With Manchester United’s football operations now overseen by Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos, and masterminded by former British Cycling director Sir Dave Brailsford, football fans are debating whether the Red Devils are about to get back on track… or if the wheels are going to fall off completely.
Those curious as to how an expert from a different sport will fare in football need look back only as far as 2005 for their answer – to an era when Rugby World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward was named technical director at Southampton FC.
A close personal pal of then-Saints chairman Rupert Lowe, Woodward had been a regular spectator at the second-tier outfit’s Staplewood training ground for a while prior to his July 2005 appointment. The eggchasing empresario had suffered a disastrous spell in charge of the British & Irish Lions, following England’s historic World Cup triumph in 2003, and claimed he wanted a change of scenery.