Sir Jim Ratcliffe kept first part of his promise now he must complete the deal at Man United
When Sir Jim Ratcliffe completed his minority investment in Manchester United, there was an understanding that the club were not going to spend money as brashly as they had in years gone by.
While the promise of Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al-Thani's proposal was for unlimited spend, there was an understanding that Ineos did not have the funds to spend wildly. The course of cost cutting measures from Ratcliffe in the months that have followed hammered that point home beyond doubt.
Despite making a reasonable start to the gutting of the United squad, the Reds continued to be cautious with their approach to transfers. In the January transfer window, United focused on looking for bargains rather than established stars.
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Even while Bayern Munich's Alphonso Davies was available on a pre-contract agreement, Ratcliffe and his recruitment team turned their backs on that deal and instead focused on the signing of teenager Diego Leon and Patrick Dorgu to strengthen their left side. The duo were quintessential of the Ineos philosophy and resurrected memories of Ratcliffe's comments about Kylian Mbappe at the start of his first summer transfer window in Manchester.
"I don't think the solution is to buy an Mbappe," he told The Times CEO Summit. "We are more grassroots than that.
"One player is not going to solve the problem at Manchester United. The first thing we need to do is build a balanced squad and ultimately maybe top it off with one or two players like Mbappe.
"It will take two or three summer windows to get to a better place." Ratcliffe promised a focus on youth with these comments and he has delivered that so far.
However, there was also an expectation of one or two superstar names and that pushes the pressure onto the summer transfer window to make that happen. One place where youth will not help United is at centre-forward and Ratcliffe must now fulfil the other end of his promise and add some much needed star power to the club.
