Sport

Manchester United fans have found some old tweets from their new CEO — and they’re not too happy

Not the best start to life at a new club.

Danny Jones - 22nd January 2024

Manchester United fans were undoubtedly chuffed to hear that their club had appointed a new CEO as new part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe proceeds to build his new executive team over the weekend, but there’s already been a dampener on spirits after they dug up some old tweets.

Well, this is awkward.

Having poached the former chief operations officer (COO) directly from rivals Manchester City, Omar Berrada was never going to arrive at Old Trafford with a totally clean slate, but the news on Saturday, 20 January did feel like somewhat of a coup given his success down the road.

However, Man United supporters wouldn’t have been hoping to unearth a selection of unfavourable tweets about their beloved Reds from Berrada barely a day into the job which makes his appointment as CEO feel like less than a match made in heaven.

Yes, it might be over a decade old (as most of them are) but the 45-year-old took aim at the very greatest moment in the club’s history and it’s never going to rub fans the right way, is it?

On the other hand, giving him the benefit of the doubt, many people have agreed that Sir Alex Ferguson‘s side was far from their best during the game and that it was merely the nature of the late comeback that was so remarkable.

So, trying to be as objective as you can, perhaps you can brush this one off relatively easily.

The only problem is that this is by no means the only one.

Ok, far from the best look for a club’s new CEO but he was already at City during this time, joining as head of international business development before moving on to director of partnership sales; senior vice president group commercial director, then COO and finally a senior role in City Football Group.

He was hardly going to be singing United’s praises whilst employed by one of their closest and most historic rivals.

If you were willing to give him even more rope, you could also argue that what he said at the time was bang on: there’s almost no other era that defines the post-Ferguson decline at the club than Moyes’ tenure and we’re sure you’d find most fans would agree.

But it doesn’t stop there either…

Yes, while he might not strictly be a Chelsea fan per se, he certainly wasn’t a United fan back in the day and made that abundantly clear on social media. The reaction from most Reds is as you would expect; “Berrada we need to talk about those old tweets big chief” pretty much summed everything up.

While there are plenty of players, managers and staff in general that put their childhood allegiances aside to make it in the professional football business — even Ratcliffe himself has been reported as a Chelsea fan at heart — I guess it comes down to a matter of how many of these you’re willing to brush off.

At the end of the day, any modern-day football fan can be under no illusions that Berrada sees this as anything more than another job which he’s been offered enough money to take.

As his LinkedIn reads, he’s been “responsible for managing and optimising group football operations for almost 100 teams across 11 clubs on five continents.” United are quite literally just one in a dozen.

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One thing that can be said is that he served as part of one of the most successful executive teams in world football over at the Etihad, having helped take care of the business side of things as they picked up trophy after trophy.

On the other hand, as journalist Simon Bajkowski was quick to point out, “It’s as correct to say that United getting Omar Berrada from City is a coup as it is to say that Berrada is firmly implicated in City’s alleged wrongdoing.”

How Man United’s new CEO navigates the reaction not only to these tweets but the ongoing case against the Blues will factor hugely into how steady/unstable a start to life with the Red Devils — you only have to look at history to see how the likes of Ed Woodward and Richard Arnold fared.

Fans are also keeping a keen eye on the rest of the newly installed INEOS team, with one character in particular posing an interesting prospect for the future of the rebuild.

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Featured Images — Hays Worldwide (via YouTube)/The Manc Group