Sir Jim Ratcliffe ready to give Ruben Amorim two more years to prove himself at Man Utd despite worst season in 50 years

SIR JIM RATCLIFFE has claimed Ruben Amorim could get up to two more years to prove himself at Manchester United.

United co-owner Ratcliffe admitted under-fire Amorim has “not had the best of seasons” after three defeats in seven Premier League games but revealed the Glazer family would not order him to sack the Portuguese.

Amorim is under contract until June 2027 but has won only 19 of his 50 games in charge and United have taken 37 points from his 34 league matches.

Ratcliffe suggested Amorim, who was appointed last November, is a third of the way through a three-year project.

Ratcliffe told The Business Podcast: “He has not had the best of seasons. Ruben needs to demonstrate he is a great coach over three years. That’s where I would be.”

With Ratcliffe's Ineos group in control of football operations, Ratcliffe stressed majority owners the Glazers would not tell him to sack Amorim.

He added: “It’s not going to happen. We're local, and they (the Glazers) are the other side of the pond.

"That’s a long way away to try and manage a football club as big and complex as Manchester United.

“We’re here with feet on the ground.”

Ratcliffe, 73, also expressed his irritation with coverage of United, who are tenth in the Premier League table.

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In United’s first full season under the co-ownership of Ratcliffe’s Ineos group, they finished 15th in the league and trophyless - their worst campaign since the club was relegated in 1974.

Amorim has lost 19 games - as many as he has won - and that does not include the generational nadir of United’s League Cup second round elimination by League Two Grimsby Town, who progressed via a penalty shootout.

“The press, sometimes I don't understand,” Ratcliffe complained.

“They want overnight success.

“They think it's a light switch. You know, you flick a switch and it's all going to be roses tomorrow.

“You can't run a club like Manchester United on knee-jerk reactions to some journalist who goes off on one every week."

Ratcliffe, who clinched a minority stake in United on Christmas Eve in 2023, has been unpopular with supporters and staff.

The billionaire has overseen two rounds of redundancies, hiked ticket prices and relocated long-time season-ticket holders from their seats in the Sir Bobby Charlton Stand to accommodate more executive seating.

Some United supporters confronted Ratcliffe in January outside Fulham’s ground, where he was abused after watching the team scrape a 1-0 win.

Ratcliffe likened United’s process to assembling a Formula One car and claimed they will become “the most profitable club in the world”.

“The costs were just too high,” Ratcliffe protested. “There are some fantastic people at Manchester United, but there was also a level of mediocrity and it had become bloated. I got a lot of flak for the free lunches, but no-one’s ever given me a free lunch.

“There are two halves to a football team - there is the business side and the sports side. The biggest correlation, like it or not, between results and any external factor is profitability. The more cash you have got, the better squad you can build.

“It’s like a Formula One car - the better car you can build, the quicker you go. The better your squad, the better your football should be.

“So a lot of what we have done in the first year is spend an awful lot of time putting the club on a sustainable, healthy footing.

“If you look at our results for last year we have the highest revenues ever. Profitability, the second highest ever.

“We're not seeing all the benefits of the restructuring that we've done in this set of results, and we were not in the Champions League.

“Those numbers will get better.

“Manchester United will become the most profitable football club in the world, in my view, and from that will stem, I hope, a long-term, sustainable, high-level of football.”

Ratcliffe again defended the despised Glazers, the family that has owned United for more than 20 years.

“They get a bad rap,” Ratcliffe conceded. “But they are really nice people and they are really passionate about the club.”