Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS continue on their quest to irritate as many clubs as possible in a bid to build a new team behind the scenes at Old Trafford to provide the best possible chance for on-pitch success.
After pinching Omar Berrada from Manchester City to become the new CEO and Dan Ashworth from Newcastle to take on sporting director duties, they’ve now ‘angered’ Southampton by tapping up their director of football Jason Wilcox, who looks set to become United’s technical director.

Wilcos represents another coup for the new Red Devils regime, with Liverpool also supposedly interested in luring him to Anfield, and we’ve come up with five reasons the United fans should be happy with his appointment.
 
Cole Palmer
Palmer, Chelsea and England owe Wilcox a huge debt of gratitude. The player tied with Jude Bellingham as the Under-21 player with the most goal contributions (30) in Europe’s top five leagues this season was set to be released from the Manchester City academy as a 16-year-old, before Wilcox stepped in.
Then the academy manager – having started as the head coach of the Under 18s at City – Wilcox advocated for Palmer to be handed a professional contract, convinced by the playmaker’s ability to force his way into the first team despite doubts from others in the academy set-up.
Wilcox described Palmer’s journey from the academy to the first team as “hugely inspiring”, as is the case with Phil Foden, Rico Lewis and Oscar Bobb, all of whom benefited either directly from Wilcox’s coaching, or through the academy structure and ethos he played a huge part in creating in a ten-year span which has seen the club’s youth system emerge as one of the world’s best.
Related video: Erik ten Hag says he's 'disappointed' after Manchester Utd 1-1 draw (Daily Mail)

 
Academy success and sales
Last season, the Manchester City Under-18s and Under-21s won their respective Premier League league titles for a third consecutive season. It was an unprecedented achievement.
United’s academy used to be the best in town, but it has been eclipsed in every sense by City’s, which boasts some of the best training facilities in the world, allied with some top coaches. Wilcox used to be one of them, until he was promoted to oversee the smooth running of what has turned into a title-winning, money-making machine.
Because those players who haven’t made the cut to thrive in Guardiola’s team have been sold for big money, in many cases purely on the strength of their displays through the age groups.
Last summer they sold goalkeeper James Trafford to Burnley for £19m, Shea Charles joined Southampton for a fee that could rise to £15m, Taylor Harwood-Bellis also signed for Southampton on loan with a £20m obligation to buy if the Championship club are promoted, while Carlos Borges moved to Ajax for £17m. Of those players, only Charles had featured for the first team, making his debut off the bench against Brentford on the final day of last season.


Sam Edozie, Gavin Bazunu and Juan Larios were sold for a combined fee of £31m to Southampton in 2022, and Edozie – with one appearance – was the only one to represent the first team.
They’ve made £150m solely through the sales of homegrown players since the summer of 2022; a period in which United made sales of all players totalling £70m.
READ MORE: Manchester City transfer cheat code: Burnley among those fleeced for nearly £240m during Pep reign
 
Head of the Pep Guardiola school
“It takes courage and a lot of hard work to play his way,” Wilcox said when asked about getting the academy players to adopt Guardiola’s style. “This doesn’t just happen on a Saturday; this is hours and hours and hours of practice, days and months of real hard work on the training pitch. We have to adopt the same level of hard work, consistency and detail in our daily programme.”


United need only look at Arsenal or Bayer Leverkusen to appreciate the benefits of hiring people well versed in the methods of the man Wilcox describes as “the best coach in the world”. And given the uncertainty surrounding Ten Hag and doubt as to who will be the head coach at Old Trafford next season, this may be a case of egg before chicken in the sense that the United could look to hire managers to suit a designated club style – presumably not dissimilar to City’s – as relying on Gareth Southgate or Graham Potter to set the philosophy would require near-certainty that they will be a legacy manager set to champion that philosophy for years to come.
Both at City and upon joining Southampton, Wilcox spoke of the importance of the club academy “aligning” with the first team – something that has also been key to England’s uplift, with Dan Ashworth central to setting the values that have held them in good stead under Southgate. Wilcox and Ashworth would be aligned on being aligned.
Guardiola Foden Palmer
© Provided by Football365
Jason Wilcox was key to the development of Phil Foden and Cole Palmer.
 
£160m in sales
It takes some bottle to leave what must have been a very cushy job leading the Manchester City academy to become director of football at a club that had just been relegated from the Premier League after an 11-year stint in the top flight, that needed a new manager and had a significant number of players angling for the exit who will have been deemed easy pickings ahead of a season in the Championship.

The club sold Romeo Lavia for a £30m profit after one season on the back of just 29 Premier League appearances, James Ward-Prowse and Nathan Tella for a combined £50m of pure profit, and made £160m in total.
United have arguably been as bad at selling players as they’ve been at signing them, with Romelu Lukaku (£74m) the only player sold for more than £50m since Cristiano Ronaldo left for Real Madrid in 2010, in which time they’ve signed 12 players for more than that figure.
Southampton spent just £18m in the summer, with Wilcox making good use of the loan market to give manager Russell Martin – who’s proven to be a smart appointment – the resources required to return to the Premier League. They’re now unlikely to clinch automatic promotion, but have all-but secured a place in the play-offs – a not insignificant achievement given such a summer of change.

 
Omar Berrada relationship
Berrada has left City to become United’s CEO, and it can’t be a bad thing to have two senior figures working closely together who have done so before. It’s also telling of Wilcox’s quality that Berrada has made him the club’s top technical director target.
Much of the criticism of United over the last few years of the Glazers ownership has been the lack of structure and no clear links between the coaches, recruitment, analysts, the academy and the board members. Having people join the club who already have relationships – presumably positive ones – like Berrada does with Wilcox, will mean United can hit the ground running, and not lose further ground on the Premier League teams currently streaking away from them on and off the pitch.

Big Midweek: Man City v Aston Villa, Pochettino, Burnley and Jurrien Timber

Manchester City could do without another “punch in the face” from Aston Villa as Mauricio Pochettino fights for his future against Manchester United and Jurrien Timber returns for Arsenal’s title tilt.
 
Game to watch: Manchester City v Aston Villa
Pep Guardiola welcomed Villa’s dominant win over Manchester City in December, claiming his side needed a “punch in the face” having failed to hit the heights of their treble-winning campaign in the opening months of the season.


City attempted just two shots in that 1-0 defeat – the fewest ever by a Pep Guardiola team in a game within Europe’s big-five leagues, while the 22 shots from Aston Villa was the joint-most faced by a Guardiola side in the same period (in his 535th game).
Guardiola said he had to “change the dynamic” after Villa brought them down to earth with a bump, and they’ve not lost a game since in any competition. But it’s not been quite the ‘new year, new you’ superiority to which we’ve become accustomed, with Liverpool and Arsenal matching them stride for stride in their pursuit of the title.
City’s remaining Premier League fixtures are kind, with Villa the highest-ranked team left to play, but they’ve also got two legs against Real Madrid in the Champions League and Chelsea – whom they’ve not beaten this season – in the FA Cup semis on the horizon, and victory over Villa, having been played off the park by them earlier in the campaign, would provide a significant psychological boost.
Related video: 'Not in our hands': Guardiola post-Arsenal says Liverpool now favourites for title (Metro)

but I take the point.

And Villa will hope to rediscover the form they were exhibiting when they got one over on City, with the performances of late far less convincing, as they battle Tottenham for fourth.
READ: 16 Conclusions on Man City 0-0 Arsenal: Rodri, Rice, ‘League Two’ Haaland, Liverpool and Pulis the big winners
 
Manager to watch: Mauricio Pochettino
Chelsea’s owners want to stick with Pochettino for the rest of the season, and would ideally like him to stay beyond the summer, but defeat to Manchester United at Stamford Bridge would make his position near-untenable, and turn what has been billed as routine succession planning into more concerted efforts to source a suitable replacement.
Most of the credit Pochettino has accrued has come via his side’s displays in ‘big games’ against teams typically fighting for the top four, with his young players flourishing as underdogs when not faced with packed opposition defences and given space in behind for their speedy forwards to exploit.


Their only ‘big game’ win was the 4-1 madness against Tottenham, but the draws at home against Arsenal and Liverpool, and home and away against Manchester City, have been used as harbingers of future success and boosts for the ‘project’ which has otherwise shown very little progress.
Defeats to Brentford, Everton and Wolves have been assuaged by Pochettino showing he can set up his team to go toe-to-toe with the big boys in the minds of Todd Boehly and the Clearlake lads, on the slightly brazen assumption that wins over lesser opposition will become commonplace in time.
The fans will have a similar mindset. Tempers running high after the embarrassing draw with Burnley will be soothed by victory over United, who were by far the better team when they met at the start of December. We will also get a pretty good indication as to whether the players have indeed lost faith in the manager. If they’ve downed tools amid the fans’ displeasure, there will be no hope for Pochettino.
Pochettino Chelsea
© Provided by Football365
Mauricio Pochettino is under real pressure at Chelsea.
 
Team to watch: Burnley
Burnley have hit a vein of form at just the right time, picking up five points from their last three having previously failed to avoid defeat in consecutive games this season. It could so easily have been nine points, with Danny Ings denying them victory over West Ham with his injury-time strike and the woodwork saving Chelsea’s blushes on Saturday.


Frustrating though that will be for Vincent Kompany, he would undoubtedly have taken draws away at the London Stadium and Stamford Bridge, particularly given his side were down to ten men for more than half the clash with Chelsea. Combined with the home win over Brentford in between, spirits must be high.
With Luton facing the daunting task of a trip to the Emirates and Nottingham Forest welcoming the Premier League’s most mercurial side in Fulham, Burnley could be one point from safety should they beat Wolves at Turf Moor. And with Everton, Brighton and Sheffield United to come in April, having seemingly been doomed to drop, the Clarets aren’t done yet.
Unable to play against parent club Chelsea on Saturday, David Datro Fofana will be back, and he’s given Burnley a far greater threat up front and could prove to be the difference-maker in a relegation dogfight.

 
Player to watch: Jurrien Timber
“Wow!” was the simple verdict provided by one person inside Arsenal’s US pre-season training camp, remarking on Timber’s adaptation to Mikel Arteta’s tactical demands. There will be no worries over the Dutchman’s ability to hit the ground running, as will be required for the Gunners, who face Luton in the first of nine Premier League finals, interspersed with a Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich and whatever’s to come in that competition.
Timber will be required, and based on his displays in pre-season, as well as Arteta’s assertion that he has “certain qualities that nobody else in the squad has”, he will be a starter in crucial clashes to come.
The Arsenal boss has hailed his “leadership”, “versatility” and “the quality that he has to play in different positions, especially in an attacking phase”. He is the archetypal Arteta full-back, given his ability to drift into midfield and get involved in the build-up, as well as the aggression he displays when defending one-vs-one. A Ben White upgrade, perhaps.

READ MORE: Arsenal have flipped the script after 22/23 bottlejob and summer buy (not Rice) can sway title race
 
EFL game to watch: Portsmouth v Derby County
It’s first vs second at Fratton Park on Tuesday, with chasers Derby more in need of a win than the hosts, who are five points clear with a game in hand, while Derby are just three points above Bolton in the race for automatic promotion.
Derby will be keeping a close eye on Colby Bishop, who got a brace in the win over Wybombe Wanderers last time out and scored a 95th-minute equaliser in the return fixture back in September.
 
European game to watch: Saarbrucken v Kaiserslautern
Having triumphed over Bayern Munich, Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Monchengladbach, second-tier Kaiserlautern now stand in the way of third-tier Saarbrucken and the DFB-Pokal final.
It would still be a giant-killing of sorts against four-time German champions Kaiserlautern, but we’re already thinking of the final and the chance for little old Saarbrucken preventing Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen from winning a historic treble.

Man Utd and winger agree on exit as ruthless Ratcliffe takes sledgehammer to Ten Hag’s squad

Sir Jim Ratcliffe plans to axe the fringe elements of the current Manchester United squad and a report has claimed the exodus could begin with a chronically underused winger.
The bulk of Ratcliffe’s work at Old Trafford thus far has involved putting the pieces of the puzzle together behind the scenes.

Man Utd secured a fantastic coup when raiding bitter rivals Manchester City for CEO Omar Berrada.
The Red Devils hope to secure an agreement with Dan Ashworth to become their new sporting director, while Jason Wilcox – who recently resigned as Southampton’s sporting director – has agreed to become their technical director.
READ MORE: Omar Berrada top 10 deals at Man City in sign of what’s to come at Man Utd – Erling Haaland only No 3…
Once the club’s hierarchy is set in stone, attention will turn to overhauling a squad full of underachievers.
Major names like Raphael Varane and Casemiro could depart. Varane is out of contract at season’s end and United are hesitant to trigger their one-year option. Doing so would keep the declining Varane on his giant £340,000-a-week salary.
Casemiro has also seen better days and a new long-term partner for Kobbie Mainoo could be sought.
Related video: Erik ten Hag says he's 'disappointed' after Manchester Utd 1-1 draw (Daily Mail)

Did you think it was a fair result?

FEATURE: Seven Casemiro replacements Man Utd could buy this summer as they target perfect Kobbie Mainoo partner
However, according to a new report from the Mirror, part of Ratcliffe’s sweeping squad overhaul will be numerous exits of ‘fringe players.’
It’s suggested the British businessman believes United’s squad is bloated with too many players who aren’t likely to make any sort of meaningful impact in the first-team moving forwards.

Facundo Pellistri among the deadwood

Per the Mirror, one player who fits that billing is winger Facundo Pellistri and ‘it is looking increasingly unlikely that his future is at Old Trafford.’
The Uruguay international, 22, cost United roughly £7.25m when signed from Penarol in 2020. However, his debut didn’t come until the 2022/23 season and Pellistri has racked up just 24 appearances in total for the Red Devils.


Pellistri is yet to score his first goal for the club and may never get another chance to break his duck. He’s currently loaned to Spanish side Granada – his third loan spell away since joining United.
Upon returning to England in the summer, Pellistri will have just one year left on his Man Utd contract. As such, and with the pressure on to either sign a new contract or be sold, the Mirror strongly suggest it’ll be the latter.
Furthermore, it’s claimed the Pellistri may actually be quite glad to bring his stuttering Old Trafford career to a close.
The report added Pellistri ‘will be hoping to earn a permanent move this summer.’
HAVE YOU SEEN: The four problem positions Ratcliffe must fix at Man Utd this summer and who might solve their weaknesses
Other squad players who’ve been linked with leaving the club at season’s end include Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Christian Eriksen and Donny van de Beek.

Man Utd will also listen to offers for higher profile stars such as Jadon Sancho, Mason Greenwood and Antony. Jonny Evans is out of contract this summer, while it’s already been confirmed by Fabrizio Romano that Anthony Martial will leave as a free agent.
DON’T MISS: Sir Jim Ratcliffe looking to strike gold as Man Utd make official approach for key backroom hire