Sir Jim Ratcliffe saw the funny side of Old Trafford’s leaky roof by saying they have ‘the third-highest waterfall in Britain’.
The INEOS owner purchased a 25 per cent stake in Manchester United earlier this year and immediately took control of sporting matters at the club.
This includes overseeing the club’s transfer business, as well as managing the overall football operation – including the future of Erik ten Hag, who will remain as head coach next year.
Despite admitting to finding ‘lots of bad surprises’ since walking through the door at Man United, Ratcliffe is determined to help the club to return to their former glory as they aim to compete with the world’s biggest sides once again.
As well as hoping to battle Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal in the Premier League, Ratcliffe has his sights set on Real Madrid.
For years Manchester United and Real Madrid were seen as the biggest clubs in world football, both on and off the pitch, but Ratcliffe has laid bare the work that the Red Devils have to do to catch up with the Spanish giants once again.
Speaking at the The Times CEO summit, Ratcliffe said: “Since the day that Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill retired which was 11 seasons ago and you compare Manchester United with Real Madrid – who have consistently performed well – they are consistently performing where Manchester United should be performing today.
“The net spend on players – and what I mean by net spend is money we’ve spent on players and the money we’ve got back on players – is that Man United is £1.1billion and rather surprisingly, Real Madrid is £200million.
“We’ve got some really good players at Manchester United and some really good young players but let’s be blunt, if you look at the squad of Real Madrid and that of Manchester United – Real Madrid have seven players who are valued at over £100million, if you look at Transfermarkt.
“Man United don’t have any players worth over £70-£80million.
“With the £900million that Real Madrid are better than Manchester United they’ve built the best football ground in the world, the new Bernabeu, which is absolutely spectacular.
“In 11 seasons they’ve got a better squad and managed to build the Bernabeu while we’ve got a ground which, you know, that one headline said had the third highest waterfall in Britain.”
Ratcliffe’s frank assessment left the room in stitches as he referenced the leaky roof that has seen water cascading down between the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand and East Stand on several occasions.
Cristiano Ronaldo famously illustrated Manchester United’s lack of investment in an interview with Piers Morgan Uncensored in late 2022, saying that ‘nothing changed’ in the 12 years between his first and second spell at the club.
Restoring Man United’s facilities and reputation to a world-class level will take plenty of time and money, but that won’t deter the INEOS owner, with Ratcliffe describing his investment in Manchester United as ‘a labour of love’.
He explained: “What underpins it is that nobody, me particularly, likes losing money. So investing in something and the value of it going down.
“I don’t think that the investment I’ve ever made in Manchester United will ever lose money, but then I’ve no interest in ever selling it so I’m not interested in ever making money, if that makes sense.
“It’s a labour of love, really.”