Berrada sees move from money-men to those in the business of football

THE swift, secretive appointment of a renowned football operator with a bulging contacts book and a dizzying reputation is the kind of move United have decided against for the past decade.

- TYRONE MARSHALL

Omar Berrada's arrival later this year as the club's new chief executive is a very obvious step change for this club. Having opted for moneymen in Ed Woodward and Richard Arnold, United now have a figurehead steeped in the business of football.

It's a 180-degree change of direction and it's so sharp that it's got the fingerprints of INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe all over it. On Saturday night, United figures were painting it as an appointment by Joel and Avram Glazer, in consultation with Ratcliffe. But make no mistake, this was led and pushed for by Ratcliffe and his team.

In fact, almost everything United are doing at the moment is being led by INEOS. The Glazers have essentially become silent majority owners of one of the biggest football clubs in the world, while they let Ratcliffe get on with the business of sorting their mess out.

And he's wasting no time in doing just that. The Glazers will have signed off the statement confirming the arrival of Berrada, but you wonder what they made of the line that read: "The club is determined to put football and performance on the pitch back at the heart of everything we do."