s how we finished up in that Chelsea equation.'

Ratcliffe and Brailsford have been spotted at several Man United games in the lead up to his purchase of the club.

And it appears Brailsford will have a pivotal role in United's footballing operations going forward.

Having previously operated as the performance director of British Cycling and leading Team Sky and INEOS Grenadiers to success, Ratcliffe is looking to him to help sculpt a successful future for United.

'Well, I think he [Brailsford] will be critically involved in the future of Manchester United,' Ratcliffe added.

'He’s interested in elite sport and performance, which is what Manchester United is and I think he’s been very, very successful in sport in cycling, but he’s generally viewed as one of the world’s best thoughtful people on the subject of sports performance.

'It’s for good reason. I’ve known Dave now for quite a few years. He is obsessive about performance in elite sports, and he is going to be very successful at Manchester United.'