Sir Dave Brailsford is set to reduce his involvement at Manchester United as part of a restructuring initiative led by minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe. The move comes after a disappointing season for the club and signals a new phase in Ratcliffe’s vision for United’s future.
Brailsford, a key figure in Ratcliffe’s sporting ventures, played a prominent role at Old Trafford following Ratcliffe’s acquisition of a minority stake in the club in early 2024. Having stepped down from his long-standing position as team principal of the Ineos Grenadiers cycling team, Brailsford took on the task of spearheading football operations at United. He was instrumental in driving a series of reforms aimed at restoring the club’s competitive edge, including a £50 million redevelopment of the Carrington training ground and the implementation of new performance and analytics frameworks.
However, United’s 2024–25 campaign ended in dismal fashion. The team slumped to a 15th-place finish in the Premier League the worst in the club’s history and lost in the Europa League final to domestic rivals Tottenham Hotspur. The poor results have prompted Ratcliffe to reassess the structure of leadership at the club, resulting in Brailsford’s return to his broader role as director of sport across the Ineos portfolio.
Brailsford’s departure from day-to-day football operations at United does not mark a complete exit from the Ineos sporting ecosystem. Instead, he will resume overseeing Ineos’s various sports interests, including cycling, sailing, and motorsports. Though Ineos has recently scaled back its involvement in certain areas such as ending its sponsorship of the New Zealand rugby team and abandoning its pursuit of the America’s Cup it remains fully invested in the Grenadiers cycling team.
As part of this reshuffle, preparations are already underway for a leadership transition at the Grenadiers. Geraint Thomas, the decorated Welsh cyclist and Tour de France winner, is expected to step into a leading role within the team once he retires from competitive racing at the end of the 2025 season. Thomas, who turns 40 this year, has indicated that the Tour of Britain in September will be his final race before retirement. His move into management reflects a broader effort to reinvigorate the team, which has not enjoyed the same dominance in recent years as it did during its peak between 2012 and 2019, when it won seven of eight Tour de France titles.
Meanwhile, at Manchester United, the reshuffle suggests Ratcliffe is preparing to bring in a new leadership team to guide the club forward. Having invested not just financially but also strategically in reshaping the club’s structure, Ratcliffe’s next moves will likely focus on reinforcing the footballing department with figures possessing deep experience in elite football.
The transition marks a significant shift in how Ineos balances its sporting commitments and in how Ratcliffe envisions success across different disciplines. While Brailsford’s influence was instrumental in implementing initial reforms at Old Trafford, the return to a more traditional sporting director role across Ineos suggests a consolidation of responsibilities aimed at maximizing performance across its entire sports portfolio.
