SIR JIM RATCLIFFE declared he was in a “rush” after mistakenly thinking Manchester United had already kicked off at Wembley after he’d completed the London Marathon.

The 71-year-old billionaire recently completed his purchase of a 25 per cent stake in the club and takeover of football operations.

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He continues to make a number of changes off the pitch, while United are hoping for some joy on it this afternoon.

The Red Devils face Coventry City at Wembley in the FA Cup semi final this afternoon, where the winner will face holders Man City after they beat Chelsea yesterday.

However, Ratcliffe joined the thousands of other runners in the capital this morning for the London Marathon and recorded a personal best time of 4hrs 30mins 52secs.

And after Ratcliffe had crossed the finish line, he joined the BBC for a quick chat before making the dash to Wembley.

Ratcliffe started his conversation with BBC presenter Gabby Logan with: “I’m in a rush… I need to get to the match.”

Even though he still had 45 minutes to go until the action got underway at Wembley, he then mistakenly said: “They’ve already kicked off haven’t they, so I’ll have to be quick.”

After revealing that he recorded a time of around four-and-a-half hours, he then got down to discussing a potential Manchester derby against City in the FA Cup Final.

After awkwardly mishearing Logan refer to Coventry as underdogs, he thought that she was talking about the Red Devils’ chances against their neighbours.

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Ratcliffe said: “We are definitely the underdog. Unfortunately. Not for long though.”

Asked to compare running a marathon to his progress at United, he replied: “There are some parallels, I have to say. It just sort of requires some grit.

“Always, in the marathon, after 30k it gets quite difficult. 

“I don’t think we are quite at 30k in the football yet, we’ve still got some way to go.”

When asked if it equated to a half marathon, he replied: “No, not even there really… probably only the first 10k.

“But it’s a long journey really the football because one of the biggest problems is that you get these new guys to come into the team, really capable people, but they are all on gardening leave.

“So it takes you six months, a year or 18 months – it’s a real issue in football. 

“They can’t work for us, the fans are impatient and I have some sympathy with that.

“But it’s a journey and, whether they like it or not, they have to be a bit patient. It’s not a lightswitch, it takes a bit of time.”

United confirmed the appointment of Jason Wilcox as technical director this week from Southampton.

Wilcox, whose previous roles include technical director at Southampton and academy director at Manchester City, will report to the sporting director.

The new sporting director has not yet been appointed but is expected to be Newcastle’s Dan Ashworth.

Wilcox’s arrival comes after Man Utd revealed ex-Man City man Omar Berrada as their new chief executive.

Another thing Ratcliffe and INEOS want to do is transform Old Trafford – or build a completely new stadium and make it a “Wembley of the North”.

When asked about that by Logan, He replied: “I’d love to do that. I think that would be fantastic for the north of England.

“I think that whole area of southern Manchester, it’s where the industrial revolution began, and that’s why they built Old Trafford there.

“The workers would finish their shift, walk to the ground – so it was where industry and manufacturing began.

“It’s a really important area but it’s run down, so to regenerate that area and build a Wembley of the North would be a marvellous project and we could achieve it.”

Suddenly, he intervened again to cut-short the conversation by signing off with: “Anyway, I need to get to the match.”

Although he did have time before he dashed off to reveal that it would definitely not be the tube that he would be using to get to the national stadium.

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