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Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS have accelerated plans to sort out the executive positions in part of his Manchester United takeover.
As part of that, they have set their sights set on Crystal Palace’s sporting director Dougie Freedman as the new head of recruitment.
According to The Independent, the Eagles are awaiting an offer anytime this week.
Sir Jim has already made some big moves on the executive front, nabbing highly rated CEO Omar Berrada from city rivals Manchester City and closing in on Newcastle United’s football director Dan Ashworth.
The Berrada heist particularly caught just about everyone by surprise. This was especially so considering how hush it was kept with absolutely zero rumours about it until it was confirmed only a few weeks after the takeover.
The fact that the former City chief football operations officer was willing to leave a winning project in Man City and join a club that is in absolute shambles goes to show just how big a club United is.
Berrada is best known for his stance against overpaying players and agents – something United have been guilty of one too many times in the past.
Dan Ashworth, on the other hand, has already been placed on gardening leave by Newcastle on the back of the United interest. He has done an amazing job at St James’ park after the Magpies’ take over in 2021 by a consortium of the Saudi Public Investment fund.
He was previously at Brighton, where he performed just as well.
INEOS have their eyes firmly fixed on Dougie Freedman as the head of recruitment on account of the fantastic work he has done at Crystal Palace.
Under his leadership, Palace have recruited some quality talent like Ebe Eze, Michael Olise and Marc Guehi who are all key players for the club. He was also involved in arranging Connor Gallagher’s loan from Chelsea, which turned out to be a very positive spell.
INEOS believe Dougie will be perfect for the role and trust he will be ready to start as soon as expected. Palace rarely stands in the way of their employees, so this may be a straight forward deal.
Furthermore, the prospect of being part of the new structure at United and working under Omar and Ashworth may be too good a deal to turn down for Dougie.
