- Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s comments and behaviour have reportedly ruffled feathers
- He and Ineos took control of Man United’s football operations in December 2023
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Manchester United’s chiefs are reportedly divided as Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s frank speech and behaviour are said to have got on the Glazers’ nerves.
Ratcliffe and Ineos were handed the keys to Old Trafford in December 2023 as their £1.3billion takeover of 27.7 per cent of the club – and its football operations – was confirmed.
They have since enacted a stringent cost-cutting and revenue-boosting regime, making around a third of staff redundant, slashing privileges for staff and ambassadors like Sir Alex Ferguson, and raising ticket prices.
While Ratcliffe and Ineos have taken a lot of heat off the Glazers, the long-standing ownership family are still reported to have been irked by some of his actions.
His comment in March that United could have gone bust by Christmas without his brutal cuts has ‘not sat easily’ with the Americans, according to The Athletic.
‘The simple answer is the club runs out of money at Christmas if we don’t do those things,’ he said of the job cuts and price hikes. ‘If you spend more than you earn eventually that’s the road to ruin.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s methods have apparently irked the Glazers (pictured with Avram Glazer)
His frank speech about United’s finances has reportedly ‘not sat easily’ with the Americans
Ratcliffe’s habit of convening executive meetings in places convenient for him is also said to have ruffled feathers (Avram and Joel Glazer pictured)
‘Manchester United had gone off the rails a long way. If you look at the numbers, they were fairly scary because they had lost control of where the ship was headed. And the costs had got out of control.
‘In super-simple terms the club has been spending more money than it has been earning for the last seven years, including this year. If you do that for a prolonged period of time it ends up in a very difficult place, and, for Manchester United, that place ended at the end of this year.
‘At the end of 2025, Manchester United would have run out of cash. That is the first time we have ever said that in public, but that is the fact of the matter.’
In February, we had learned the club’s financial accounts for the final three months of 2024. In a rare glimpse of promise, the numbers revealed a profit of £3.1m for the quarter, although for the same period in 2023 that figure stood at £27.5m.
Moreover, Ratcliffe’s insistence on holding executive committee meetings in places which are convenient for him, such as Monaco, has apparently ‘ruffled feathers’.
Such locations make it more difficult for the Glazers to attend.
Ratcliffe has overseen an extremely public leadership of Manchester United, and his more candid apoproach – as well as direct manner of cost-cutting such as in morale-sappig redundancy rounds – contrasts heavily with the Glazers.
