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The timing cannot be understated. Ratcliffe’s regime has been getting slated from every angle in recent months, having already reached a year in charge – despite only owning a minority stake in the club – amid the justified perception of somehow making things even worse.
Ratcliffe has quicky learned how unforgiving football can be. He has previously dabbled in ownership through INEOS at OGC Nice and Lausanne-Sport. But nothing on this scale, with this much scrutiny, and this much of a challenge to get things right.
From hiking ticket prices, to laying off hundreds of staff at the same time as making expensive football personnel mistakes, taking lunches away from ordinary employees, toying with removing financial support for disabled supporters and talking dismissively about the women’s team, sentiment towards the man hailed just 12 months ago as the club’s saviour has massively soured.
It was clear that Ratcliffe and the INEOS contingent were out to do some damage control and take back at least some of the narrative.
The stark warning from Ratcliffe in his BBC interview is that Manchester United would “run out of cash” by the end of 2025 without the severe cost-saving measures he is implementing.
The billionaire has hardly stoked employee morale since last summer, with sweeping declarations that everyone must be 100% office-based after a culture of hybrid working had become the norm, before then laying off 250 people – and plans for up to 200 more. Taking away Old Trafford’s staff canteen, reported to cost £1m per year, also came across unnecessarily harsh and churlish at the same time as various underperforming members of the …
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