Ineos has learned from its mistakes so do not expect huge transfer splurges at Manchester United

It comes with the territory for clubs with wealthy owners to get quoted inflated prices when they first enter the transfer market, and this was the case when Ineos entered the world of football six years ago with the purchase of FC Lausanne in Switzerland.

By Ineos’ own admission, those early days made it look naive in the market. That season Lausanne were relegated to the second-tier Swiss Challenge League and since have been promoted and relegated again. There were successes, such as the case of Dan Ndoye who went from the Academy and is currently playing in Bologna.

But some of those other initial signings included Simone Rapp, who arrived from Thun for a fee and was loaned out to St Gallen the following year. Enzo Zidane, son of the great Zinedine, came on a free but has slid down the divisions since in Spain. Francesco Margiotta, whose loan from Juventus was turned permanent, has recently joined Serie C club Sestri Levante after a spell in Australia.

There was naivety in terms of fan relations too, with traces still online of a petition when Lausanne supporters got wind of a possible change to the club badge, incorporating the Ineos logo, albeit subtly.

The task of Ineos was to learn the football market quickly, which is what it did, implementing a system where it was not making “chequebook plays” in the words of Bob Ratcliffe, brother of Ineos owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and once the company’s head of football. Its goals were not unlike many other clubs in finding “appreciating assets”.

Bob Ratcliffe, when sat down with Telegraph Sport in 2021, used a phrase more than once that would sum up the Ineos way when it came to its football operations. It wanted something that would “wash its face”. In other words, it would pay for itself rather than be reliant on Sir Jim pumping in millions after millions.

If you are a billionaire industrialist like Sir Jim Ratcliffe, worth £29.688 billion according to the Sunday Times Rich List, people may expect you to splash the cash on footballing luxuries. But Ineos’ strategy was different. It has bought OGC Nice and has not yet broken the £30million barrier for a player.

Finding value in the market over big transfers

As Ineos enters the Premier League with a 25 per cent stake of Manchester United, plus a control of football operations, history would suggest it will be more about value than heavy transfer splurges to get it right.

What Nice tried to do was find value in the market when Ineos initially took charge. While Paris Saint-Germain were paying Lionel Messi more than £1million a week in salary, Nice tried to find players who would increase in value. Amine Gouiri was signed for £6million from Lyon and after two years moved to Rennes for €28million.

Melvin Bard, a left-back, is another who was plucked from Lyon cheaply and he has been a regular in the current Nice team that are second in Ligue 1 behind PSG. At 23, Bard’s value is only increasing. But it has not all gone to plan. Kasper Dolberg cost £18.4 million from Ajax, then was sold to Anderlecht at a loss in the summer after two loans away from France.

And the direction in which the transfer policy was heading has been uncertain since Sir Dave Brailsford’s audit of the club. Bob Ratcliffe left his role, while transfer chief Julien Fournier resigned in the summer of 2022. Since then they have appeared haphazard in the market, recruiting Aaron Ramsey (contract terminated within a year), Ross Barkley (now at Luton) and Kasper Schmeichel (contract terminated in September).

They loaned Nicolas Pepe from Arsenal but when he returned to London Arsenal wrote off his £72 million fee and allowed him to join Trabzonspor.

Under Ratcliffe, they have performed worse than under the previous owners. So far there have been fifth-placed finishes and mid-table finishes, with hope that this year they can sustain a challenge and keep pace with PSG.

It is a crowded marking for clubs flipping players. Brighton have been admired by some who have worked at Ineos, and they do like Graham Potter who was at the Amex Stadium. Nice have lost ground during the last year or so but it was certainly their aim to be part of that race rather than spending like Chelsea did in the post-Roman Abramovich era.

Ineos has found that it is a crowded market in France too. PSG have the budget. Lille historically compete, Marseille is an iconic club. Monaco has favourable tax which is important with paying players. And there is Rennes, who bought Gouiri and have sold Jeremy Doku and Raphinha in recent seasons.

Interestingly, an advantage for Ineos has been their multi-sport investment. When Chris Froome was with Team Ineos, the Tour de France winner did some of his rehab at Nice’s facilities, rubbing shoulders with their football players. They have a level of detail suited to elite sport. When they bought Nice one of the key signings was Scott Brooks as grounds manager after his previous spells at Arsenal, Tottenham and St George’s Park.

His first job was to use the right grass on training pitches and reduce injuries, with the climate in the south of France among the most challenging.

At Nice, Sir Jim was known to get a report after every game from Galtier while he was at the club, then every two months an executive-committee meeting where the figures are analysed.

“If you look at the way my brother, Andy [Currie] and John [Reece] run the business, the assets acquired were undervalued and they operationally improved them,” Bob Ratcliffe said when speaking to Telegraph Sport in 2021. “Then you put the pieces together and it becomes a successful company. It runs very lean as a business.”

It looked at Portuguese clubs, which do well at “washing its face” but then Manchester United came on the market. A test of the Ineos principles, with all eyes on whether it can turn around the faltering club.