Man United's last leadership team made a mess of Mason Greenwood situation but Ineos can change that

The winds of change are continuing to blow through Old Trafford at a rate of knots. When Manchester United's key decision-makers get around the table this summer there are going to be plenty of introductions to be made.

Ineos' new football structure at United will eventually be headed by sporting director Dan Ashworth, who will report to chief executive Omar Berrada. Jason Wilcox is already in post as technical director. For now, Jean-Claude Blanc will fill in for Berrada, who begins work on July 13.

More changes and more departures could follow but it's clear that there are new sheriffs in town. The people running the show have changed. Last summer it was Richard Arnold and John Murtough at the axis of power but both have now left the club.

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Given Berrada's mid-July start date and the ongoing difficulties of agreeing a deal with Newcastle for Ashworth, things won't run entirely smoothly during Ineos' first summer in charge, but Sir Jim Ratcliffe will be determined to improve the decision-making at the club.

You wonder what Ratcliffe made of the drama around Mason Greenwood last summer, at a time when he was still trying to agree a deal with the Glazers to invest in the club. Joel and Avram Glazer took a backseat to the decision and Arnold and Murtough tried to reintegrate the academy graduate before being forced into a U-turn after backlash from supporters when the plan became public.

By the end of the window, Greenwood had moved to Getafe on loan and United had all but accepted he couldn't play for the club again, although their handling of the investigation into his conduct was criticised.

The club concluded an internal investigation into the allegations made against Greenwood and revealed that they felt he did not commit the offences with which he was originally charged. The Crown Prosecution Service dropped charges of attempted rape, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Greenwood on February 2, 2023.

But despite that finding United and Greenwood agreed it would be best to rebuild his career away from Old Trafford and a loan move to La Liga side Getafe was agreed in the final hours of the transfer window.

The 22-year-old hasn't played for United since January 2022 and he has enjoyed a productive season in Spain, scoring 10 goals in 31 games, but Getafe won't be able to afford to make the move permanent and Greenwood will return to Old Trafford this summer.

Speaking in February, Ratcliffe wouldn't directly discuss the situation around Greenwood but did outline the "principles" involved with such cases.

"I can talk about the principle, I'm not going to talk about Mason. I'm familiar with it," he said. "The principle is the important one because we will have other issues going forward.

"You're dealing with young people, they've not always been brought up in the best of circumstances, who are very talented, they've got lots of money and they don't always have maybe the guidance they should have.

"What we need to do when we have issues like that is a, we need to understand what the facts are - the real facts, not the hype - what the real facts are. 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 do it."

That left open the possibility that Ratcliffe could again try and bring Greenwood back into the fold, but Ineos will have surely learnt lessons from what happened when Arnold and Murtough adopted a similar approach.

If the new structure in place is about making good decisions and timely decisions, then they can demonstrate that with Greenwood. A permanent move away from the club is a necessity this summer.

Bringing in a good fee for a player that everyone in football knows has no future at United won't be easy, but this is where Ashworth or Wilcox can excel. If United can confirm Greenwood's departure early in the window and boost their transfer kitty in the process, it will be a job well done and a feather in the cap for United's new leadership team.