Can Dave Brailsford mastermind new cycle of success at Manchester United?

LONDON – Amid the euphoria of

Manchester United’s stunning 3-2 English Premier League comeback victory over Aston Villa on Dec 26,

one figure sat calmly in the Old Trafford stands processing what had just occurred.

Many fans in the stadium might not even have recognised Dave Brailsford. But, over the coming months, he is likely to become a familiar figure.

While Ineos founder Jim Ratcliffe’s 25 per cent acquisition of United will not be officially signed off until early 2024 – former kingpin of British cycling Brailsford will be scheming about what needs to change at the declining club.

Fans have every right to ask why Brailsford, the brains behind Britain becoming a cycling powerhouse and who made Ineos Grenadiers (formerly Team Sky) multiple Grand Tour champions, would be entrusted with one of the biggest clubs in football.

After all, the 59-year-old Ineos director of sport has no obvious background in football.

Brailsford’s “marginal gains” mantra did turn British cyclists into winning machines and, while he took on a technical role with Ineos-owned French Ligue 1 club Nice, the jury is still out on his impact.

Ratcliffe has been tight-lipped about who will do what in the new regime, but he has huge trust in Brailsford’s attention to detail and scientific approach.

Newcastle United’s highly regarded sporting director Dan Ashworth is also in no doubt about Brailsford’s credentials.

“I’ve known Sir Dave for a number of years, working across various different sports and he is without doubt the best in world sport at creating high-performance culture and turning that into winning,” he said.

Brailsford joined British Cycling in 1998 and became performance director in 2003. A year later, at the Athens Olympics, two gold medals were delivered.

But that was just a taste of things to come.

In 2008 and 2012, Britain topped the Olympic cycling medals tables with eight golds and Brailsford was instrumental in providing the conducive environment for the likes of Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins and Victoria Pendleton to dominate on the track.

That said, Brailsford was also embroiled in a doping scandal involving Wiggins, while the rider himself has claimed that all the talk about “marginal gains” is a “load of rubbish”.

“A lot of the time, I just think you have got to get the fundamentals right – go ride your bike, put the work in, and you’re either good or not good,” Wiggins said previously.

“A lot of your physical ability and whether you’ve trained enough, and not whether you’ve slept on a certain pillow or mattress.”

When Brailsford headed up the newly formed Team Sky professional road cycling team in 2009 and vowed a Briton would win the Tour de France for the first time, many scoffed.

But Wiggins won the sport’s most prestigious race in 2012 before Chris Froome followed with four triumphs in the next five years as Team Sky became almost unbeatable.

In all, Brailsford masterminded 12 Grand Tour wins for the team, although their domination has waned in recent years. If the cycling expert cannot sustain success in cycling, can he actually do it in football?

Cycling and football are vastly different sports, and it remains to be seen how Brailsford’s “marginal gains” will translate to the latter.

Nice are a good example of a team who have not achieved anything in French football when up against the financial might of Qatar-owned Paris Saint-Germain.

Swiss club Lausanne-Sport were also relegated under Ineos ownership.

The question fans have to ask – on the football pitch and away from the cycling’s velodromes or Grand Tours – can Brailsford be the man to help United win their first Premier League title since 2013. REUTERS