Ratcliffe hoping to be new catalyst for change that Cantona brought

Since Christmas, with the young lads, they have played some fantastic football' SIR JIM RATCLIFFE

- SAMUEL LUCKHURST

HARRODS is the width of a couple of goalframes away from the entrance to the Ineos office. Expensive and tasteful art adorns the walls at reception and at 1.40 pm on a drizzly Wednesday afternoon, we are led up to the first floor.

Office space revolves around a plush open kitchen and Sir Dave Brailsford is on a Zoom call in one office. Sir Jim Ratcliffe later jokes 'he's listening through the wall.

We are escorted into a briefing room with 15 leather-bound office chairs placed around the rectangular table. What immediately catches the eye is a mannequin with a resplendent red shirt bearing the number '7' pulled over it.

The collar is pulled up. "I think that is Eric's shirt, actually," Ratcliffe quips.

It is the United home shirt between 1998-2000 - the Treblewinning shirt with the retro Umbro lining on the sleeves and a zip. Cantona only pulled it on once - in a Munich memorial testimonial in August 1998. It is a rare collectible Ratcliffe has no intention of donating to Classic Football Shirts.

"He was a maverick, obviously," Ratcliffe says. "He was the catalyst for change in Ferguson's era, wasn't he? And then that sort of kickstarted everything off. He was the sort of talisman." Laid out on a nearby tabletop is the United Review programme from Cantona's debut against Manchester City in November 1992, programmes from the 1968 European Cup final, the 1999 and 2008 Champions League finals, as well as the triumphant European Cup Winners' Cup final in 1991. A neatly folded Royal blue scarf bearing the Manchester coat of arms, with 'European Champions 1968' emblazoned on it, nestles next to the mementoes.

They are removed when Ineos officials are waiting for the final journalists to finish filing their copy.

In time, Ratcliffe will hope to permanently display contemporary United shirts synonymous with success.