The jury is still out on Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe but this international break’s activities both at Old Trafford and abroad show he made one right call
Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe pictured at Carrington’s reopening(Image: Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images)
Cast your mind back to November 2022, and it felt like Manchester United entered a watershed moment in their history.
With the Glazers overseeing the football operation, club legend Cristiano Ronaldo took the unprecedented step of undertaking an interview with Piers Morgan. During that conversation, he aired all his grievances about the club, the manager and even some of his former teammates to really distance himself from Old Trafford.
United had little choice but to release Ronaldo and the decision was heralded as a victory for Erik ten Hag. The Portuguese forward was the biggest name to try to use his power to influence change at Old Trafford and it had been quashed by the manager and the boardroom.
At the time many of us, myself included, thought the decision to part ways with Ronaldo was the right one. He had burnt bridges purposefully at United and Ten Hag really could not afford to be undermined in such a way.
What we should have realised from then onwards is that Ten Hag’s authority had reached its crescendo and it was only downhill from there. The Jadon Sancho saga followed and the Dutchman got his way again but after the winger left on loan for the second time, Ten Hag had just two more months remaining in the job at Old Trafford.
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While many once again agreed with the principled decision of moving Sancho on, Ten Hag was not rejuvenating the players that were remaining and he had to go. Fast forward to this September’s international break and that decision from Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his Ineos colleagues has proven to be the right one.
At the beginning of the break, Ten Hag was fired just three matches into his spell at Bayer Leverkusen. The Bundesliga club suggesting that it had become obvious the Dutchman was not the right man to rebuild them following Xabi Alonso’s exit.
Then on Thursday, United commemorated four years since Ronaldo returned to Old Trafford and made his second home debut against Newcastle. Any anger or distrust from the Reds towards the Portuguese forward clearly long forgotten.
Manchester United’s official social media channels commemorated four years since Cristiano Ronaldo returned for his second debut
However, will United commemorate four years since Ten Hag first entered the dugout for a competitive fixture next August? My bet is no.
It may not have been plain sailing for the Reds post-Ten Hag with Ruben Amorim clearly suffering his fair share of struggles too, it is also obvious that United were right to sack his predecessor. Any lingering concerns that this move was premature have now been put to bed for good.
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