Manchester United co-owner has hailed the influence of technical director Jason Wilcox, describing him as “the eyes” of the club amid their ongoing efforts to catch up in data analytics.
Wilcox joined United in April last year from Southampton. Initially, his remit was working on all technical areas of the football department to hit the highest standards of performance but his role slightly changed following the departure of Dan Ashworth, who served as sporting director for just five months.
A report covered by The Peoples Person relayed that Wilcox assumed the bulk of Ashworth’s responsibilities.
Ratcliffe, in an interview with The Times, detailed how Wilcox has been bridging the gap for United as they struggle to keep pace with rival clubs that are far ahead in data analytics.
Ratcliffe told the newspaper, “The biggest correlation is between success and money. But then Manchester United broke the mould, because they spent the money so poorly. Then another thing came into play, which was hugely underestimated and Manchester United never saw it. They didn’t notice that there were two clubs who used to be in the third tier in 2006-07, a third of the size of United, who were both bought by betting companies.”
“Who had immense amounts of computing power and data analysis and with a much, much smaller budget, spent their money so much better than Manchester United that they are now ahead of them.”
“United completely missed the data revolution, which Brighton and Brentford didn’t, which Liverpool didn’t either. Liverpool had Ian Graham analysing data between 2012 and 2023. They brought in Jürgen Klopp and they had Michael Edwards as sporting director and Graham, who is the genius in football on data analytics.”
“So you had that team of three who then built an extremely intelligent squad between 2015 and 2018 that went on to win everything on the planet. Edwards, who would look at 20 videos for every player that they considered buying, and Graham, who would look at the data of every single minute that footballer had played in his life. And then he had Klopp who had a footballer’s view.”
“Graham was the forerunner and United missed out. We’re still missing out, because we still don’t have data analysis at United. All we’ve got is Jason’s eyes. And Jason, for me, is a guy at the coal face. He ran the academy at Manchester City. Txiki Begiristain, I know, thought Jason had the best eyes in the club.”
“He’s a warm character, he’s got a sense of humour, he knows what he’s talking about, he’s got a really good relationship with Ruben. So, you know, if you compare that with last season when we had Erik and John Murtough [as football director], it’s chalk and cheese.”
“Jason knows what’s working, what’s not working in terms of how Ruben’s playing, his system, which players he’s picking, which players we are going to buy in the future. And Jason’s got views on all of those things. And when I listen to Jason speak, I get what he’s saying.”
Ratcliffe added, “But what he can’t do is watch every match. And that’s what the computer does. The computer can watch every match that every player has played in every league for every year they’ve ever played football. So you have to marry the two pieces of data and then it tells you something. And that’s what Brighton and Brentford have done.”
“And also it’s then much easier to spot the younger talent because the computer does that. Jason can tell you every good 21-year-old, but not every good 16-year-old.”
“So build a management team, then we have to get it back onto a stable footing, and this is our unpleasant year, when we have to make all those not particularly nice decisions, letting people go, that sort of stuff. That’ll all be done in the summer and then it’s about recruitment. You can have a fancy stadium, but if you haven’t got recruitment right you’re not going to win football matches.”
The British businessman admitted that French outfit Nice have been a lot better since INEOS’ reduced involvement in their affairs, as a result of multi-club ownership rules.
He went on to point out how Chelsea were initially hammered for their recruitment decisions under Todd Boehly and Clearlake’s ownership but in hindsight, it seems that they did well. Ratcliffe predicted that it will be the same for United.
The 72-year-old continued, “I genuinely believe in the things that we’re doing, and I do think that we’ve got the right people in place. I don’t think we’ll get there without making more mistakes because we’re not perfect, but I do think the trajectory will start to step up after the summer.”
“What we want is a lean, efficient, elite organisation of about 700 people, not a fat organisation where people are not really focused, confused because there are too many people doing too many things that are not really relevant or important. And to be honest with you, if I fail, I’ll step down. But I don’t think I’ll fail. As soon as we start playing good football and start winning, it will change.”
United are back in action on Sunday when they go away to Leicester City.
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