Marginal gains? More like major shambles… Sir Dave Brailsford presided over Man Utd’s worst season for half a century
IT turns out Manchester United wasn’t the right place for ‘marginal gains’ man Sir Dave Brailsford.
Had Brailsford been the ‘bloody great whopping gains man’, then perhaps it might have been, because United aren’t failing by fine margins.
Last season they failed to win the title by 42 points, gaining exactly half as many as champions Liverpool.
They failed to qualify for Europe this year.
And, for years now, their player recruitment has failed to make any footballing or economic sense.
When Sir Jim Ratcliffe took over United’s footballing arm in December 2023, Brailsford — as Ineos director of sport — assumed a hands-on role at Old Trafford.
Brailsford was the billionaire’s eyes and ears, his most trusted lieutenant, and it was hoped his philosophy of ‘marginal gains’ — which made him so successful in cycling — would translate to football.
Yet just 18 months later, Brailsford relinquishes his day-to-day duties at the club with United further away than ever from where they want to be.
Brailsford had forged his reputation in cycling on those ‘marginal gains’ — think of everything that goes into riding a bike, improve them all by one per cent, add them up and you have a significant increase in performance.
Which is all well and good when it comes to the singular act of cycling.
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Not so much when it comes to the very many more moving parts that make up a massively underachieving football club.
Back at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where his Team GB cyclists racked up eight gold medals, Brailsford was widely regarded as the finest mind in sport.
By 2012, when Britain won another eight golds in the London velodrome, and Brailsford’s Team Sky had taken their stranglehold on the Tour de France Yellow Jersey, it was ‘arise Sir Dave’.
But a lot of effluent had passed under the bridge between that high watermark and Brailsford’s arrival at Old Trafford more than a decade later.
By then, his reputation had taken a battering — there had been allegations about the contents of a jiffy bag, the employment of ‘Therapeutic Use Exemptions’ for banned drugs, as well as accusations of bullying under Brailsford’s watch from some of his most successful cyclists.
While clearly a brilliant man in many ways, Brailsford was damaged goods by the time he rocked up at United.
And those who have tried to bring ideas from other sports into football have tended to fail — World Cup-winning rugby coach Sir Clive Woodward’s spell at Southampton being a prime example.
Brailsford — who is 61 but only celebrated his 15th birthday last year, due to him being born on February 29 — played a key part in Ratcliffe’s Old Trafford ‘politburo’.
He was instrumental in the Carrington training ground refurbishment and staff job cuts, as well as in the appointment of Ruben Amorim as manager.
Brailsford led ‘Mission 21’ to deliver United’s 21st league title, which forms part of ‘Project 150’ to mark the club’s 150th anniversary in 2028 — because these people always have to have a ‘mission’ and they always have to have a ‘project’.
But the idea of United being crowned champions within three years looks pie in the sky after what was comfortably the club’s worst season for half a century.
Brailsford has come and gone, Dan Ashworth — one of the most well-regarded administrators in football — has been and gone within five months.
The same period of time he served on gardening leave after Ratcliffe poached him from Newcastle.
Former Manchester City bigwig Omar Berrada remains in post as chief executive after winning his power struggle with Ashworth, while Jason Wilcox has been promoted from ‘technical director’ to ‘director of football’.
At least, for the time being.
Brailsford remains on United’s board but is expected to devote more time to the Ineos Grenadiers cycling team, as well as Ratcliffe’s other football club, Nice.
His time at United has been a curious one but rather than marginal gains, he presided over a major shambles.