Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has publicly opened the door for Mason Greenwood to make his return to the club.
On Tuesday night, it was officially announced that Ratcliffe’s 25% partial investment into United was complete.
This came after months of haggling and negotiations during a strategic review process initiated by the Glazers in late 2022.
Ratcliffe can now officially begin work at Old Trafford as he seeks to revive the club’s fortunes and restore United back to its former glories.
He spoke to BBC and opened up on a number of issues including Mason Greenwood.
Greenwood was controversially suspended in January 2022 after he was arrested on suspicion of raping and assaulting a woman.
He was then charged with the offences but the case against him was eventually dropped, with the Crown Prosecution Service citing the withdrawal of key witnesses.
United subsequently launched an internal investigation into the matter and had provisionally planned to bring him back until their plans got leaked.
Following backlash and public outrage, club bosses led by former CEO Richard Arnold reversed their decision and decided to send the Englishman to Getafe on loan for the 2023/24 campaign.
Greenwood has set La Liga alight and has taken to life in Spain like a duck to water. It was thought the forward has no future at United with outfits like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid said to be after his services.
However, according to Ratcliffe, it’s not totally impossible that Greenwood will play for United again.
The INEOS billionaire said, “It’s a fresh decision.”
“I can talk about the principle. I am not going to talk about Mason. I am familiar with it. The principle is the important one. We will have other issues going forwards.”
“You are dealing with young people who have not always been brought up I then best circumstances, who have a lot of money and they don’t always have the guidance they should have.”
“What we need to do when have issues like that is understand real affects not the hype then we need to make a fair decision in the light of the club’s values. That’s what we need to do and that’s how we will deal with it.”
The British businessman added, “We need to look at facts, judge fairly and take into consideration what the values of the club are.”
“Then we come out of that with a decision. It is not appropriate for me to comment on Mason Greenwood.”
The Greenwood issue is definitely something that all fans will be keeping a close eye on as the summer approaches.
