I thought Jim Ratcliffe was talking bollocks about Man Utd ... I was only half right
The co-owner of the most successful club of the Premier League era has made some astonishing claims about MUFC and the future in recent days. What's true, or not?
Sometimes you make snap judgements that turn out to be right, hopefully more often than not, and sometimes you make calls that turn out to be wrong. And on Tuesday morning, having watched and listened to Sir Jim Ratcliffe throughout Monday trying to defend job cuts and food cuts for staff at Manchester United, I tweeted some judgements, that, on reflection, were only partly right, and definitely could have been more nuanced.
I said he’d “spouted bollocks” about United potentially “going bust” by Christmas, and I stand by that. There was zero chance of United ceasing to exist by Christmas even in difficult and loss-making times. I’ll explain why shortly.
My tweets generated feedback that was about half vehemently supportive of my view, and half calling me an idiot. Fair enough.
But I didn’t allow for the fact Sir Jim’s comments - and he told multiple outlets that without staff cuts last year and this year that United would have been “bust by Christmas” 2025 - might have been dramatised by him for effect. Running out of cash, which is where United were heading, is quite different from actually going bust.
When you run out of cash, you can provide more funds, or get a loan, or sell to someone with more money, or get new partners.
Anyway.
Sir Jim (below, referred to as SJR from now on in this piece) got all the headlines he could possibly have wanted on Monday, many of them focusing on the slightly disingenuous “going bust” headline.
And then, on Tuesday, in what was a brilliantly orchestrated two-day PR spectacle, he unveiled plans for an extraordinary £2bn proposed new stadium for United that apparently might be ready in five years, or in time for the 2030-31 season.
I will link to various articles and interviews with SJR in this piece but, in my opinion, the single best interview with SJR was conducted by Gary Neville. You can watch that via YouTube below, but journalistically I thought it was brilliant: proper questions, proper interrogation, and from a deep knowledge base. Red Nev held SJR’s feet to the fire, and in a way that got answers, and admissions about more failings that most others didn’t. Anyway, make up your own mind.
I messaged Gary on Tuesday night to say I thought he’d done a great job, and he replied that it was a positive that SJR even turned up to do this “when the rest of them [owners] don’t.”
The other video I think is worth your time is SJR’s interview with United’s in-house media team about the logic and rationale behind a new-build stadium. That one is here:
Needless to say, for a football club that remains one of the biggest in the world in terms of popularity, and income and any other metric you want to consider, the SJR story across Monday and Tuesday (“We were going bust” / “We’re going to spend £2bn on a stadium”) garnered huge attention.
So what is actually happening at Manchester United?
Who is calling the shots?
What is the plan?
SJR and his chief executive Omar Berrada have both gone on the record in the past few days to state, unequivocally, that United will be “the most profitable club in the world in three years”, which by my reckoning means by 2028.
SJR and his management team have also coined a target label for their on-pitch ambitions, and that is “Mission 21”, the club’s aim to deliver a 21st top-division English league title in time for Manchester United’s 150th anniversary, in 2028.
Which is pretty punchy. In three years’ time, United are hoping and / or expecting to be not only the most profitable football club in the world, but also Premier League champions again for the first time since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.
Really?
I love their optimism, and I write this as a “neutral” who doesn’t support any “big” club (most of you already know I’m afflicted with a lifelong condition called Southampton), but … I’ve re-watched every interview SJR did on Monday, and re-read every interview in which he spoke to a specific journalist, whether from the BBC, The Times, The Telegraph, Sky, whoever. I’ve watched all the content on United’s own website.
And I’m left with two key takeaways. First, some kudos is due because at least SJR fronted up, over and over again, on the record and on camera, and he answered every question. Which is more than the Glazers have ever done, in 20 years.
Second, there remain so many more questions than answers about the future of Manchester United under the current slightly strange ownership arrangement where the Glazers remain the biggest single shareholders but the club overall, across football and non-football operations, does now effectively seem to be being run by SJR in association with CEO Omar Berrada and INEOS “director of sport” Sir Dave Brailsford.
There are SO many issues that need clearing up in this whole situation, not least for United fans. I’m not going to be able to provide definitive answers to all of those, or even most of them, but I have spent two days looking at the detail, and the facts, and the numbers, and the money, and trying to work out what happens next.
So this piece will deal with the key issues as I see them including:
From reported figures, the 450 people being made redundant last summer and this year were / are on average salaries of £155,555 per head. Really?
United’s squad by common consensus requires a massive overhaul to be populated with players than can function properly in Ruben Amorin’s system. How can United achieve that, which won’t be cheap, while also becoming the world’s most profitable club by 2028?
What exactly is United’s player wage bill these days? And is there any truth whatsoever in SJR’s claim that Ruben Amorin is functioning with a current squad earning “only” £130m collectively as Liverpool’s earns £200m and Manchester City’s £300m? This really is gob-smacking stuff and I’ll be quoting SJR verbatim on these claims and linking you to the video where he claims it, in his own words.
What are the Glazers actually doing these days, in terms of any meaningful role in running Manchester United, either on the footballing side or business side?
How is a new £2bn stadium going to be funded, and more importantly, who will own it, or to be more specific, what legal entity or investment vehicle will own it? And which Gulf state is most like to emerge as the naming rights holder?
Why does SJR persist, as previous owners and / or people with influence at United persisted, with the bullshit notion that United have 1bn fans (or followers)? Part of the stated rationale of SJR, in words that came from his own mouth this week, is those 1bn will all want to visit the new stadium.