Who is Man Utd chief Dave Brailsford and how does he know Sir Jim Ratcliffe?
SIR DAVID BRAILSFORD is the right hand man of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and both men will be looking to decide the future of Manchester United boss Erik Ten Hag.
The cycling expert has become something of a sports performance guru in recent years and is now Ratcliffe’s go-to lieutenant.
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He has been head of cycling outfit Team Ineos and led Great Britain to an astounding 14 Olympic medals in Beijing back in 2008 and then Team Sky and then Team Ineos to seven Tour de France titles.
But more recently, he was seen leaving a very important meeting with Ratcliffe in which the future of Ten Hag as United boss will have been discussed after the Red Devils’ poor start to the season.
Who is Dave Brailsford?
Dave Brailsford is originally from Derby and his parents moved to Snowdonia in North Wales when he was a child, because his father loved hiking and climbing in the mountains.
He went to a Welsh-speaking school called Deinolen, where he grew up speaking first-language Welsh with his fellow pupils and friends.
When he went home he spoke English with his family.
He told Diary of a CEO: “That left me challenged, I wanted to be the same as all my mates, part of the tribe. I wasn’t fully immersed in it… I never got the full sense I belonged there, so I was on the outside, I guess.”
His mother still lives in the village.
He left Ysgol Brynrefail at 16 and after racing for an amateur cycling team for four years, he went to Chester University and studied Sports and Exercise Sciences and Psychology.
Later, he went on to Sheffield Hallam University and studied business.
Brailsford was initially introduced to British Cycling as an advisor in 1997.
He swiftly moved his way up the ladder to become programme director and eventually performance director in 2003.
Team GB won two gold medals in cycling at the 2004 Olympic games, and that success continued to grow in 2008 and 2012 under Brailsford.
In 2010 he was scouted as Team Sky’s manager – eventually resigning from Team GB in 2014.
What is the Team Sky manager’s ‘marginal gains’ philosophy?
The two-time Sports Personality of the Year Coach Award winner is famous for reinventing British cycling – focusing on technology and psychology.
He also developed a ‘marginal gains’ philosophy for British Cycling.
In 2012 he explained: “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”
He added: “If what you’re trying to achieve is a chore, then that’s a challenge, if I re-frame that into a positive, you’ll stick with it.
“We’ll be more willing to make a change if we feel good about ourselves.
“Marginal gains came from economics, marginal costing, I was reading about that and incremental gains.
“Actually if you aggregate all these marginal gains, you get a big gain.”
How does Sir Jim Ratcliffe know Dave Brailsford?
The billionaire added Dave Brailsford to his team after his takeover at Old Trafford as he looks to build a world-class line-up behind the scenes.
Brailsford has a remarkable record at improving sports teams over the years, with the most obvious improvements coming in British Cycling.
The pair have already worked alongside each other in the past, back in 2019 they partnered up following Ineos’ takeover of the Sky cycling team.
What does Dave Brailsford know about football?
Brailsford has been involved in elite sport for 25 years and after building a hugely successful Olympic cycling program and then a superb road cycling team, he has started to dip into other sports.
He has been involved with the Sir Ben Ainslie’s sailing team under the Ineos brand, which has the goal of winning the Americas Cup.
Ratlciffe has also got him involved in OCG Nice, which is also owned by Ineos. He was pictured during the signing of Wales and ex-Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey in 2022.
He has also revealed conversations he had with legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
Brailsford said: “What Alex Ferguson did ever so well, there’s always a challenge with teams and generations who grow together, they come together and they have two, three, four years of amazing success with a group who have bonded together.
“And you start to get to the end of that and at what point do you bring young talent in?
“And let some of the more established talent go, there’s a transition. He did that ever so well.
“We met and chatted a couple of times about that. When I was younger, he’d pop over to the velodrome and we’d sit there and chat. That was always one of the big things I wanted to ask him.
“What are you watching, what are you seeing, why are you doing this? What are you seeing that makes you think it’s the right time to change and bring that youngster in here?
“And he’d say that people get a bigger voice, they get a bigger standing in the dressing room, they might start to say ‘I’m not sure about that gaffer’ and they have an influence, they’d be a celebrity in the media and other things going on.
“Definitely sooner rather than later, off you go, you’ve got to change it.
“He was a master at it.”
What did Dave Brailsford said about the Bradley Wiggins controversy?
Team Sky were recently cleared of an investigation into the contents of a jiffy bag carried by cyclist Bradley Wiggins.
A suspect package was sent to Sky in 2011 to treat Wiggins, but UKAD recently confirmed no sufficient evidence of the contents of the bag was found.
Brailsford backed his rider throughout the saga, in 2016 he told the Guardian: “There’s a rider, there’s a doctor. They agree to visit a consultant. The consultant’s report is pretty categorical in saying there is an issue here and I recommend the following medication.
“That then goes to the anti-doping authorities. They say yes, we agree with this. Or they can say no. There are different steps to this process that should give us confidence. I believe in that process. I still do.”
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Is Dave Brailsford married?
He has a partner Lisa Buckle, are directors of his company Brailsford Ltd.
Asked if he was good at relationships, he said: “Unfortunately, that’s something I’d say I’m not that good at.”
They have one daughter, Milly, together.
He said of his daughter: “I absolutely adore her, I love her to bits. Since she’s been born I’ve always been involved in sport.
“At some point soon I’d like to stop and spend more time together, that would be nice.
“When I think ‘why am I doing all of this?’ I think I’d like her to be happy. I’d like her to have whatever she can have really. It’s a tough balancing act, that one.”
What happened with Dave Brailsford’s cancer scare?
Brailsford was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2019, then he had a heart issue that required surgery.
He said: “I’d like to have a period where I just switch off. I haven’t had a holiday in a long time, I’ve had health issues too, I’ve had a heart issue this year and I’ve had cancer.
“I would like to have some time out and learn the colour of life.
“That was a real shock, I wasn’t expecting that at all.
“I train hard and ride my bike a lot and I’m very fit. I started to get these bouts of fatigue.
“Like somebody had literally taken by battery out and I just couldn’t function. I did a test and my PSA had gone up, I thought ‘I should go for another check’ and I did.
“I thought it was quite a big deal at the time and I moved on.
“I like the mantra tough times don’t last, tough people do and that’s it. Done.
“You realise you’re not here forever. Then you think ‘what’s important, is it likely to come back? How much time have I got left?'”
What happened with his heart surgery?
When the pandemic was coming to a close, Brailsford’s father was unwell in hospital in France and he went to visit him.
He was given open-heart surgery and given a stent.
Brailsford said: “My dad was very ill, I went to the Alps, to visit the hospital.
“As I was riding my bike, I was getting a pain in my throat, when I started to push it hurt a lot.
“I went out for a ride with a friend of mine. I said ‘blimey I think I’m going to have to stop’.
“I went for a CT scan of my heart. The guy said ‘David you have a big problem’. My left artery was completely blocked, they wouldn’t let me leave.
“They pretty much operated straight away. That was more of a shock than the cancer was. It was a different sensation, I have to admit.”