Inside the power battles at the heart of the new Manchester United
Over the past few months, Jean-Claude Blanc has kept a line of dialogue open with Zinedine Zidane. Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos and Blanc, the chief executive of its sports arm, have long been admirers of the former Real Madrid manager. That level of Champions League success is naturally what Ineos is aspiring to at Manchester United.
This isn’t to say that Zidane is set to take over at Old Trafford in the summer, but it is a connection the group is naturally keeping open.
It similarly feeds into the feeling around Erik ten Hag’s future. Virtually everyone is saying it is up in the air. Ineos is monitoring everything and consulting, and will make the decision it best sees fit.
That will, of course, be based on much more than one game but was all the more unfortunate given it came at a crucial time, just before Sunday’s Manchester.
