09 Dec 2024 11:07:15
All going swimmingly for Ratcliffe and co so far.
- Cancelled Women's team end of season award night (after winning a trophy I might add)
- 250 job redundancies
- Handling of ETH, essentially interviewing for his position, offering contracts and then sticking with him
- He has also tried to revoke club privileges long standing for the families of the Busby babes
- The upping of prices on tickets for games. No concessions for OAPs or U16s
- The chase of Ashworth, then his sacking after 5 months
- Office Xmas party cancelled
Man of the people is Jim, a great start so far.
09 Dec 2024 11:16:36
I bet he wasn't your first choice was he angelred!
09 Dec 2024 11:26:55
Lol ports, I'm very sceptical of all of them to be fair. I had/ have high hopes for Ratcliffe and co, but it really hasn't started well.
All this chat about being a fan, from a council estate etc too is all a load of codswallop. Hits the working man whilst spaffing money up the wall in other areas.
09 Dec 2024 12:10:32
It is still early days for SJR, but I'm not impressed with some of things he has done. In 2 years or so time we may be singing his praises ?.
One thing is for sure, time will tell.
09 Dec 2024 12:46:27
I hope so MH. From a footballing perspective.
But on a human level, he comes across as a ruthless twat.
09 Dec 2024 13:05:33
I agree angelred, I'm certainly not going to attempt to tell a Billionaire how to run a business but from a fan/ customer point of view, they seem to making some big PR mistakes. Early days though as people have said.
09 Dec 2024 13:26:44
Ratcliffe like all billionaires, not a great guy. But how bad must the financials be if they’re having to make these calls?
09 Dec 2024 13:36:31
Caolan, I get it, the financials are bad but ticket prices going up on the fans? Mental move IMO.
How about less of the private taxi-ing all over the gaff ?.
09 Dec 2024 14:11:25
Ruthless twat sounds like the exact thing this club needs to get back where we belong, let’s hope he’s making the right calls.
09 Dec 2024 14:25:53
Angel it’s probably the tip of the iceberg. It feels like pretty much all the biggest clubs are going to be doing that. Wait till there’s a new stadium, it’ll soon be over 100 a ticket. Which is a joke.
09 Dec 2024 14:43:55
Look. The Glazers stripped the club dry during SAF's last years. Then when he and Gill retired they appointed Ed Woodward as CEO and kept him at the helm for 10 years where he presided over the withering of all that made this club great, failing to keep up with modernizations taking place in all aspects of the game, and squandering the clubs resources. In his own words, our health as a club was no longer depended on us winning the league. He was an arrogant know it all who thought he should be in charge of transfers despite having no background in the game. After 10 years, he left the club profitless, in debt to the tune of £1bn, with an inferior overpaid squad, saddled with sustainability issues, and without any structural means to emerge from the mire he had presided over. The leaking roof is but an inadequate metaphor for the mess he left behind. An appointment that should never have been made, that came from an arrogant belief in the inevitability of United's onfield future successes, and in any event was secondary to the vision of United as now primarily a marketing device rather than football club, was allowed to endure for a DECADE. Managers came and went, LVG, Mourinho, Rangnick, They all spoke of or alluded to the dysfunction, the amateurishness, the lack of football soul in the boardroom. Ronaldo said the same.
This legacy is what Ratcliffe and his team are confronting. A moribund, mismanaged titanic of a club headed towards an iceberg. You may not like the changes, you may think them draconian and unnecessary, but I beg to differ, as unsavory as they may seem. In the grand scheme of things the departure of Ashworth is just a blip. And better it should be dealt with now than let it linger for 10 years like Woodward.
For those who want them to be as strong on player issues, I'm sure they will be. However they are bound by two realities, contracts and markets. You can't just get rid of players at no cost. Buyers will not materialize at unrealistic prices. On his current form who's going to cough up the equivalent of £60m to buy up his remaining wages + give us a transfer fee on top. Who's going to take Antony off our hands? Lindelof, Maguire, Casemiro will all be gone, but some dead weight will remain for a few years to come. I don't think it was coincidence that Berrrada suggested 2028 as the year of ambition. It's all very well to look at the successes of the Brightons and Brentfords etc but that is not the level to which United aspires.
We've endured 20 years of the Glazers, 10 of them under Woodward, followed by a couple of years of continuing internal incompetence and managerial uncertainty. It can't be fixed overnight and the financial bind we're in means it can't be fixed by playing Mr. Nice Guy.
09 Dec 2024 14:48:47
Yeah if that's your kind of thing gds.
09 Dec 2024 14:51:41
It's a reasonable point GDS, but some of the decisions have been plain dumb. Given the tranfer fees and wages being paid, the penny pinching at lower levels is incredibly insensitive. We used to be a decent club, itcseenscwe.
09 Dec 2024 16:07:15
AJH. It's not how many people the club employs but having the right people in the right places. Clearly sentimentality and/ or simple incompetence, has been the order of the day for 20 years. You can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs. Blame the previous regime for the unpleasant steps SJR now has to take.
{Ed001's Note - brevity Jim would have done this anyway, as his whole lifestyle is funded by cutting staff numbers and upping prices. Usually at the expense of the environment and quality of product produced.}
09 Dec 2024 16:09:14
After this rate hike, where will United rank in the EPL with regard to ticket prices?
09 Dec 2024 16:25:20
Shaw, all well and good but why are the fans paying for the clubs mismanagement? We have been asked to pay McLaren prices for driving a Kia car. He's a prick mate.
Also, if you look at Jim's career, he does this everywhere he goes.
09 Dec 2024 17:21:05
Shaw,
There has yet to be much of a price hike, just on the 3% of tickets that weren’t taken up originally.
09 Dec 2024 18:24:49
Gds, exactly, only 3%, so what was the point?
09 Dec 2024 18:39:22
We are back in the news for all the wrong reasons. Its gotten real messy and let's hope it does not get any worst. We have just fired one of the most qualified football guy in our business.
We are going to be headline news for a few weeks with the fixtures coming up and not that optimistic there will be many results that go our way and hence the negative press will be in full flow.
A win Europe should be attainable and goes a long way in making sure we are in it when the knockout stage starts.
09 Dec 2024 20:59:20
Ahmad
You've just touched on one of the most pertinent aspects of the current shenanigans - the propensity for the basics of the media world to dance furiously on any fire of dismay at OT.
We all know the rags and their rats are always desperate to add torque to the narrative. Combine that with a new regime of utterly ruthless measures brought to by the dire need for change and any seemingly questionable action/ decision will inevitably inspire all manner of perspectives/ questions - from the rational to the stupid.
We are still the big story and will remain so, certainly now we're seeing the INEOS regime start to flesh out and impress itself on all that it deems in need of revision.
I'm really not happy with the price hikes and redundancies, but I wasn't expecting anything fluffy from a billionaire, irrespective of waffle he flaps about his roots and so forth.
09 Dec 2024 21:01:14
ED001,
I remember ED002 speaking highly about SJR. He even said that he would have liked him to have bought Chelsea. Perhaps that was more to do with who were actually buying Chelsea at the time.
Who would be your pick to replace Ashworth?
Do you think Vivelli could step up in to the role?
Thanks.
{Ed001's Note - Ed002 knew him personally from Chelsea, so was biased. I have seen the damage his company has done and detest what he stands for.
Personally I would think you have to try and get the best possible, someone such as Begiristain has to be top of the list. At least he wouldn't be wanting Southgate!}
10 Dec 2024 06:25:33
ORK
We are going through a lot of changes which includes all the senior positions at the club, changes in football operations which affects people, new manager, new system and results that have not gone our way so its the perfect opportunity to question everything and just write all kinds of baseless stuff imo.
It is unfortunate how people do character assassination's which includes our own fan base and the media. I don't for one second believe the Southgate story and its alex crook from talk sport who started this and its just lazy journalism. You don't fire your DOF for having a different view on potential managers and a 5 year old would know in any organization you can have people with different views, you don't sack for that and it happens everyday.
Back to footballing matters, I would be interested to see what we look like come feb/ march as that should be enough time to get a basic feel for where we are heading irrespective of some very poor results which I do expect.
The stuff about ticket prices is just noise as its only 3% of the total tickets that were not allocated and open for purchase. I have flown emirates pretty much everywhere for the last 15 years and what they have done with pricing is appalling so the outrage and bs about hiking a tiny portion of ticket pricing is a bit overblown but makes a good headline story.
They are not naive and know this stuff has negative connotations and will make news headlines but seems like they are going to do what they want and willing to live with the noise. I would judge them at the end of next summer window. By then we should have a lot more clarity on key things like the stadium plans, footballing matters, squad look ins and outs etc etc.
10 Dec 2024 06:28:51
Ed001,
Thanks.
Begiristain would be interesting. I suppose the club could wait until till the end of the season for him.
{Ed001's Note - very welcome. Yes, there is no rush, it gives time for the role to be more clearly defined.}
10 Dec 2024 10:36:09
ED001,
Vivell can certainly take over from Ashworth in the short term.
{Ed001's Note - exactly, plenty of time to find the long term replacement. If he and Berrada mesh well, there might not even be a need to bring someone in.}
10 Dec 2024 14:53:47
Ed001 is not wrong. The Ratcliffe formula is always about maximising his wealth at the expense of employees, the environment, and whatever else is a barrier.
Not that the Glazers are any better, mind. I just wouldn’t have any rose tinted glasses. Ratcliffe wants the prestige of running a big club, but he’s also going to try to squeeze out as much profit in the process. It’s telling that he cut a lot of the lowest salaries. Not a huge amount saved, but sends a message about the type of owner he is.