Sir Jim Ratcliffe has opened up about Ruben Amorim’s future at Manchester United and his relationship with the Glazer family.
Ratcliffe took charge of football operations in February 2024 and holds a 28.94% stake in United.
The British billionaire has made too many mistakes as a manager and has been heavily criticized for cot-cutting measures, including job cuts and cutting free lunches for staff, to put United on “solid financial footing”.
“The cost was too high,” Ratcliffe told the Business Podcast. “Manchester United have some great people, but there’s also a level of mediocrity and it’s become bloated. I’ve gotten a lot of flack for free lunches, but no one has ever given me a free lunch.
“There are two sides to a football team: the business side and the sports side. Like it or not, the biggest correlation between results and external factors is profitability.
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“The more cash you have, the better you can build a team. It’s like an F1 car. The better you can build a car, the faster you go. The better the team, the better the football should be.”
“So a lot of what we did in the first year was we spent a huge amount of time trying to put the club on a sustainable and healthy footing.
“If you look at our performance last year, we had the highest revenue ever. We also had the second highest profitability ever. This series of results did not show all the benefits of the restructuring we had done and we missed out on the Champions League.”
“These numbers will get even better. In my opinion, Manchester United will become the most profitable football club in the world, and I hope that from there comes a long-term, sustainable, high level of football.”
The Glazers, who took charge of United in 2005, have been blamed by fans for being responsible for United’s demise since Sir Alex Ferguson left the club in 2013, but Ratcliffe insisted: “They get a bad rap… but they’re really nice people and they’re really passionate about the club.”
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Amorim’s most important on-field decision was to sack Erik ten Hag and replace him with Ruben Amorim last November, but Amorim has only scored 37 points in 34 games and has been under pressure to be sacked ever since he joined the club.
Mr. Ratcliffe insisted that the Glazers’ request for Mr. Amorim’s removal was “not going to happen” and said he was “not going to make a decision based on what one journalist said.”
He added: “Sometimes I don’t understand, members of the press. They want overnight success. They think it’s a light switch. You flip the switch and tomorrow everything will fall apart. You can’t run a club like Manchester United by just reacting instantly to some journalist who’s going to abuse you every week.”
Ratcliffe admitted Amorim is a “good bloke” but hinted he still intends to lead United for a long time.
“He hasn’t had the best season,” he admitted. “Ruben has three years to prove that he is a great manager. That’s my position.”
