Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s ‘Five Strict Rules’ are preventing summer moves for Tuchel and Real Madrid duo

Erik ten Hag remains Manchester United manager, but Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his gang have written some rules that could see the Dutchman part ways by mutual consent and discourage any decent alternatives from taking his place.

Are “five strict rules”, all designed to ensure that the new (or current) Manchester United boss is no boss at all; barely a head coach actually.

We have come up with five summer changes – which we believe would be beneficial for the Red Devils – which are now not possible under the new guidelines.

No next Robin Van Persie
It says something for Ratcliffe’s first rule of not signing players over the age of 25 that we had to go back over a decade to Sir Alex Ferguson’s last summer transfer window to find an irrefutable example of when that rule would have ruined Manchester United.

Bruno Fernandes would have slipped through the net at the age of 25 and while Juan Mata, Raphael Varane, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani weren’t disastrous additions, United probably wouldn’t have achieved much less without them , and each of their salaries could have covered two, maybe three, younger alternatives.

Obviously, the circumstances in which Van Persie arrived were different. In three, four, five or ten years’ time, when United next challenge for the title, they may decide to break their rule to find a final piece of the puzzle like the Dutchman. But in truth, after a season where Rasmus Hojlund struggled to cope with the responsibility of being the main and only man up front, United could probably do with an experienced striker to ease the burden.

The benefits of someone like Joselu, with which they were connectedis that he won’t cost much, won’t be expected to play that often, but can take pressure off Hojlund while giving him advice.

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Not Harry Kane
We’re on the same rule here, bear with us. We thought it worth pointing out to Sir Jim how useful signing players over the age of 25 can be. Sure, the curse of the Kane trophy has now infected Bayern Munich, but the 30-year-old scored 44 goals in his debut season with the German giants and has managed 184 goals in the past five seasons.

Robert Lewandowski scored 26 goals at the age of 35 this term for Barcelona, ​​was still playing for Borussia Dortmund when he was 25 and scored 441 goals in the years of infirmity that followed. We don’t have the time or inclination to find out how many goals Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo have scored since turning 25, but you get the idea.

For your viewing pleasure, here are some players that Manchester United are currently unable to sign: Lautaro Martinez, Bruno Guimaraes, Nicolo Barella, Douglas Luiz, Leroy Sane, Ollie Watkins, Bremer, Ousmane Dembele, Joao Palhinha, Raphinha, Benjamin Pavard, Jarrod Bowen, Kingley Coman, Dani Olmo, Ivan Toney, Joshua Kimmich.

And critical, for player, club and the sanity of gossip columnistsManchester United will not sign Frenkie De Jong.

No Rodrygo or Vinicius Junior
We can’t help but feel that the first two rules – the second being “No Galactics” – and possibly the fourth and fifth, which we’ll cover but relate to the manager picking players from the market, were made for avoid. Casemiro is happening again. Ratcliffe cited the midfielder’s £60m signing as a reason to shake things up at United, perhaps given his age and the Galactico fee.

There’s no doubt now, but it was also pretty clear then that signing a 30-year-old on a four-year contract worth £350,000-a-week was not good business. But giving up on the Galacticos means they won’t be in the running for players who have a strong chance of becoming superstars at Old Trafford.

United have been linked, somewhat falsely, with both Rodrygo and Vinicius Junior on the slim assumption that one of the Brazilian duo would make way for Kylian Mbappe.

Now, despite qualifying for the Europa League, there is no chance United will have the £100m-plus available to sign either of them, especially given Ralf Rangnick’s predicted ‘open heart surgery’ needed to rebuild the entire team. But down the line, if and when United return to the Champions League and maintain revenue, a ready-made world-class signing would still not be acceptable.

No Next Jurgen Klopp
If you were around in the 90s and you were told that one day Blackburn winger Jason Wilcox would have total control over the style of football played by every Manchester United team from the under 9s to the first team , without having been a coach himself. , you would ask the person spinning the yarns to give up the hallucinogens.

The third rule is that technical director Wilcox will decide the entire club’s on-field philosophy and it is expected to be a possession-based style. It’s not much of a surprise given that Wilcox worked at Manchester City for a decade, who implemented a similar academy with a first-team ethos based on what are likely to be very similar principles that saw Phil Foden and Rico Lewis seamlessly transitioning into the first team and others. – Douglas Luiz, Cole Palmer – continue to do brilliant things elsewhere.

But wasn’t this City style pioneered by Guardiola? Maybe it doesn’t matter because most senior managers now want to control possession, but it feels like they’re going about it the wrong way. For example, Liverpool would not have employed Jurgen Klopp and his heavy metal style of transition if similar restrictions had been applied to Liverpool.

It feels like they’re restricting their pool of head coaching options to not-so-good head coaches, because anyone worth it certainly isn’t going to take kindly to being told how their team is going to play before going into practice. step.

READ MORE: Five reasons why Man Utd fans should be happy with Jason Wilcox as technical director

Not Thomas Tuchel
Thomas Tuchel Current third favorite to replace Erik ten Haghe is highly unlikely to join Manchester United based on the third, fourth and fifth Ratcliffe rules.

He will not want the style of football he plays to be dictated by Mr Wilcox and, given he is believed to have left Chelsea in part because of disagreements over player acquisitions and a lack of authority over signings, he will not be eager to not be able to claim certain players (rule four) or then be sent three options for the position he designates as needing reinforcement (rule five).

There is a feeling – not just at United but at Liverpool, Chelsea and elsewhere – that the old guard, and Tuchel is perhaps one of the newer members of that brigade, need to move with the times and just accept that data is king; that the recruiting team and sporting directors know best when it comes to the transfer market.

They either like it or they screw it up. Mauricio Pochettino did the latter at Chelsea and we suspect Tuchel and other experienced managers will be of a similar mind.