Manchester United jobs fear as Sir Jim Ratcliffe starts cost-cutting exercise

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has appointed corporate restructuring firm Interpath Advisory to undertake a major cost-cutting exercise at Manchester United as the club battle to comply with Profit and Sustainability Rules.

The review by Interpath, who are an offshoot of accountancy KPMG, began earlier this month with the consultants working with the club to analyse all areas of United's business in an attempt to maximise the resources made available for football.

United's financial results for the second quarter of 2023/24 released on Tuesday showed that staff costs had risen to £95.1million over that period compared to £77.3m last season, an outlay which Ratcliffe believes is holding back Erik Ten Hag's side.

The Dutchman was unable to sign any new players during the January transfer window despite sending Jadon Sancho and Donny van de Beek out on loan because United were close to breaching the Premier League's PSR limits.

Mail Sport has learned that the Interpath Review will take place in two parts, with their first task being to analyse United's business costs such as travel bills and contracts with external companies.

The second phase later this year will be a review of United's employee costs, which is expected to lead to significant job cuts.

While United do not have a fixed target for savings the review is expected to lead to a reduction of the club's staffing levels of between 20 and 25 per cent, which in practical terms means hundreds of jobs, a plan first revealed by Mail Sport last December.

United have by far the biggest staff of any club in the Premier League, with over 1112 employees on the payroll compared to around 900 at Liverpool, 750 at Tottenham, 720 at Manchester City and 700 at Arsenal.

Ratcliffe's other sporting investments run by INEOS are notoriously lean operations in contrast to United, where even staff concede privately that there is fat to trim following a huge expansion of their commercial and digital under the Glazer family's ownership.

The 71-year-old has made it clear that improving the performance of Ten Hag's first-team and upgrading facilities for fans at Old Trafford will be his main priorities, and has concluded that trimming spending in other areas of the business can help achieve this.

Ratcliffe has moved fast since his purchase of a 25 per cent stake in United was finally last month in an acknowledgement that the club have considerable ground to make up on their rivals.

He was instrumental in poaching Omar Berrada from Manchester City to become United's new chief executive, an approach has been made to Newcastle to appoint Dan Ashworth as sporting director and a taskforce including Lord Sebastian Coe, Gary Neville and Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has been appointed to consider the merits of building a new stadium close to Old Trafford.

While Ratcliffe's other moves have been expansionist and indicative of his desire to grow United the appointment of Interpath, who were previously KPMG's UK restructuring and insolvency division before being sold three years ago, is the first sign that the club's new part-owner is prepared to make tough decisions when required.

While many United staff will be nervous regarding their futures fans are likely to be reassured that any money saved will be spent on strengthening the squad.