Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s €100m Real Madrid bid for Manchester United hinges on two people

The desire to be more like Real Madrid is a target that almost every football club in Europe would aspire to at the moment. Champions of Europe for the sixth time in 11 seasons, playing in one of the most stunning stadiums in Europe, with a young squad that looks like it can improve. There’s a lot to like.

So when Sir Jim Ratcliffe says of Ineos’ ambitions for Manchester United that “we want to be where Real Madrid are today”, you can understand the sentiment. As two clubs that consider themselves among the biggest on the continent, there are also similarities.

What is most interesting about Real’s rise is their pivot to a period of dominance. They began their grip on the Champions League during Florentino Perez’s second Galacticos era, with the likes of Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo at the fore.

ALSO READ: Ratcliffe is right about UEFA’s transfer rules, but for the wrong reasons

READ ALSO: The 13 United players can rebuild the squad in the transfer window

But gradually they moved away from the pattern of signing superstars. Now, they have a team that was built through a two-pronged strategy. Sign experienced players on free transfers and spend on young players with room to develop.

This is a change of approach from a line in the sand in the summer of 2019, when Eden Hazard and Luka Jovic were the main arrivals for €160 million. They both fell.

This summer, Kylian Mbappe is the latest player to sign for Real out of contract, following the lead of Antonio Rudiger and David Alaba. From 2021, they spent fees to sign 18-year-old Eduardo Camavinga, 22-year-old Aurelien Tchouameni, 18-year-old Arda Guler, 19-year-old Jude Bellingham and Endrick in 16 years old. Vinicius and Rodrygo were also taken out of the Brazilian league at a young age.

It has become an almost unbeatable strategy. Bellingham alone cost more than €100 million, but according to respected German website Transfermarkt, six of the squad are now worth nine figures, including Camavinga, Tchouameni, Rodrygo, Bellingham and Vinicius.

It shows the importance of adding value to a player and all of those mentioned have improved at the Bernabeu. Carlo Ancelotti might be labeled as a hands-off coach and elite manager, but through training grounds and building a winning team, he has had a big hand in making all these players better than when they signed for the club.

Compare that to the team at Old Trafford. “Manchester United do not have any players valued at €100 million or more,” Ratcliffe told Bloomberg. Transfermarkt agrees with him, with Bruno Fernandes being the most valuable player in the squad at €70 million. Antony cost United the best part of €100m, but Transfermarkt now values ​​him at €25m.

That regression tells a story. That players tend to depreciate at Old Trafford rather than see value added to them. Fernandes is the only player who has clearly improved at United in recent years.

That could certainly change. Rasmus Hojlund (€60m), Kobbie Mainoo (€50m) and Alejandro Garnacho (€45m) all have the potential to hit the nine-figure valuation target. Many United fans will consider these values ​​below par as they are, but Hojlund and Garnacho have areas to sharpen in the final third. If Mainoo delivers another season like his last, he could soon be the best player on this team.

The lesson here is that in order to have the goal of having €100 million players in your squad, you need a system to add value to them. Ratcliffe has already made it clear that he has no intention of signing ready-made superstars.

That means United need a coaching staff capable of improving the players and developing a game plan that allows them to thrive on the pitch. For now, Ineos has backed Erik ten Hag as that man.

In his first season at the club, the Dutchman looked capable of that, helping to turn Marcus Rashford into a 30-goal-a-season striker. The second season followed a very different path.

They also need a recruiting team capable of finding players capable of stepping up. With the route to signing under-18s from Europe and South America now blocked, that’s a challenge and that’s why Ratcliffe was so willing to wait for Dan Ashworth to take over as sporting director.

If the combination of head coach and sporting director works out, then it should only be a matter of time before United have those €100m players that Ratcliffe wants.