SIR JIM RATCLIFFE laid bare the huge problems facing Manchester United in a series of bombshell interviews on Monday.
The Ineos chief, who bought a minority share in the club just over a year ago, addressed a range of topics.
These included the shocking performances on the pitch, the unpopular decisions he has made with regards to cost-cutting and the errors already made since his arrival.
We have looked at ten of the main takeaways from Ratcliffe’s candid set of interviews…
Squad ‘not good enough’
Ratcliffe, 70, made it clear in no uncertain terms he doesn’t think the current playing squad is up to scratch.
The British Billionaire said: “Some are not good enough and some probably are overpaid, but for us to mould the squad that we are fully responsible for, and accountable for, will take time.”
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He even specifically named five players – Antony, Andre Onana, Casemiro, Rasmus Hojlund and Jadon Sancho – who his team “had to buy” when he invested in the club – referring to outstanding transfer fee instalments United still owe to other teams.
The huge fees paid out for increasingly poor returns have been one of the driving forces of United being in the mess it is in.
However, Ratcliffe believed progress was slowly happening with summer signings like Joshua Zirkzee and Matthijs de Ligt.
He added “fantastic” stars such as Bruno Fernandes would be needed to emerge from this darker period.
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Running out of cash by Xmas
Man Utd have a huge cash problem. That is a fact which is well documented and in the public record.
However, the severity of the issue from years of negligence under the ownership of majority owners, the Glazers, was laid bare by Ratcliffe with a stunning claim the club was set to run out of money by Christmas without drastic cost-cutting measures.
He told the BBC: “The simple answer is the club runs out of money at Christmas if we don’t do those things,” before adding to The Telegraph: “It (United) goes bust at Christmas (without change).”
That claim of United ceasing to exist is a little wide of the truth, although the comment about the lack of cash is accurate, with Ratcliffe putting in $300m (£232.72m) since arriving which has left the club with £74m in the bank.
Ratcliffe revealed the club has lost around £330m over the last four years.
What he thinks of Ruben Amorim
Amid the raft of issues at United, Ratcliffe does not believe Ruben Amorim is one of them, and insists he will be at Man Utd “for a long time”.
United sit 14th in the Premier League under the former Sporting Lisbon, with his arrival in November not providing the uplift in form many would have hoped for.
But Ratcliffe remains convinced he is the man for the job.
Ratcliffe said of the 40-year-old: “I think Ruben is an outstanding young manager. I really do. He’s an excellent manager and I think he will be there for a long time.
“You are beginning to see a glimpse of what Ruben can produce. Ruben is doing a super job…
“He is, as most great coaches are, an emotional character. Ruben is not perfect but I am a great supporter of Ruben.”
Ratcliffe also revealed Amorim is no-pushover and is willing to tell him to “f*** off” when they meet up.
Meeting with Fergie
One of the most controversial decisions made since Ratcliffe’s arrival was the ending of a multi-million pound commitment to Sir Alex Ferguson, which Ratcliffe said left Fergie “grumpy” to begin with.
He said: “I sat down with (Sir) Alex, just the two of us in the room and I said, ‘Look, the club isn’t where you may think it is.
“It is spending more than it’s earning and we’re going to finish up in some difficulties. Honestly, we can’t really afford to continue to pay you £2m a year’.
“I said I’m going to ‘leave it with you, let you have a think about it’. It was very grown-up.
“Maybe a little bit grumpy at the beginning but he got it, and he came back three days later, after talking to his son, and said, ‘Fine, I’m going to step away from it. My decision’.
“I think it reflects really well on Alex, because he put the club before himself.”
How much club still owe on transfers
Ratcliffe revealed on The Overlap that Man Utd would be signing a cheque of £89m for transfers this summer, even if they did not sign a single player.
He lamented huge fees still owed for big investments on stars before he arrived, giving an example of a £17m payment still to be made for Sancho in the summer.
Indeed the five names he explicitly mentioned have combined transfer fees of well over £300m.
He said: “These are all things from the past, whether we like it or not, we’ve inherited those things and have to sort that out.”
The staggering fees owed on transfers is one of the main reasons the club are losing money year on year, with savage cost-cutting decisions being made.
Cutting free lunches
Among the most controversial of the swathe of cost-cuts made at Man Utd since Ineos arrived was the removal of free lunches for staff.
His philosophy of “you look after the pennies, the pounds look after themselves” may ring true in other forms of business but, at a financial juggernaut like Man Utd, many fans felt the measure seemed extreme.
Ratcliffe estimated at the time that it would save the club £1m a year – a figure totally dwarfed by transfer fees, salaries and manager pay-offs.
Ratcliffe said: “At Ineos, we run a lean organisation. As my mother said, you look after the pennies, the pounds look after themselves.
“We can sound flippant about free lunches but if you give all these perks, first-class train fares, free taxis, it’s not coherent. It goes bust at Christmas.”
Awkward chat with Neville over £40k cut to ex-players
In probably the most damning showing of emotional from Ratcliffe in the interview, he was visibly uncomfortable when discussing the £40,000 donation to the Former Players Association with Gary Neville on The Overlap.
Neville asked why, if the club could not afford the payment, they had not arranged for a major star like Fernandes or Harry Maguire to have a fund-raising dinner for the organisation.
Like a scene out of The Office, Ratcliffe responded by saying no one had thought of it but he would have supported it and would reconsider the decision in the future.
Neville responded by saying that “alarms” him, and it was the most damning reflection of the new management team at United so far.
Body language consultant – Ratcliffe’s ‘bugbear’
While Ratcliffe has taken some flak for the brutal cost-cuts since his arrival, in some cases he believes those decisions are more than worthwhile for what he deems are unnecessary roles.
During his interview he highlighted the club having a “body language consultant” on £175,000 a year, almost scoffing at the suggestion such a role could be useful.
Admitting Ten Hag and Ashworth error
For all the cost-cutting Ratcliffe and his team have done since arriving, there have also made some very expensive “errors”.
Those include the decision to keep and then fire Erik ten Hag, as well as the ill-fated appointment of Dan Ashworth.
The decisions to sack the pair and then bring in Amorim cost around £20m – which is a whole lot of free lunches – though he insisted those decisions were made before the full management team were in place.
Ratcliffe said: “I agree the Erik ten Tag and Dan Ashworth decisions were errors.
“I think there were some mitigating circumstances, but ultimately they were errors. I accept that and I apologise for that.
“If you look at the time we made the decision about Erik the management team hadn’t been in place more than five minutes.
“It became clearer three months later and we got it wrong, but we’d moved on. I think we corrected it and we are in a very different place today.”
Rashford verdict
Marcus Rashford’s omission from the Man Utd squad by Amorim before his loan transfer to Aston Villa in January was a real head-scratcher.
It was made even worse considering United’s struggles in the final third and the fact Rashford has already managed three assists in Villa colours.
However, while Ratcliffe said he was “pleased” the Man Utd academy graduate was doing well on loan, he reiterated that Amorim had his full backing over squad matters, citing a need for all players to give 100 per cent.
He said: “He (Amorim) wants a dressing room that is full of people who are totally committed to winning football matches.
“He won’t tolerate people who don’t have 100% of that attitude. The players have to be in the same box.”
On Rashford himself, he added: “He’s moved out of Manchester and maybe that’s a good thing for him.
“I am very pleased he is doing well. It’s good to see because he has got tremendous talent, but for whatever reason it wasn’t working in Manchester for the past couple of seasons.
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“But he is a very talented footballer, Rashford.”
Ratcliffe also suggested Rashford’s future would lay away from Old Trafford from the summer, with the attackers sale set to be a part of the budget to help Amorim refurbish his squad.
Man Utd ratings vs Arsenal as De Ligt shows exactly why Red Devils signed him but Zirkzee is as frustrating as ever
IT was a performance that would have pleased Ruben Amorim but a 1-1 draw with Arsenal does little to paper over the cracks at Manchester United.
On a day when the Old Trafford crowd protested the owners, the players stood up to show their remains life in a club that fans say is experiencing a “slow death”.
There was a lack of clear-cut chances in the opening 45 minutes as both sides goalscoring troubles continued.
A moment of magic was needed and Fernandes stepped up as he so often does.
Arsenal’s wall was full of man mountains, but Fernandes found the power, dip and accuracy to beat David Raya with his free-kick – even if the wall was marched 11.2 yards back instead of the regulated ten.
Mikel Arteta’s side came out swinging in the second-half with their makeshift No9 up top, and it took a brilliant effort from Declan Rice to level the scores.
United were able to frustrate them and remain a threat on the counter but eventually had to settle for a point in a much-improved performance.
Here is how SunSport’s Martin Blackburn rated the United performances.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
