Can Sir Dave Brailsford's 'marginal gains' really save Man Utd?

An amateur cyclist in his youth, Brailsford grew his reputation in sport thanks to his work with British Cycling, first joining as a consultant in 1998 and then becoming performance director. He turned Britain from also-rans into the top force in track cycling, winning a stunning eight gold medals each at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, wiping the floor with the opposition.

He combined his work with British Cycling with his role as manager of Team Sky, and his success there was equally as astonishing. Under his watch, Sky won six Tour de France titles thanks to British riders Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas, and in the first year under the INEOS ownership following investment by Ratcliffe, Brailsford oversaw another Tour victory by Colombian Egan Bernal.

Brailsford became associated with the concept of marginal gains, explaining in 2008: "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 improve it by one percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”

Among the habits he got his cyclists to embrace were taking the same pillow with them while travelling, sleeping in the correct position and washing between their fingers to prevent infection. His team also made bike seats more comfortable for riders, rubbed alcohol on tyres for better grip and lasered-in on clothing, getting riders to wear heated shorts to regulate muscle temperature and giving indoor racing suits to outdoor riders as they were more aerodynamic.

He also employed renowned sport psychiatrist Steve Peters, who went on to work with elite footballers including Gareth Bale, Luke Shaw and Joe Hart, and who told riders "you have to be somewhere between exceptional and phenomenal".

But not everyone was convinced by the concept of marginal gains. Many people put British Cyling's success down to generous funding from the National Lottery.

Sky's hegemony was also helped by them being the richest team in cycling, which allowed them to recruit leading riders from other teams and convert them into deputies. Even Wiggins, Brailsford's first major success story, described the concept of marginal gains as "a load of rubbish".

Brailsford and Sky's previous commitment to cleaning up cycling after its infamous doping scandals was also tarnished by various incidents, such as Wiggins receiving a therapeutic use exemption for a banned substance and Richard Freeman, Sky's chief doctor, being fired in 2021 for ordering testosterone a decade previously.

Brailsford's domination in cycling has come to an end in recent years, with INEOS Grenadier winning just one Grand Tour since 2019. And the firm's ventures into other sports, which Brailsford has led, have also had varying success. Mercedes' dominance of Formula One ended just after INEOS became a one-third shareholder in the team and in the last two years have been destroyed by Red Bull.

Brailsford took a huge interest in Nice when INEOS bought the French side in 2019, living in a camper van to be as close to the club's headquarters as possible. Nice have twice finished in ninth position and twice in fifth since INEOS came on board, and have made their faire share of terrible transfers during Brailsford's time.

However, they are enjoying their best season in recent years and are currently second in Ligue 1. Brailsford is reported to have had a big role in the hiring of 34-year-old manager Francesco Farioli, who has overseen their title challenge with Paris Saint-Germain.

Lausanne, the other football team within INEOS' stable, are currently languishing near the bottom of the Swiss Super League.

So can Brailsford fix United? He will need more than marginal gains to put things right amid one of the team's worst-ever seasons. Interim manager Ralf Rangnick famously said United needed "surgery of the open heart" in April 2022, but insisted that the team's problems could be fixed within a year. That has clearly not happened, as the club has continued to bungle their transfer business.

A recent expose by The Athletic shone a light on the club's transfer woes under current sporting director John Murtough, revealing that the club had initially valued Antony at only £25 million ($31m). They then told Ajax they would not pay more than £60m ($76m) for the Brazilian, before eventually paying £85m ($107m) in what has proved to be one of the worst signings in Premier League history.

The report also revealed that the scale and cost of 31-year-old Casemiro's contract has been criticised by Ratcliffe, and it effectively prevented United from making a move for Harry Kane as it pushed them so close to their Financial Fair Play limits. United's terrible squad management means they are in no position to spend money in the January transfer window, and Brailsford and Co will not be able to provide any quick fix for beleaguered manager Erik ten Hag.

On the other hand, given how badly United have been run in the decade since Ferguson's retirement, there is a very low bar for INEOS to clear. Installing a director of football with a proven track record such as Paul Mitchell or Crystal Palace's Dougie Freedman will be a huge improvement on the inexperienced Murtough, and should see things get better on the recruitment front.

Brailsford's role at United has been compared with England's World Cup-winning rugby coach Clive Woodward's ill-fated spell with Southampton, and there is understandable scepticism about someone from another sport trying to transport their expertise to football, particularly after Todd Boehly's failure to replicate his success in baseball as owner of Chelsea.

But as long as Brailsford delegates the key decisions to people with real knowledge of football and does not get involved in transfers like Boehly and former United chief executive Ed Woodward have, there is no reason to believe he cannot have a positive impact. And his reputation as a ruthless operator - something he learnt from conversations with Ferguson - should stand him in good stead.

“Something you've always heard and always observed is this kind of ruthlessness," cycling journalist Daniel Friebe told Sky Sports. "One of the things that Ferguson used to say that Dave definitely retained was: ‘Get rid of the disruptive influences, get rid of people who aren't working in the same direction as you’. Dave, as far as I could see, really assimilated that. You will probably see quite a lot of players who are perceived to be bad apples kicked out."

There are no shortages of bad apples within the United squad, and off the pitch there has been a culture of mediocrity for far too long. Brailsford has at least proven he can build winning teams and maintain success, displaying an insatiable appetite for improvement. He could be just what United need to rise from their malaise.