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Ineos’ Sir Dave Brailsford has recently stepped back from his role as a performance consultant for Manchester United, but he certainly left quite the impression.
The man who made his name in cycling, was highly involved in one of the most turbulent times in the club’s recent history.
He will remain a board member but he has taken a step back from day-to-day operations at the club as United’s hierarchy has settled on Omar Berrada, Jason Wilcox and Christopher Vivell as the main decision makers on footballing matters.
The Telegraph have taken a deep dive into Brailsford’s rocky time at the forefront of the club and have used the accounts of numerous inside sources who worked with the Ineos man at United.
Described as a “deeply polarising” figure around the club, he regularly failed to make a particularly good impression in his weekly round table meetings with executives from the men’s and women’s teams, academy, recruitment and other departments around the club.
The coming togethers were sold as a way to really delve into what was going on around the club but insiders have a different interpretation of how these events would actually turn out.
In one such meeting, “according to well-placed sources, he proceeded to talk predominantly about himself and his hopes for United for the next half an hour before having to excuse himself to take a phone call. He did not return to the meeting. It was the last time some of those present heard directly from him.”
Many staff members also felt that they had been misled when Brailsford spoke at the beginning of his tenure of the need for a carrot and stick approach. One member of staff claimed that Brailsford failed to live up to this standard early on. They stated, “it was all we’re taking this off you, we’re taking that off you, you’re not having this bonus and so on.”
Some workers also claimed that that he often gave off the impression “that he was in some way ‘doing us a favour’ as one source put it.” This naturally “irked some at United” and transmitted the message that he was only there for the short haul and ‘merely passing through’.”
“At another all-staff address last year, which had been pitched as an update on football operations, was regarded by some as little more than a repetition of the same performance-speak and business jargon in what one source dubbed ‘the court of Dave’, than anything of real substance.”
What’s more, some of the players were even said to have picked up on Brailsford’s often frequent lack of humility around the club.
His problem was not only attitude, however. “Brailsford’s turbulent tenure at United will forever be intertwined with the debacles around Erik ten Hag and Dan Ashworth, when there was not a lot of clear thinking in evidence.”
He was fundamentally involved in the two week farce that eventually saw Erik ten Hag keep his job at the end of May 2024, then spend £200 million in the transfer market, to finally get sacked just two months later.
In addition, “Ten Hag’s departure was followed less than six weeks later by that of Ashworth, whom United had spent five months trying to extract from Newcastle on Brailsford’s recommendation as the ideal sporting director, only to sack him 159 days later.”
Some even questioned what the Ineos man even really knew about football, having his sporting background in cycling. He even admitted himself in an interview that “when I watch cycling, I’ll be watching in colour and you’ll be watching in black and white. But, in football, I’m watching in black and white.”
Nonetheless, it would be wrong to claim Brailsford only left a negative mark on the club.
Some sources asserted he was always “pleasant and very polite” and others stated that he was always going to shake things up due to United’s failures in the recent past.
Others opined that he could be “charming” and certainly had a significant amount of charisma. The problem was it wasn’t always on show.
He also had “considerable involvement” in the extensive work carried out around Carrington, which has been widely praised.
All in all, “Brailsford leaves behind a more rounded football executive than six months ago” but his influence is certainly up for debate with opinions “split” on whether his time was generally positive or negative, with numerous staff members left less than impressed with his work.
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
