Sir Jim Ratcliffe could appoint Mercedes F1 engineer as part of Man Utd overhaul
Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is ready to use his F1 contacts and convince a Mercedes engineer to join the Premier League outfit to enhance their data team
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is ready to delve into the world of Formula 1 for Manchester United's next piece of recruitment. The INEOS boss, who is also an investor in the Mercedes team, is considering hiring an engineer from their setup to help revolutionise the Red Devils' data analysis.
Ratcliffe could appoint Mercedes engineer Michael Sansoni as he looks to improve the club's use of data, bringing them up to par with the clubs around them. The billionaire has been vocal in how the Premier League side have been poor in the way they've used data, especially when it comes to recruitment.
Ratcliffe's Ineos are part-owners of the Mercedes F1 team and the BBC reports that it would ease the negotiations were the Manchester outfit to pursue Sansoni. The individual himself is understood to be ready to call an end on his near 11-year stint with the the F1 team.
United's work in the transfer market has been their Achilles heel for more than a decade with over a billion spent on new players, resulting in little success. The club have continued to overspend, failing to get a return on their investment.
READ MORE: Roy Keane takes aim at Bruno Fernandes for what Man Utd skipper does in interviewsREAD MORE: Gary Neville tears into Man Utd flops and tells Ruben Amorim his biggest problemRatcliffe previously told United We Stand: "Until we're are as good as anyone in the world, then it's not good enough for Manchester United. We must have the best recruitment in the world. Data analysis comes alongside recruitment. It doesn't really exist here. We're still in the last century on data analysis here.
"There's an immense amount of useful data that we can get from data analysis and we're in the 'very poor' bracket with data analysis here. These things don't happen overnight."
Ratcliffe and his hierarchy oversaw the club's most recent summer of recruitment, which has already been widely criticised. They oversaw the signings of Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui - all of whom have struggled to hit the heights expected in what has been a poor season.
Dan Ashworth, who arrived as the club's sporting director, was ushered out of the door after just five months with Ratcliffe admitting the move didn't work out. He was part of the group that helped decide on the club's recruitment strategy with Ruben Amorim needing a big window if he is to turn the team's fortunes around.
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