Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos’ arrival at Manchester United heralded a new era that left fans dreaming of a return to the glory days.
Fast forward a year and the club have slumped further into mediocrity with Ratcliffe joining the Glazer family in being a much maligned owner.
The British billionaire spent £1.25billion to become a minority owner of the Red Devils in February 2024, purchasing 27.7 per cent of the club.
Ratcliffe and his Ineos team, which includes the marginal gains cycling guru Dave Brailsford, were handed over the responsibility for its football operations.
The 72-year-old has been front and centre of decisions on and off the pitch – with the club seemingly going backwards.
Over that year a number of baffling and unpopular decisions have been made:
- Gave Erik ten Hag a new contract and sacked him months later, costing the club £14.5m, while another £10m was spent hiring Ruben Amorim.
- Hired Dan Ashworth as sporting director, giving Newcastle £3m as compensation, only for him to leave five months later with a £4.1m pay-off.
- Made 250 staff redundant, with another 200 proposed.
- Increased ticket prices to £66 and scrapped concession rates.
- Cancelled the annual staff Christmas party, saving £250,000, while an annual £100 bonus was swapped for a £40 voucher.
- Ended Sir Alex Ferguson’s ambassadorial role, for which he was paid £2m, while other former players have seen their ambassador salaries reduced.
- Scrapped free staff travel for the FA Cup final.
“Manchester United has become mediocre,” Ratcliffe said in December. “It is supposed to be one of the best football clubs in the world.
“We have to make some difficult and unpopular decisions. If you shy away from the difficult decisions, then nothing much is going to change.”
Despite Ratcliffe’s radical cost-saving drive, the club saw revenue drop by 12 per cent in the last financial quarter.
The club made an operating profit of £3.1m – down from £27.5m over the same period in 2023 – after spending £14.5m on the sackings of Ten Hag, his coaching staff, and Ashworth.
All of this comes amid a backdrop of the club languishing in 15th place in the Premier League, with former players like Rio Ferdinand fearing they will not win another game this season.
talkSPORT host, and United fan, Andy Goldstein labelled the club as the worst run in the league.
He told Drive: “I asked, is Manchester United the worst run club in the Premier League? Without a doubt the answer is yes.
“It is the worst Manchester United has EVER been run as a club. The Dan Ashworth thing underlines that. We had to pay Newcastle £3m and then him £4.1m after he only lasted 159 days.
“On the back of that you’ve got 250 staff being made redundant, you’ve got question marks about another 100-200 pending redundancies at the club.
“They’ve stopped things like Sir Alex Ferguson’s wage, they don’t do dinners and balls to raise money for players who were there.
“They’ve put ticket prices up.
Premier League table since Ratcliffe’s arrival
| Pos | Team | Games | Wins | Draws | Losses | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| 1 | Arsenal | 38 | 26 | 9 | 3 | 84 | 29 | 55 | 87 |
| 2 | Liverpool | 38 | 25 | 10 | 3 | 87 | 41 | 46 | 85 |
| 3 | Man City | 39 | 25 | 7 | 7 | 91 | 43 | 48 | 82 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 38 | 20 | 11 | 7 | 82 | 56 | 26 | 71 |
| 5 | Newcastle | 38 | 19 | 7 | 12 | 74 | 54 | 20 | 64 |
| 6 | Bournemouth | 39 | 18 | 9 | 12 | 65 | 50 | 15 | 63 |
| 7 | Nottingham Forest | 38 | 17 | 8 | 13 | 58 | 52 | 6 | 59 |
| 8 | Fulham | 38 | 15 | 12 | 11 | 59 | 53 | 6 | 57 |
| 9 | Aston Villa | 38 | 15 | 12 | 11 | 59 | 66 | -7 | 57 |
| 10 | Crystal Palace | 38 | 14 | 12 | 12 | 58 | 46 | 12 | 54 |
| 11 | Tottenham | 38 | 15 | 4 | 19 | 71 | 60 | 11 | 49 |
| 12 | Brentford | 39 | 13 | 9 | 17 | 64 | 64 | 0 | 48 |
| 13 | Everton | 38 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 40 | 49 | -9 | 48 |
| 14 | Brighton | 38 | 11 | 14 | 13 | 45 | 60 | -15 | 47 |
| 15 | Man United | 38 | 12 | 9 | 17 | 50 | 59 | -9 | 45 |
| 16 | West Ham | 38 | 11 | 10 | 17 | 53 | 77 | -24 | 43 |
| 17 | Wolves | 38 | 8 | 6 | 24 | 46 | 79 | -33 | 30 |
“Every single decision currently being made by that club, my club, has been the wrong decision.”
Goldstein also pointed to the Ashworth debacle and how hundreds of people at the club have lost their jobs because of mistakes like this.
He continued: “You’ve got someone like Sir Jim Ratcliffe making people redundant who have been at the club years and years on the back of a £7m mistake like Dan Ashworth. That’s Ineos and Ratcliffe making mistakes so the normal person, football fan, who has been at the club all their life and has to leave their job because of someone like Sir Jim Ratcliffe making decisions that are costing the club £7m.
“On the back of those mistakes he has to put prices up. Everything at Manchester United is appallingly run.”
The money-saving drive off the pitch has not helped things on it either, since Ratcliffe took over there are only two teams who have picked up fewer points than United.
New manager Amorim, who replaced Ten Hag in October, is struggling to even win a game.
Goldstein added: “I don’t think there’s any light at the end of the tunnel. Not only are we appalling on the pitch, we’ve got a new manager who has come into the club and some legends have come out and been negative to Amorim.
“We are playing the worst football I’ve ever seen, we’ve got a manager who has come in who I’m told is a good manager but I haven’t seen anything yet to suggest it.
“Every single point towards Man United is negative.”
He concluded: “Manchester United are in the worst place it has been in over 40 years.”
In Ratcliffe’s defence, former Premier League striker Gabby Agbonlahor pointed to the huge transfer spending by Ten Hag that pre-dates Ineos’ arrival at the club.
“The start of the problem was Erik ten Hag. Look at some of his signings.” Agbonlahor told talkSPORT.
“Ten Hag spent £600m, so that’s part of the problem when Ineos came in to have that amount of money spent. There was no more money for transfers.”
Ratcliffe’s cost-cutting measures show no sign of ending, but will be doing something about the decrepit Old Trafford.
He wants to build a £2billion ‘Wembley of the North’ that will hold around 100,000 people.
It seems there will be plenty of bumps in the road before they are challenging for the Premier League title again.
