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Manchester United's new owner Ratcliffe: "It took 3 years to catch Manchester City and Liverpool"
Immediately after taking office, he met with local media and said, "I will catch my noisy neighbors and other neighbors."
Jim Ratcliffe, the British billionaire who became the owner of the Manchester United soccer team, expressed his ambition to catch up with Manchester City and Liverpool (England) within three years.
Ratcliffe, founder of global chemical group Ineos and now co-owner of Manchester United, said in an interview with local media outlets including the Guardian on the 22nd (local time), "We have a lot to learn from our noisy neighbors and other neighbors."
He added: "I wouldn't be happy if we knocked them all down. 파워볼사이트
We're great teams in the north of England, especially close to each other."
The noisy neighbor is Manchester City, and the other neighbor is Liverpool.
Manchester United's legendary leader Alex Ferguson once described Manchester City, which shares Manchester as its hometown, as 'just a noisy neighbor'.
Liverpool is also a team that Manager Ferguson considered his ‘old enemy’.
However, since 2013, when Manager Ferguson stepped down as coach, Manchester City and Liverpool, not Manchester United, have led the way in English football.
Ratcliffe finally acquired a 27.7% stake in the club the day before and became a co-owner of Manchester United along with the American Glazer family.
Among the team owners, the overall operating rights of the football club belong only to Ratcliffe.
Ratcliffe, who is widely known to have passionately supported Manchester United since childhood, invested approximately 1.6 billion pounds (approximately 2.7 trillion won) in Manchester United through this transaction.
Ratcliffe, who met with the media for the first time since taking office as owner through this press conference, said, "Both teams (Man City and Liverpool) have been at a high level for a while.
We have a lot to learn," and "Both teams have a reasonable organization, great talent, and momentum."
“This is a place with a great work environment.
Even though we are enemies, I respect them very much,” he said, emphasizing that Manchester United cannot catch up with the two teams overnight.
Jim Ratcliffe gave fans a three-year window, saying: "The fans have to be patient.
I know the world these days loves instant gratification, but that's not the case in football."
"It's not a 10-year plan.
If it's a 10-year plan, the fans' patience will run out.
There's definitely a three-year plan to get there," he said.
Regarding the club's ups and downs after the 'Ferguson era', Ratcliffe said, "It was a period of complete misfortune."
If you were a supporter, it was 11 years of frustration.
I pointed it out.
At the same time, he presented winning the English Premier League and the UEFA Champions League (UCL) as clear goals.
In addition, he announced that he was considering expanding the home stadium, Old Trafford.
“There are two issues that come up again and again at Manchester United: one is the football, performance on the ground and the second is the stadium,” Ratcliffe said.
“There is a good option to refurbish Old Trafford, probably for £1 billion.
“It will cost 680 billion won,” he said.
He added, "If that happens, it will be a stadium that can accommodate 80,000 to 90,000 people, but the facilities attached to the railway line, etc. will need to be renovated.
It cannot be said to be a perfect plan at the moment."
Ratcliffe did not say anything about the future of coach Eric Tenhag, who leads the club.
Under the leadership of coach Ten Haag, who was appointed from the Glazer family system, Manchester United finished the 2022-2023 season in third place.
This season, Manchester United is in 6th place (14 wins, 2 draws, 9 losses).
Ratcliffe, who responded that it was an 'inappropriate question' to a question about his career as a manager, said, "There have been several managers in the 11 years (since Ferguson).
Some were very good," but he added, "But none of them were successful and none of them survived for long."
He said, “The conclusion that can be drawn from this is that the environment in which they worked was not properly effective,” and expressed his intention to focus on organizational reform rather than replacing the leadership.