In the midst of Manchester United’s thrilling 3-2 win over Aston Villa on Tuesday, a figure sat calmly in the Old Trafford stands processing what had just occurred.
While majority of fans might not have recognized Dave Brailsford, he is likely to become a familiar figure over the coming months.
INEOS founder Jim Ratcliffe’s 25% acquisition of the team will not be officially signed off until early 2024, but Brailsford will be thinking about what needs to change at a club that has been in steady decline since Alex Ferguson retired.
Fans may wonder what a cycling powerhouse figure like Brailsford could bring to a football team, but Ratcliffe has placed huge trust in his attention to detail and scientific approach.
United fan Ratcliffe, whose 25% purchase plus investment of $300 million will give him control of football operations, has been tight-lipped about what the new regime will bring.
Newcastle United’s sporting director Dan Ashworth has no doubt about Brailsford’s credentials, stating that he is the best in world sport at creating high-performance culture and turning that into winning.
Brailsford joined British Cycling in 1998 and became Performance Director in 2003. A year later, at the Athens Olympics, two gold medals were delivered.
In 2008 and 2012, Britain topped the Olympic cycling medals tables with eight golds, and Brailsford was instrumental in the success of athletes like Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, and Victoria Pendleton.
When Brailsford led the newly-formed Team Sky professional road cycling team in 2009 and vowed a Briton would win the Tour de France for the first time, he was met with skepticism. However, Bradley Wiggins won the race in 2012.
Brailsford masterminded 12 Grand Tour wins for Team Sky, but their domination has waned in recent years. The question now is whether Brailsford can have a similar impact at United, whose last Premier League title was in 2013.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Ed Osmond)
