![\"Sir](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sir-jim-ratcliffe-team-ineos-launch-picture-credit-simon-wilksinon-swpixcom.jpg\" "\\"Sir")
Sir Jim Ratcliffe at Team Ineos launch (credit: Simon Wilkinson\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\nAn Ineos-run sporting empire is in disarray. After a prolonged spell of era-defining dominance, they\u2019re now stuck in a rut, hammering away at a rebuilding project with no planning permission, the glory days fading fast.<\/p>\n
Turmoil and tension permeate behind closed doors, punctuated by a managerial merry-go-round, a lack of clear direction, and persistent disagreements over style. Question marks hang over the quality of the squad, transfer policies are dissected to within an inch of their lives, the press hover like vultures, the ghosts of the past haunt the present, and the threat of protest lurks constantly in the background.<\/p>\n
Luckily for Geraint Thomas and the rest of the Ineos Grenadiers, the glare of the \u2018fallen giant\u2019 spotlight \u2013 one that has dominated the narrative around the team formerly known as Sky throughout the 2020s \u2013 has shifted in recent times, onto another of Sir Jim\u2019s pet projects.<\/p>\n
After a painful period of transition, the newly retired Thomas and his team have spent their winter quietly rebuilding, the acquisition of Tour de France revelation Oscar Onley from Picnic PostNL a bold statement of intent for a squad eager to reassert their authority at cycling\u2019s biggest races.<\/p>\n
Sir Jim Ratcliffe at Team Ineos launch (credit: Simon Wilkinson\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n
The same cannot be said, however, of Manchester United, the rapidly deteriorating jewel of the Ineos sporting crown.<\/p>\n
Since Sir Jim Ratcliffe stepped into a leaky, rusty Old Trafford (which he swiftly deemed fit for the bulldozer) in 2024, a convenient football-focused smokescreen for the Glazer family\u2019s much more important money-hording enterprise, things have been far from plain sailing for the petrochemicals tycoon.<\/p>\n
Ratcliffe was supposed to herald a new era for a United side without a Premier League title since Fergie retired, one with a clear, coherent \u2018identity\u2019, stemming from the very top.<\/p>\n
>\u00a0What is going on with the Ineos Grenadiers at the Tour de France?<\/a><\/p>\n But a whole host of dodgy decisions \u2013 from sacking a manager three months after giving him \u00a3300m to spend, to hunting down a \u2018best in class\u2019 sporting director, only to show him the door because he dared challenge His Jimness \u2013 have culminated this month in the messy firing of Ruben Amorim.<\/p>\n The young Portuguese jacket model\/football manager is a 3-4-3 fundamentalist, a rigid, conservative, formation-first tactician at odds with the free flowing\u00a0attacking style, synonymous with United\u2019s illustrious and increasingly distant history, that Ratcliffe and his henchman seemingly were desperate to implement.<\/p>\n The football, unsurprisingly, was dire, the results appalling, as Amorim \u2013 a purveyor of dodgy decisions himself \u2013 failed to galvanise a squad not even half-heartedly built in his image. It was like putting Thomas Voeckler in charge of the Sky train. And then blaming Tommy when Chris Froome blows up with 90km left to go in the Alps.<\/p>\n Seasoned observers of Sir Jim\u2019s football and cycling hobby projects will note striking similarities in how they\u2019ve been run since Ineos jumped on board. Beset by confusion, too many voices struggling to be heard, an inability to adapt at speed to a changing sporting landscape, no clear direction\u00a0within a broken structure,\u00a0funds promised and not delivered.<\/p>\n The overlap between the Ineos cycling and footballing empires doesn\u2019t end there. Dave Brailsford, the architect of British cycling and Team Sky\u2019s golden era and Ratcliffe\u2019s sporting right-hand man since 2019, was one of the key figures behind Amorim\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n But since then, Brailsford has stepped back from his role as United\u2019s football club director<\/a> \u2013 an appointment that left fans baffled and, it\u2019s fair to say, a little worried back in 2024<\/a> \u2013 and has reverted to his previous position as Ineos\u2019s head of sport.<\/p>\n He also spent quite a bit of time knocking around the Ineos team bus at the Tour de France, refusing to speak to journalists about David Rozman<\/a>. That\u2019s more like the Sir Dave we all know and love.<\/p>\n There was also the suggestion this week that, despite his billionaire\u2019s penchant for meddling in things he doesn\u2019t know much about, Ratcliffe\u2019s myriad sporting interests have led him to sometimes taking his eye off the, ahem, ball.<\/p>\n In his assessment of Amorim\u2019s sacking, the Independent\u2019s chief football writer Miguel Delaney<\/a> wrote that one football manager told him about the delays he encountered while being interviewed for the vacant head coach role at United following Erik ten Hag\u2019s sacking in 2024.<\/p>\n According to the manager, his planned meeting with Ratcliffe was delayed for three days because the Ineos owner was \u201coff cycling\u201d. Delaney noted that the coach may have been exaggerating for comedic effect, but the \u201cpoint still stands\u201d.<\/p>\n![\"Sir](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/a9r08658.jpg\" "\\"Sir")
Sir Dave Brailsford with Geraint Thomas, 2018 Tour de France (credit: Russell Ellis\/russellis.co.uk\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n![\"Sir](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sw25382.jpg\" "\\"Sir")
Sir Jim Ratcliffe (credit: Simon Wilkinson\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n