More job losses are expected at Manchester United as Sir Jim Ratcliffe continues his cost-cutting exercise amid a concerning financial position - and while some United fans in the Manchester Evening News comments section are angry and disappointed at the deep cuts, others trust that this will eventually drag the club out of a period of huge losses.
Ratcliffe has risked any goodwill he gained from taking over as the public figurehead from the Glazer family, by embarking on a mission to slash what the new ownership see as unnecessary spending, and take control of the club's finances. Ratcliffe's investment of £241 million from when he bought his minority share last year is understood not to have made a big dent in the long-term future of the club.
The burden has fallen on the staff, with a 250 redundancies last year and another 100 or more expected to leave this year. Many of the other cost-cutting measures at the club have happened behind the scenes too, from removing Sir Alex Ferguson from his £2 million-per-year ambassador role to the club being thought to cut Christmas bonuses for administrative staff.
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Some say that the cuts will lower the mood off the pitch, adding to the hurt on it. Reader Soothsayer57 says: “His 12 months in charge have been a total disaster, and still no definitive decision on the new stadium. He's making the Glazers look like football geniuses by comparison.”
RedDevil20 writes: “The Glazers need to sell up and leave along with SJR. Only then will there be a sustainable improvement on and off the pitch.”
Redsince85 says: “How about some of the senior staff, including players and coaches, take pay cuts for the poor performances and results? The lack of PR awareness and not being bothered about upsetting the fans, is staggering.”
RAYK says: “His bad errors cost more, keeping ETH & hiring & sacking Ashworth.” Jargonman adds: “I think the fans need to add ‘we want Ratcliffe out’ as well as the one about the Glazers. He has nothing to improve the club. United is nothing but a vanity project. Sell up, please!”
But there are others who trust the process and hope that it will lead United out of a slump lasting more than a decade. Sav7 says: “Needs more time. It's only been a year. The Glazers have been there since 2005. Only now stadium plans look to be moving. Changes are happening throughout the club and a lot of unnecessary expenses are being cut. What more can they do?
"Changes are necessary and only they know what happens behind the scenes that makes job cuts necessary. The reason he is a billionaire is because he knows how to run businesses and hire the right people. Let's see, it's early days.”
100percentcotton agrees: “If a club has been badly run/structured over the previous years, and is losing hundreds of millions of pounds a year, there is bound to be some streamlining. Nobody likes to see redundancies being made, I should know, I have been made redundant before after being in the role for twenty years.
"But ultimately the long term health and sustainability of the club is the main factor and I am sure many, including myself, do not have access to the accounts of the club to hand. Still early days but Ineos are having to deal with the mismanagement of the club for a long time.”
RociLal writes: “Supporting Jimbo here for what he's done so far. In order to bring a club back from the brink of being skint, and at the wrong end of the league, he needs to carry out the tough decisions first with criticism flying from all those banging the barrel based on social media soundbites.”
Have your say! Can you stomach this cost-cutting at Manchester United if it means restoring former glories? Comment below, and join in on the conversation.
