Sir Jim Ratcliffe 'ready to dump £194m worth of talent in January window'

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is reportedly preparing a firesale to rid Manchester United of three of its underperforming stars.

According to the Sun, Ratcliffe, who is still yet to finalise the purchase of 25 per cent of United shares from the Glazer family, has already drawn up plans for a massive overhaul for Erik ten Hag's squad.

The British billionaire, as part of his minority deal, would take control of football operations, and he is also thought to be set to pledge £245million to improve infrastructure.

But Ten Hag's squad looks to need emergency surgery to help salvage the season, with a dismal start in the Premier League and the Champions League, where defeat at FC Copenhagen this week left them bottom of their group.

The Sun claim that Ratcliffe has drawn up a plan to shift banished £73million winger Jadon Sancho, £85m signing Antony, and also rid Ten Hag of £36m striker Anthony Martial.

United have spent a staggering £1.4billion on transfers since Sir Alex Ferguson left his role and retired a decade ago.

Ratcliffe, like many top businessmen, hates wasting money and he is said to have been staggered by the nature of United's spending.

Ten Hag has spent almost £400m since he arrived, with big name arrivals such as Antony, Andre Onana and Lisandro Martinez.

While Martinez has been a hit and Onana needing time to adapt to English football, the report claims Ratcliffe is unconvinced by Antony.

The Brazilian winger does not have a goal or assist to his name this season and looks a shadow of the player United thought they were getting last summer from Ajax.

He was benched in favour of Alejandro Garnacho in Copenhagen in midweek.

Meanwhile Sancho remains exiled away from the first team.

The £73m attacker has been forced to train on his own at the academy and is barred from using first team facilities at United's Carrington training base.

Sancho's exile followed the winger publicly branding his manager a liar over his reasons for dropping him for the 3-1 away defeat by Arsenal in September.

The 23-year-old removed the social media post but refused to apologise for the outburst, resulting in a now prolonged absence from the first team squad.

As a result, there is likely going to be a concerted effort to move Sancho on in January.

Then there is Martial, who has been at United the longest of the three players named in the Sun report.

The French striker joined for an initial fee of £36m from Monaco in 2015, with United beating Chelsea to his signature.

There were big hopes for Martial, who seemed destined for big things after his stunning debut goal against Liverpool, when he arrived

And yet he has only been able to score 89 times for the Red Devils - not bagging over 10 in a season since the 2019-20 campaign.

He is the only player signed for the 2015-16 season who is still at the club, though many would argue he should have left the club a while ago.

Martial's £250,000-a-week deal expires next summer and so time is running out for them to recoup some money on him if they don't elect to renew that deal.

Mail Sport revealed that the club are keeping their options regarding the forward's situation and his expiring contract.