Sir Jim Ratcliffe, CEO of INEOS, is keen on having Michael Sansoni, a data analyst from Mercedes, join Manchester United. As the owner of the once-dominant club, he aims to leverage insights from Formula 1 to regain their competitive edge. This move is not without reason: according to the influential British entrepreneur, the club’s data capabilities are stuck in the last century.
The British newspaper Daily Mail reports that Manchester United is in advanced negotiations to acquire Michael Sansoni from Mercedes. Sansoni serves as a senior performance simulation engineer for the Formula 1 team, responsible for optimizing the performances of drivers such as George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Jim Ratcliffe intends to bring his expertise in data-driven performance analysis to the world of football. It’s not surprising that the CEO of INEOS has set his sights on the Mercedes stalwart, given that he is a co-owner of the team based in Brackley. Sansoni is set to leave Formula 1 later this year, and a move to the Red Devils would keep him within the INEOS fold. Manchester United is looking admiringly at clubs like Brentford and Brighton & Hove Albion, who are outperforming expectations in the Premier League with the help of data.
Last Century
INEOS is not only a minority shareholder in Manchester United but is also heavily involved in elite sports through partnerships with both Mercedes-AMG Petronas and the cycling team INEOS Grenadiers. The football club’s performance in the transfer market has been their Achilles heel for over a decade. Despite spending over a billion on new players, they haven’t won the Premier League since 2013.
In an interview with United We Stand, Ratcliffe spoke about his ambition in the field of data analysis and didn’t mince words about the club’s current situation. “Until we are as good as everyone else in the world, it’s not good enough for Manchester United. We need to have the best recruitment in the world. Data analysis goes hand in hand with recruitment. It doesn’t really exist here. We are still in the last century with data analysis,” he said. “There is a huge amount of useful data that we can extract from data analysis, and we are in the ‘very poor’ category with data analysis. These things don’t happen overnight.”
