Sir Dave Brailsford was an architect of Man Utd's ‘disaster' season but his legacy is still salvageable

New York Times

a day ago

Fifteenth in the final league table. Their joint-fewest points since the club's most recent relegation more than a half-century ago. No European football next season for the first time in more than a decade. A 'disaster' of a campaign, all in all, as the team's head coach himself freely admits.
But there will at least be a fancy new hydration point in the revamped canteen at the training ground next season.
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Marginal gains, indeed.
Sir Dave Brailsford is stepping back from his role at Manchester United following yet another reshuffle of Old Trafford's leadership team under co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
And perhaps it should be no surprise that the high priest of high performance in UK sport will be taking on diminished responsibilities following the club's lowest top-flight finish since they ended up second-bottom in 1974.
Yet Brailsford's withdrawal from United duties is being described as a natural evolution by sources within Ratcliffe's INEOS empire, who asked to remain anonymous to protect their positions. They portray it as his work embedding a new management structure at United over the past 18 months now being complete.
The 61-year-old will return to his wider portfolio at INEOS Sport, including his true passion of cycling, increasing his level of support to the latter's INEOS Grenadiers team. He will still be involved in United's affairs and keeps his seat on the club's board of directors.
Brailsford had been less of a presence around United's Carrington training complex of late in any case, although that was at least partly because he suffered a broken leg on a skiing holiday earlier this year and has spent time recovering at his home in Monaco.
But even before that unfortunate accident, there had been scepticism among figures who know Brailsford over whether his day-to-day involvement with United would last beyond the end of the season.
Initial impressions of Brailsford among club staff were positive. He did most of the talking when he and Ratcliffe addressed employees for the first time in January last year, speaking frankly about the club's underperformance and future challenges.
One of Brailsford's first presentations to the players left such an impression on forward Marcus Rashford that — days after missing training following a night out in Belfast — he requested a one-on-one meeting. Brailsford then had further individual chats with every squad member.
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Yet amid a whirlwind start, which involved shaking as many hands around Carrington as possible in the days following the agreement of Ratcliffe's share purchase, some were left with the impression he was attempting too much, too soon and spreading himself too thinly as a result.
Other interactions with United personnel were less impressive than that first meeting — one reference to sacrificing lavish Monaco for rainy Manchester went down poorly — or betrayed the sense that, by Brailsford's own admission, when he watches football, he is 'watching in black and white'.
Clearly, his established reputation for delivering best-in-class, elite processes has not been immediately reflected in the team's results. And even away from the pitch, focusing purely on decisions taken by United's sporting leadership, there are already several blots on INEOS's copybook.
Brailsford was part of the botched process which led to manager Erik ten Hag having his job security undermined, his contract extended and his employment ultimately terminated all in the space of five months, although he was far from the defining voice in that debate.
He was more influential in the decision to target, pursue and eventually appoint Dan Ashworth as sporting director, having collaborated with him during the latter's time at the Football Association.
Ashworth's swift demise — again, after just five months — might have damaged Brailsford's standing but if anything it increased his level of responsibility, creating a vacancy within United's hierarchy that he, chief executive Omar Berrada and technical director Jason Wilcox, two more INEOS choices, needed to fill.
Even then, not all of Brailsford's instincts and ideas were acted upon. He had reservations over United's habit of touring far-flung destinations in pre-season and prioritised player recovery over the commercial benefits of packed schedules.
The fact head coach Ruben Amorim and his players have just got back from Malaysia and Hong Kong after United's first post-season tour in 39 years, ahead of spending a chunk of pre-season in the United States, shows where priorities ultimately lie.
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There was also the mixed response to his launch of 'Mission 21' and 'Mission 1', initiatives to win United's 21st and first Premier League and Women's Super League titles respectively, ideally dovetailing with 'Project 150', the club's 150th anniversary in 2028.
While some at Carrington note the arbitrariness of those targets, or understandably scoff at suggestions to print T-shirts and banners bearing those slogans, part of their purpose was to shake the club from a stupor, having not won the Premier League since 2013. Brailsford noted an inertia about United during his first few months in Manchester, a lack of purpose and motivation.
It is not an uncommon complaint — something even Amorim has echoed when he said United as a club were in need of a 'shock' while nosediving towards the relegation zone in December — and, ultimately, one that Brailsford's blue-sky thinking has not fully resolved.
But ask Ratcliffe and he would chiefly describe Brailsford's purpose at United as improving elite performance — best illustrated by the £50million redevelopment of the men's training building at Carrington, announced last summer, which is scheduled to open in time for the players' return in early August from that trip to the States.
Easy quips about hydration stations aside, Brailsford's impact on United is only likely to be felt on this wider, overarching scale and over the longer term.
One of his priorities in the early days under Ratcliffe was to make key, high-ranking appointments quickly, to create a sense of momentum. But as he now retreats into the shadows, his chief legacy may be in how the executive team he helped put in place now fare.
Ashworth's appointment was clearly a mistake, wherever the blame for it may lie. Berrada led on the identification and securing of Amorim as Ten Hag's November successor, but the jury is most definitely out on whether he will be a success.
And to coincide with Brailsford stepping back, Wilcox takes on the title of director of football — a position he last held for little more than a year at Southampton, largely while they were in the second-tier Championship.
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Wilcox has fulfilled many of the duties typical of the role while serving as technical director, and is highly regarded after his six years as youth academy director at Manchester City, but this summer will be his greatest test yet.
There can be no doubt that he and Berrada are the key figures in United's football operations now, a structure Brailsford helped build. And from now on, the gains need to be more than marginal.