Sir Dave Brailsford is to reduce his role at Manchester United under a reshuffle being planned by minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Brailsford has played a major part since Ratcliffe secured his stake in United in February 2024, stepping down as team principal of the Ineos Grenadiers cycling team to take charge of footballing operations at Old Trafford and investing considerable time and energy in driving change at the club.
But after a season in which United ended in 15th place, their worst Premier League finish, and lost the Europa League final against Tottenham, Ratcliffe is planning a shake-up in which Brailsford will return to his role as director of sport for the wider Ineos group, as first reported by the Times.
Under the plans, the former Tour de France winner and Olympic champion Geraint Thomas is poised to take on a leadership role with the Grenadiers when he retires as a rider at the end of the year. Brailsford, 61, has overseen a major overhaul of United’s operations, including a £50m redevelopment of the Carrington training ground.
Ratcliffe has scaled back some of Ineos’s sporting commitments, terminating its sponsorship of the New Zealand rugby team and ending his bid to win the America’s Cup. However, Ratcliffe remains committed to the cycling team, who no longer hold the dominant position they did when winning the Tour de France in seven out of eight editions between 2012 and 2019. Thomas, 39, has said he will retire after the Tour of Britain in September.
