Manchester United are poised to bolster their data department with three new recruits following criticism from Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Michael Sansoni, the club's Director of Data who joined last summer, has been tasked with modernising the club's data infrastructure.

Our sister title The Manchester Evening Newsreports a senior football data scientist, a senior software engineer, and a senior football data engineer are set to be appointed. A club spokesperson stated: "We're looking for experienced, motivated people to join Michael Sansoni and his team to help set a new standard in football data.

"Think APIs, machine learning, AI, web tools and streaming data pipelines, we're working on it all to drive performance on the pitch and across the whole club." The trio will be based at the club's Carrington training ground, which recently underwent a £50million refurbishment. Ratcliffe has previously expressed dissatisfaction with United's data department, and these new appointments are expected to address his concerns.

In an interview with United We Stand magazine, he said: "Until we are as good as anyone in the world, then it's not good enough for Manchester United. We must have the best recruitment in the world. Data analysis comes alongside recruitment. It doesn't really exist here.

"We're still in the last century on data analysis here. There's an immense amount of useful data that we can get from data analysis and we're in the 'very poor' bracket with data analysis here. These things don't happen overnight. You can't just flick a light switch and sort out recruitment. It's all about people and we need to find the right people."

Sansoni also made some big claims in the summer transfer window, where he noted that "meaningful progress" was being made with "new methodologies starting to take shape and two fantastic signings, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo".

He continued: "I've inherited a brilliant team: smart, committed, and hungry to make a difference and together we're building a world-class data and AI function to power decision-making across football and the wider club. The challenge is great, but so is the opportunity. We're just getting started."

United have recently announced a raft of new appointments, with Michael Carrick stepping in as interim head coach ahead of Saturday's derby against Manchester City. Supporting him temporarily in the technical area will be Steve Holland, Jonathan Woodgate, Travis Binnion, Jonny Evans and Craig Mawson.