After Manchester United were humbled 3-0 at home by Liverpool last month, a satirical post appeared on social media next to a picture of Sir Jim Ratcliffe in the Old Trafford directors’ box with a hand clasped despairingly over his face.
‘To put this right I’m going to need to fire a chef and a part-time receptionist,’ it read.
The black humour conveyed a rather painful reality at United since Ratcliffe walked through the door: the people paying the price for failure aren’t the ones on the pitch.
No fewer than 250 rank and file have lost their jobs in recent months as the result of a brutal cost-cutting exercise overseen by Ratcliffe, who has assumed day-to-day control of the club since acquiring a minority share for £1.3billion.
Now Sir Alex Ferguson, of all people, is surplus to requirements too. The manager who avoided the axe for more than 26 years at Old Trafford, bumped off the payroll in just a matter of months on Sir Jim’s watch.
Not everyone will shed a tear for Ferguson. The 82-year-old won’t go poor after a hugely successful career and more than a decade earning £2million-a-year wining and dining around the world in his role as a global ambassador.
He will still be welcomed back to Old Trafford, if not the dressing room that he commanded for so long.
Ferguson is a fair man and he would be the first to acknowledge there are plenty of others that find themselves on the Old Trafford scrapheap who are more deserving of our sympathy. Staff, some of whom have been at the club almost as long as him, who now face an uncertain future paying mortgages and household bills.
Equally, Ratcliffe would argue with some justification that a root-and-branch overhaul of the club was long overdue, whether United were first in the Premier League table or way down in 14th, which is where Erik ten Hag’s side find themselves after seven games this season.
Ratcliffe arrived with a reputation for ruthless efficiency at Ineos and inherited a bloated workforce that exceeded 1,100 employees. Change was inevitable and United’s latest financial report last month estimated that the club will save up to £45m-a-year after meeting the initial £10m costs of executing the redundancy plan. Ratcliffe is a hard-headed businessman and the Glazers have been happy to let him do their dirty work.
Where United’s continued restructuring doesn’t sit so comfortably is an assertion from the new co-owners that the bulk of the money saved will be used to improve the first-team squad and facilities. Ineos might think that’s what the fans want to hear and they might be right.
But this is the same first-team squad that has already been improved to the tune of £600m since Ten Hag was appointed two and a half years ago, and currently sit below Brentford and Bournemouth in the table. Players such as Rasmus Hojlund signed for £72m, Casemiro for £70m and Mason Mount for £60m. Put that way, £45m really doesn’t get you very much these days. Maybe Antony’s left leg at a push.
Mail Sport revealed that United will consider letting the £86m Brazilian flop go out on loan in January if it helps to shift him permanently in the summer, even though they are unlikely to recoup more than £40m.
Take this summer’s new recruits, signed for another £200m. French defender Leny Yoro hasn’t kicked a ball in anger since pre-season after suffering a metatarsal injury which showed up during his medical, according to reports.
Meanwhile, Matthijs de Ligt, Joshua Zirkzee and Manuel Ugarte have hardly pulled up any trees, and Noussair Mazraoui is currently sidelined with a heart condition. So much for the marginal gains.
Despite announcing record revenues of £661.8m for the year, United also reported net losses of £113.2m last month — the fifth year in a row that this has happened. The main reason, it transpired, was investment in new players and wages.
Another few million could fly out of the door if the team’s shortcomings force United to finally sack Ten Hag and pay the Dutchman compensation.
So it’s difficult to separate the costs Ratcliffe is trying to cut from the failure of players who have never done less to justify their extravagant rewards.
If United weren’t overpaying on transfer fees and salaries, if the team were capable of finishing even fourth and qualifying for the Champions League, that £45m would look like a drop in the ocean.
And that’s before you get into the £1bn-plus drained out of United by the Glazers and used to finance the club’s debt and pay their dividends over the years, or the £42.7m it cost for the strategic review that ended with Ratcliffe acquiring 27.7 per cent of the club.
It’s hard not to see his arrival as an overall positive for United. Ratcliffe has put football first again after years of Glazer greed, he is paying for the £50m revamp of their Carrington training complex and wants to rebuild Old Trafford — even though it will cost in excess of £2bn.
But optics are everything these days. Shedding staff to slash the wage bill — especially someone so esteemed as Ferguson — cutting up the corporate credit cards and cancelling the Christmas party will only get you so far when the really big money is being splashed up the wall somewhere else.