Ratcliffe, Ten Hag & winning over Man Utd fans: January opportunity to be seized

COMMENT: Manchester United's two incoming knights know the value of seizing a moment - an opportunity - when it appears. And for Jim Ratcliffe and Dave Brailsford such a chance to strike an instant rapport with fans does loom this coming January...

He wants that celebratory signing. That player to instantly excite the base and get them onside. That's what we're hearing about Sir Jim Ratcliffe from down the line. With work being done behind-the-scenes to have his 25 per cent stake rubberstamped before Christmas, there is an expectation from inside Ratcliffe's camp that the January market will be the first window of this new era.

And as we say, he wants to make a splash. Not so much for ego, but out of concern. Ratcliffe knows the support are frustrated. Just as he knows management feel the same. It was out of the billionaire's hands, but the confusion and delays over the club's ownership structure has cost them in the market. We know that the £100m needed to beat Arsenal to Declan Rice was never made available to Erik ten Hag. Just as we know the prospect of outbidding Bayern Munich for Harry Kane was never on the table.

United may have still been outsiders in both battles, but they never even made it to the starting line. With the club's sale process lurching from one false promise to the next, the money that should've been there to compete was withdrawn. Instead of Rice, Ten Hag made do with his old Utrecht protégé Sofyan Amrabat on a straight loan. And those plans around Kane arriving to work and mentor Rasmus Hojlund never made their way off the drawing board. The biggest club in the world. The most popular club in the world. Yet they were reduced to counting their pennies in the final days of the summer market.

Again,