When anti-fracking demonstrators protested against Ineos six years ago, they carried masks depicting Sir Jim Ratcliffe as the devil. Ratcliffe hasn't been afraid to upset people throughout his career and his decision-making at Manchester United has seen his reputation plummet.
Ratcliffe has only been in charge of football operations at Old Trafford for a year, but he's overseen a disastrous 12 months by making several bad decisions on the pitch and away from it.
The British billionaire has made headlines again this week because of his decision to clamp down on more staff perks. There will be no more free lunches for staff at Old Trafford and assurances for catering arrangements to remain the same at Carrington have only been given for the remainder of the season.
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The morale at United has been described as being at "rock-bottom", but the classless decision to remove free lunches will find out whether the mood among staff can possibly get even lower.
That is for the staff who remain after another round of redundancies, which were confirmed on Monday afternoon when United bizarrely announced job losses as a “transformation plan”.
A snippet of the official statement from the club read: "As part of these measures, the club anticipates that approximately 150-200 jobs may be made redundant, subject to a consultation process with employees. These would be in addition to the 250 roles removed last year."
When the changes are made, 450 staff could have left United within the space of a year and CEO Omar Berrada explained: "We deeply regret the impact on those affected colleagues. However, these hard choices are necessary to put the club back on a stable financial footing."
Last summer, Ratcliffe's review of the club's operations found United had the highest employee count in the Premier League and redundancies were deemed necessary by Ineos.
United's financial figures were released last week and they painted a bleak picture. United wouldn't be laying off staff if the club was in a healthy financial position, but the conditions they are creating for the employees who are kept are not befitting of 'the biggest club in England'.
Ratcliffe needed to make changes, but it's the stringent penny-pinching that has made supporters question his morality. It all started last May, when club staff were told they had to pay £20 to travel to Wembley for the FA Cup final, despite travel for cup finals having been previously paid for.
United had also given pre-match food and accommodation to their 1,100 staff members, but those benefits were scrapped and that was the beginning of Ratcliffe's small but hurtful cuts.
The savings made by such decisions are minimal. They are a drop in the ocean compared to expenditure on players and first-team mismanagement is the reason for the problem.
Although some of Ratcliffe's changes have not felt like a big deal in isolation, they have gradually totted up and the staff who survive the latest redundancies will likely consider their futures.
United have claimed ending free staff meals at Old Trafford will save £1m and some have pointed out that employees in ordinary work places are expected to pay for their own lunch, although that ignores the fact United like to insist they are one of the world's biggest clubs.
If that is true, it is not an ordinary workplace and staff could perhaps be treated to small perks, especially when they cost a tiny amount compared to how much has been wasted on transfers and player wages.
Ratcliffe has got rid of staff and made the lives of the staff who remain much worse, so nobody will blame them for looking elsewhere and potentially joining other Premier League clubs.
There are bound to be staff members who survive the fresh redundancies that will look for new jobs regardless. Who would want to work at United right now? It's a grim situation.
