After buying his stake in Manchester United 18 months ago, Sir Jim Ratcliffe admitted he and his INEOS team had \u201cmade a lot of cock-ups\u201d in his other footballing ventures, Lausanne and Nice, presumably in a bid to convince the Red Devils fans that they had learned lessons from those mistakes that would not be repeated at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuge change\u201d off the pitch<\/a><\/strong> certainly hasn\u2019t been for the better on it. Ruben Amorim is the latest Manchester United manager \u2018losing the dressing room\u2019<\/a><\/strong>, differing from predecessor Erik ten Hag only in sticking to a (failing) philosophy rather than not having one and seemingly wanting to be sacked<\/a><\/strong> rather than preferring to keep the most ill-fated job in football.<\/p>\n Ratcliffe\u2019s made questionable strategic calls and ill-advised comments in interviews that are among the mistakes we\u2019ve listed here, including some that the Ratcliffe advocates will claim weren\u2019t his decisions, but \u2013 despite his clear ethos of passing it wherever possible \u2013 the buck stops with him.<\/p>\n Anyway, strap yourselves in: Ratcliffe\u2019s mistakes ranked from minor to major.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 19) Being a Grinch<\/strong><\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t seem all that unreasonable for a struggling organisation not to hand out \u00a3100 Christmas bonuses and instead give members of staff a \u00a340 M&S voucher<\/a><\/strong>, and the employees themselves may well have been fine had it been explained to them properly and hadn\u2019t been part of a widespread cost-cutting scheme that\u2019s seen many of their friends and colleagues made redundant while what we assume is now half-ply loo paper is on hand the toilets.<\/p>\n \u201cAt least the Glazers prioritised families,\u201d said one staffer. \u201cAnd anuses,\u201d said another, probably.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 18) The whole staff email<\/strong><\/p>\n We suspect the Manchester United fans were delighted to hear about Ratcliffe and Ineos\u2019 plan to conduct a \u2018thorough strategic review\u2019 of the football club when the British billionaire took charge of all football operations. After years of Glazer family negligence, on and off the pitch, it was necessary.<\/p>\n But while we imagined people in hard hats pointing to leaks in the Old Trafford roof and football coaching svengali Jason Wilcox shaking his head on the side-lines of an Erik ten Hag training session, we didn\u2019t foresee Big Sir Jim himself picking up dirty socks from the academy dressing room<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a level of scrutiny that in some ways reflects well on the fourth-richest man in Britain \u2013 he has a hands-on approach \u2013 but upon describing the cleanliness of the youth team changing rooms as a \u2018disgrace\u2019, along with many of the other facilities on his tour of the club in a leaked whole staff email, Ratcliffe immediately managed to \u2018create a toxic feeling inside Carrington\u2019.<\/p>\n He labelled the Manchester United museum \u2013 quite possibly the pride and joy of several members of staff \u2013 a load of \u2018crap\u2019, and in a bid to end the work-from-home culture, told employees to head back to the offices, despite there not being enough desks for them all to work from. \u2018If you don\u2019t like it, please seek alternative employment,\u2019 he told them.<\/p>\n Your Simon Jordans claimed it was a necessary shake-up, a method of sorting the wheat from the chaff, but there\u2019s also little doubt that some very capable employees \u2013 not necessarily all Gen Z woke snowflakes \u2013 won\u2019t have enjoyed Ratcliffe\u2019s authoritarian day-one approach, will have taken it as a bleak sign of what was to come and taken a job in a more forward-thinking environment.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 17) \u2018Wembley of the North\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Ratcliffe\u2019s claim that a \u201cconversation\u201d with the government was required after proposing that Old Trafford is redeveloped into the \u2018Wembley of the North\u2019<\/a><\/strong> was galling, to put it mildly.<\/p>\n The suggestion was that the burden of financing United\u2019s next chapter should be shared between him, a man worth around \u00a312bn, and the taxpayers. A brazen proposal even before you consider that Ratcliffe himself is a tax exile having officially changed his residence in 2020 from Hampshire to Monaco in a move estimated to have saved him \u00a34bn, which is enough to build two Wembleys of wherever.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 16) The Spy Who Might F*** Us<\/strong><\/p>\n We all know the guy \u2013 it\u2019s always a guy \u2013 who suddenly appears one day, is overly friendly in a bid to gain confidences, laughing and joking one second and comically stern the next to keep everyone on their toes. Can be seen staring at walls and slowly stirring tea before snapping out of what we assume is a daydream about making a suit of human skins to ask if you\u2019d like a cup. Yeahhh y\u2019know, that guy.<\/p>\n Ratcliffe\u2019s \u2018spy\u2019<\/a><\/strong> is said to be one of the Ineos chiefs taking roles and \u2018assuming greater importance\u2019 at the club, deepening what several sources described as a \u201cgrowing culture of fear\u201d, with staff members tiptoeing around this particular individual for fear of the sack, \u2018being extra vigilant about what they say in his presence\u2019.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 15) FA Cup travel<\/strong><\/p>\n In order to give Manchester United the best chance of on-field success, no saving is off-limits in the Ratcliffe regime, as those travelling to the FA Cup final discovered<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n As joyous as that day became, any staff attending did so without recourse to former privileges. They each paid \u00a320 towards travel costs that previously came as a perk of the job, while packed lunches were also seen as a luxury they could do without by the penny-pinchers at a club that saved a whopping \u00a36,500 on the day before revealing record revenues of \u00a3660m shortly after the Wembley win.<\/p>\n Top lad Bruno Fernandes offered to pay for the staff travel but the Ineos chiefs rejected that proposal because they thought \u2018it would reflect badly on the regime\u2019<\/a><\/strong>, and apparently didn\u2019t think anyone would have an issue with \u2018thousands being shelled out on chauffeured cars\u2019 to take them to the very same event.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 14) Cutting the disability budget<\/strong><\/p>\n Not nearer the top because they only \u2018considered it\u2019 but even thinking about cutting the disabled supporters\u2019 association budget in half is deplorable.<\/p>\n As David Ornsein said, it\u2019s \u201cterrible optics\u201d for a football club<\/a><\/strong> that has routinely spunked tens of millions of pounds on average footballers to believe that a viable and reasonable method of cutting costs is to make the lives of their disabled supporters harder. The audacity would almost be impressive if it wasn\u2019t so shameful.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 13) Katie who?<\/strong><\/p>\n It would be unreasonable for Ratcliffe to know the name of all, or even most, Manchester United employees. There are a lot of them; far too many in his opinion. But we reckon the captain of the football club should have been in the top ten names learned by Ratcliffe before he rocked up.<\/p>\n We would have thought Katie Zelem wearing a training kit and boots might have been a bit of a giveaway as Ratcliffe doddered towards her like a 99-year-old royal and asked: \u201cAnd what do you do, little lady?\u201d<\/a><\/strong> Disappointed that the competition winner hadn\u2019t curtsied as he approached.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 12) Revoking Busby Babe privileges<\/strong><\/p>\n One good decision Ratcliffe has made was to end the club\u2019s financial commitment to Sir Alex Ferguson. Cutting the jobs of 250 Normal People while continuing to pay \u00a32m to a manager who retired over a decade ago would have been laughable, legend or not.<\/p>\n But the co-owner can consider himself very fortunate that Ferguson still has his ear to the Old Trafford ground having reportedly advised him against an extraordinary move that would have been a PR disaster of epic proportions<\/a><\/strong> and speaks to Ratcliffe\u2019s lack of knowledge of what\u2019s important to the football club.<\/p>\n Anyone asked about landmark events in the history of Manchester United would talk extensively about the Busby Babes, who came through the youth ranks and were touted to dominate European football before the Munich air disaster. Their story is woven into the fabric of the football club.<\/p>\n What you don\u2019t want to be doing as the new figurehead of Manchester United is dishonouring those young men or anyone associated with them in any way whatsoever, which makes his supposed plan to \u2018revoke the privileges given to the families of the Busby Babes at United\u2019 a truly incredible one.<\/p>\n \u2018The families of players involved in Sir Matt Busby\u2019s legendary side are regulars in the directors\u2019 box at Old Trafford, but the club\u2019s part-owners had threatened to put an end to those positions\u2019 the report claims, with Ratcliffe\u2019s view presumably that those seats could instead be given to very rich people from faceless companies who may throw a few million his way. Find another way, you berk.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 11) Mid-season ticket price increase<\/strong><\/p>\n We don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever heard of a club increasing ticket prices during a season;\u00a0as MUST said<\/a><\/strong>, the idea that the fans must pay their \u2018fair share\u2019 for the club\u2019s excesses and\/or mismanagement \u2014 and above all, the Glazers lack of investment over two decades \u2014 is offensive.<\/p>\n And we would suggest that a parent wanting to take their child to a game and having to shell out \u00a3132 for the privilege almost certainly doesn\u2019t give a sh*t about the need to\u00a0improve \u2018operational efficiencies\u2019 and \u2018stabilise revenues\u2019. They want to watch good football (alright, baby steps) for less than the cost of their monthly council tax.<\/p>\n In response to the backlash, Ratcliffe said Manchester United are \u201cmediocre\u201d<\/a><\/strong> (no arguments here) when \u201cit\u2019s supposed to be one of the best football club\u2019s in the world\u201d. And in every interview he gives he talks about this gap between what they once were and what they are, in a We\u2019re All In This Together sort of way, as if he\u2019s suggesting every United fan should be direct debiting part of their salary to fix problems they have nothing to do with.<\/p>\n The money the fans have already given has been wasted for years, and you want them to pay more to watch arguably the worst collection of footballers in Premier League history? Jog on, mate. An \u2018outright rebellion\u2019 is in the post<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 10) RIP, but what about the season tickets?<\/strong><\/p>\n Before Ratcliffe arrived, even under the ownership of those horrible Glazers, Manchester United is said to have felt like a family club despite its global reach. Kath Phipps had a helluva lot to do with that.<\/p>\n She first joined the club as the switchboard operator in September 1968, and was seemingly beloved by anyone who came into contact with her, acting as a bridge that crossed multiple eras.<\/p>\n Sir Alex\u00a0Ferguson, David Beckham and Jonny Evans were among her famous, frequent visitors in her last months in care, with her friends at the club, including several who had been ousted in the cuts, running a daily rota via WhatsApp to ensure she was never alone until her passing, two days after which her next of kin got a phone call from the club.<\/p>\n A message of condolence presumably, maybe from Ratcliffe himself, letting the bereaved individual know that everyone at the club is thinking of them. That should probably be the minimum when the longest-serving employee of the football club you own dies.<\/p>\n But no, what they received was a call from the football club that had been Kath\u2019s life to enquire about the status of her two season tickets<\/a><\/strong>. Scarcely believable evidence of the \u2018heart and soul\u2019 of the football club eroding under Ratcliffe.<\/p>\n It being the dearly departed Kath Phipps makes it worse, of course it does, but to think that it would also happening to other Manchester United fans is also really, really horrible.<\/p>\n And if you\u2019re one of the many, many United fans currently shouting It\u2019s Not Sir Jim That\u2019s Making The Phone Calls, you\u2019re absolutely right, but while it\u2019s also probably not Ratcliffe forcing the poor member of staff to take on this abhorrent task, it\u2019s he who has created an environment where money needs to be saved at all costs, including the feelings of the very recently bereaved and the once-highly respected reputation of the football club.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 9) Job cuts<\/strong><\/p>\n The optics aren\u2019t great when only a few months after staff members were all told they were crucial in helping contribute to on-field success, 250 of them were made redundant<\/a><\/strong> as part of Ratcliffe\u2019s determination to slash costs by scrapping \u2018non-essential\u2019 activities.<\/p>\n Nearly a quarter of United\u2019s employees lost their jobs and many of them, understandably, may well have pointed out that poor first-team recruitment has wasted far more money than will have been saved by cutting the rank-and-file workforce.<\/p>\n And those redundancies were made before the club spent \u00a3200m in the summer of 2024 on further under-performing footballers, and another \u00a3200m this summer on players we can only assume will be similarly underwhelming.<\/p>\n Each of the 250 employees would have to be earning \u00a355,000 per year to make getting rid of them more cost effective than paying Matthijs de Ligt his salary, and that\u2019s without considering the centre-back\u2019s transfer fee, which would have been enough to keep those staff members in their jobs on that wage for three years.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 8) Women\u2019s team<\/strong><\/p>\n At the end of June, four months after his purchase of 27% of Manchester United (yes, Manchester United as a whole), Ratcliffe was asked whether\u00a0he had considered spinning off the women\u2019s team, with Chelsea having recently announced that their side will become a standalone entity.<\/p>\n \u201cWe haven\u2019t got into that level of detail with the women\u2019s team yet. We\u2019ve been pretty much focused on how we resolve the first team issues.\u201d<\/p>\n We understand why the men\u2019s team is the priority. It\u2019s the cash cow and what him and his team will ultimately be judged upon. But word to the wise Jim, don\u2019t call them \u2018the first team\u2019. The women aren\u2019t reserves just because they\u2019re not men.<\/p>\n A slip of the tongue, maybe, but a telling one which when added to him moving the women out of their training facility and into portable buildings to make room for the men, hardly paints Ratcliffe as a beacon of equality.<\/p>\n Asked in the same interview about what they are doing with the women\u2019s team, Ratcliffe replied: \u201cWell they\u2019ve just won the FA Cup\u201d as if he a) cared having not even watched the game, and b) had anything whatsoever to do with that success.<\/p>\n And imagine if he had given the same answer about the men when \u2013 as he well knows \u2013 the 2024 FA Cup win deflected from a poor league season and much deeper problems.\u00a0He did not seem to have the same grasp of the issues with the women\u2019s team, who finished 20 points behind champions Chelsea in the WSL that season.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 7) Changing Ten hag\u2019s coaching staff<\/strong><\/p>\n Instead of sacking Ten Hag in the summer of 2024 (more on that to come) they got rid of his two assistant coaches, Steve McClaren and Mitchell van der Gaag, replacing them with Rene Hake and Ruud van Nistelrooy, who are arguably the two guys to have been most screwed by Ratcliffe and INEOS\u2019 bungling.<\/p>\n Ruben Amorim brought his own coaches<\/a><\/strong> because it would be mad to leave behind the people who have played a significant role in his success at Sporting, meaning Ruud moved to Leicester to destroy his reputation and Rene et al. were out on their ears after three months at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n A lucky escape some would argue and they\u2019ve been well-compensated, as were Sporting for United nicking their manager and coaching staff, which all-in-all left United too close to the PSR line to do anything of significant in January to help Amorim.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 6) Not signing a midfielder<\/strong><\/p>\n Going for Senne Lammens over Emi Martinez or any other clear No.1 goalkeeper is weird<\/a><\/strong>, but it can at least be explained away with a view to not paying exorbitant wages and with an eye on the future. But there is no reasonable explanation for spending well over \u00a3200m and failing to fix\u00a0the\u00a0biggest problem in the team.<\/p>\n No-one at that football club can believe that Manuel Ugarte is good enough, that Bruno Fernandes can play as one of the two in midfield or that Casemiro still has it in him. They also know, without doubt, that Amorim isn\u2019t going to change his system. So why the p*ssing hell did they not buy Carlos Baleba<\/a><\/strong> or an alternative midfield machine?<\/p>\n They are quite clearly f***ed and will continue to get f***ed without one. And we know Ratcliffe probably isn\u2019t involved in transfer strategy, but a huge fan as he purports to be, with the chequebook in hand, should be insisting on a midfielder as the priority. Don\u2019t have another \u00a3100m? Fine. Don\u2019t use all of your cash on three forwards. Absolute madness.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 5) Refusing Amorim resignation<\/strong><\/p>\n It now looks as though Ratcliffe has missed the resignation boat as Amorim has now dug his philosophical heels into the Old Trafford turf, insisting after the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City that\u00a0\u201cIf they [United hierarchy] want it [the philosophy] changed, you change the man.\u201d<\/p>\n But he had at least one opportunity to get rid of Amorim without the need for compensation, instead opting to talk Amorim down from the ledge following the 3-1 defeat to Brighton in January<\/a><\/strong> when he was \u2018prepared to resign\u2019, and reports after the embarrassing defeat to Grimsby Town claimed there was once again a\u00a0\u2018feeling at the club that the head coach may resign unless results pick up\u2019<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n It suggests little more than a nudge in that direction may have been required to bring his doomed tenure to an end.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Amorim next? Resignation reasons include transfer walkouts, Keane anger and no beachfront dwelling<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 4) Dan Ash-not-Worth<\/strong><\/p>\n It was very, very funny, and embarrassing to the point where Ratcliffe must have considered ploughing on with a guy he clearly had no time or respect for as sporting director purely to avoid the humiliation.<\/p>\n They spent no little time and money to haul him out of Newcastle, only to mutually consent him out the door after just five months<\/a><\/strong> in which the club spent \u00a3180m on players who have made next to no difference to their fortunes and hired a new manager who\u2019s now as doomed as the one they got rid of.<\/p>\n Amorim\u2019s appointment was supposedly the big disagreement between Ashworth, Omar Berrada and the rest of the United brains trust, with Ashworth wanting either an English coach<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>(Gareth Southgate specifically), Thomas Frank<\/a><\/strong> or for Ruud van Nistelrooy to stay in interim charge until the end of the season. He knew his stuff, eh?<\/p>\n \u2018Who would you appoint if we sacked Erik ten Hag now?\u2019 should have been the very first question in Ashworth\u2019s interview.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 3) Not sacking Erik ten Hag in the summer<\/strong><\/p>\n Handing someone who had just overseen the worst season in the club\u2019s history a contract extension is one of the worst decisions made by anyone ever. They played well once, in the FA Cup final, having embarrassed themselves in the semi-final against Coventry, the entire Champions League campaign and the vast majority of their league fixtures. Manchester United were awful.<\/p>\n Their excuse for not replacing Ten Hag being the lack of suitable alternatives was quickly exposed as nonsense given the manager they\u2019ve now hired was\u00a0so\u00a0available in the summer that he flew to London to meet West Ham on the eve of his side\u2019s crunch clash with Porto in their title run-in.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 2) Buying players for Erik ten Hag<\/strong><\/p>\n We were told that Jason Wilcox, brought in as the new technical director, would be the man to \u2018determine and drive the move to a clear \u201cgame model\u201d<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 effectively a cohesive playing style and identity United intend to replicate across all age groups.\u2019<\/p>\n And apparently, unbelievably, after \u2018providing a detailed assessment of Ten Hag\u2019s strengths and weaknesses\u2019 as the first duty in his new post, Wilcox reported back that not only was Ten Hag the right man for the job, he was also so good at his job that the club should continue to sign players to fit\u00a0his\u00a0system rather than individuals with a broader ethos in mind.<\/p>\n Wilcox and the other directors may claim it\u2019s a happy coincidence that the style of their former first-team coach was also the new Manchester United Way, though wouldn\u2019t be at all surprised if the new Manchester United Way is actually more in line with Amorim\u2019s ethos, which has required a host of\u00a0his\u00a0players rather than the bunch bought for Ten Hag that clearly aren\u2019t fit for purpose as the perpetual cycle of Red Devils managers being five to six signings away from challenging for the title continues.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 1) Hiring Ruben Amorim (mid-season)<\/strong><\/p>\n Ashworth \u2018warned\u2019 them and they didn\u2019t listen. He correctly foresaw that there would be \u2018mass disruption\u2019 if Amorim and his very specific ideas and playing style arrived mid-season. He must be p*ssing himself as that disruption continues unabated into the Portuguese manager\u2019s first full season at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n Ashworth wanted to \u2018minimise upheaval\u2019 after the squad had already had to adjust to a new backroom team under Ten Hag before being told to forget all that and to get used to a system most of them had never played before, with no time for adaptation with games coming thick and fast.<\/p>\n Liverpool had considered Amorim but went for Slot as the Portuguese manager\u2019s \u2018three at the back and general philosophy jarred with the squad\u2019. United made no such consideration having cared only about Amorim\u2019s impressive \u2018aura\u2019. Boy are they regretting that now.<\/p>\n