This came outta nowhere!
INEOS Chairman and MUFC co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe spoke to the Times Sport about United, not long after he did a couple of interviews earlier in the week talking about the club.
In this one, he speaks more about the Glazers and how he feels about his ownership of Nice as well as so much more.
Hold onto your seats people because there are a lot of interesting quotes.
When talking about the reception he's had at United, which he says "I can put up with it for a while" as there a many disgruntled fans thanks to how things have gone under INEOS, he then mentions how once it gets to abusive levels like what the Glazers have had, then "enough's enough" and "I'd have to walk away."
"They can’t really come to a match, the Glazers. They’ve retreated into the shadows a bit now, so I’m getting all the bloody stick."
Sir Jim adds that the American owners are "really good on the commercial side" and that he believes that are "really decent people."
The British billionaire mentions how Joel Glazer doesn't have a "bad bone in his body" yet criticized former United board members Richard Arnold and Ed Woodward saying that "I wouldn’t have tolerated Ed Woodward, or Richard Arnold." Ratcliffe says that Woodward was a man of financial background citing "he was a merchant banker" and that Arnold (ex CEO) "was a rugby man."
Ratcliffe says that the owners have nothing to do with the mismanagement of how the football side of things were run and that those in charge (which would include Woodward and Arnold) "made a complete cock-up of it."
The 72-year-old adds that the majority owners could've given Ratcliffe and co a hard time after they "cocked up" with Dan Ashworth and Erik ten Hag but that they didn't which further insinuates just what great people they are.
"And they’re both [Avram and Joel] passionate about Manchester United. I like them as people."
Moving onto other clubs he that his company is involved with and the Brit had some harsh words to say regarding the French side Nice whom he owns as well.
"I don’t particularly enjoy going to watch Nice because there are some good players but the level of football is not high enough for me to get excited."
This was all before he said that he "can’t honestly answer why we did it [become part owner of Man United]. It’s quite a difficult question."
INEOS Grenadiers sponsor Tottenham Hotspur as well with Ratcliffe mentioning the type of job Daniel Levy has done with the London club as well as Steve Parish of Crystal Palace. He says that the management job they've done at their respective clubs is much better than that of United's over the last 12 years as United's board/management "weren't really into the details."
Sir Jim believes that Levy and Parish are there at the clubs all the time and "those two know what's going on" with the pair keeping Spurs and Palace "on a short leash."
Quotes via The United Stand.
Final Thoughts
Well then, what do you make of that Reds?
A HELL OF A LOT to unpack indeed.
However, I believe Sir Jim is talking shite. Not much (if anything) he said actually makes me want to agree with him and as for his sucking up to the Glazers, my God! he really should change his name to Sir Jim Glazer.
I found that this interview was riddled with hypocricy and contradictions.
A part of me wants to say 'Sir Jim shouldn't do any more interviews.' He is doing more harm to himself than good as at the moment, we know that the majority of fans aren't happy with him and how INEOS have run operations at United. There was even a protest last week about the fans wanting the Glazers out, the same Glazers that Sir Jim praises quite highly.
Let's get into it then.
When he says that he can put up with people being unhappy with him for a while and that if the abuse reached the level of what the Glazers have then he might have to leave, I would say to him 'well, what did you expect Sir Jim.' As a lifelong United fan (apparently) shouldn't you know that the Glazers are enemy number one? And you kept them when there was a chance to get rid of them.
That was already something that was going to cause the fans to be upset with you.
"They can't really come to a match." Really? Really? Even if they could, from what we've seen over the years, they show little to no interest in United until we reach major finals or play big games. They hardly come to games. In fact, and this is one of the best things you've done Sir Jim, is that we've probably seen you and/or your representatives i.e Sir Dave Brailsford at more United matches than the Glazers. You've only been co-owner for just over a year whereas they've been at the club since 2005.
The fans would also be a lot happier to see the owners as it shows that they care, even a little.
As you are also the owner of the company (INEOS) that have taken over football operations, of course you're going to get the stick. You took the responsibility when you decided to buy 27.7% of the club and take hold of the football side. Everyone is going to be looking at you when certain decisions are made. That's sort of what you asked for.
Maybe if you didn't make this decision to run the football side, the blame would still mainly be on the Glazers.
Talking about how nice the Glazers are as people, that's great but if we're all honest, we couldn't care less because us fans don't have to deal with them all the time. At this point, we'd rather they be arseholes but ran the club properly. That would make us happy.
And if they were decent people, why not try to understand how the decent people of the fan base, you know the most important part of this football club, are feeling. Decent people would try to understand their thoughts and try to think how they would be feeling had they been in their shoes.
Decent people my arse.
They also don't seem to be too fussed about all their new mate Sir Jim is doing in terms of sacking staff, increasing ticket prices, canceling charity events and the rest.
When discussing Woodward and Arnold, I don't think anyone could disagree that they were terrible at their jobs in terms of how they ran the operations at United. The contracts they gave to players who don't deserve them, the time it took to negotiate for signings and then not sign them and more than anything, the overpaying for players when signing them.
They weren't football men, just as Ratcliffe says.
But to say that Richard Arnold was a rugby man who "didn't understand football" yet have Sir Dave Brailsford, a man who has a history with cycling, oversee a strategic review of Manchester United FOOTBALL Club is quite hypocritical.
I'm not even sure whether Brailsford has done that great a job considering some of the mistakes or 'cockups' he was a part of.
I've always said that INEOS were correct to keep Erik ten Hag when they did. He did a great job to win us that FA Cup despite it looking highly unlikely and they also backed him which was correct as well. ten Hag himself messed up with his poor tactics, style of play and not really improving the team despite a lot of those players being his.
For that, he needed to go.
The Dan Ashworth thing was a big eye opener in itself as to have this public back-and-forth with Newcastle for his signature, to then have to pay a few million pounds for it, to then have to wait a few months for his gardening leave to end, only for you to sack him just 5 months into the job, is pretty cockup-y.
Did Sir Dave not do his homework properly? Seems so when taking into account such decisions.
Even when it comes to removing players. We haven't done that. Instead they took the easy option of staff redundancies, canceling Christmas parties and I mean, to reduce the size portions of meals in the canteen to save moeny, that should tell you everything about these guys.
We also complained a lot about the leaks at the club - not just the Old Trafford roof. We know the team news days before the actual game although admittedly, that isn't as prevelant anymore however, there was a report about how United asked staff to not leak information about how the club is planning to reduce costs. Yet that was leaked 🤣.
Are they any different to Woodward and Arnold?
Just because the previous regime did mess up the management of the club doesn't mean what you're doing and how you're going about things is right. Perhaps try to sort out yourself first instead of worrying about others.
And if this was some ploy to perhaps get some United fans on his side by saying something like this about two people (Woodward and Arnold) that we didn't like, think again because you're still sucking up to the Glazers.
Then we come to Nice and Spurs.
I'm not saying that Sir Jim and INEOS can't own any other club or be involved in any other sport. It's their money and choices, they can do with it what they will.
But as a fan, to see that your owners or co-owners in this instance, own other clubs and sort of a rival in Spurs when United need all the money it can get given the situation, it does kind of piss you off.
I don't like seeing 'INEOS Grenadiers' on the Spurs bench as sponsors of their club and is this why he's seapking so highly of Daniel Levy?
There are many reports that state that Joel Glazer Co-Chairman of Man United, is very hands-on. This from the Manchester Evening News at the end of January says that Glazer "is still actively involved in Manchester United's transfer plans" and that "Glazer retains the right to sign off and veto deals even though Sir Jim Ratcliffe assumed control of the club's football operations with his 27.7% minority stake last season."
This seems pretty much like he's into the details at United and knows what's going on. And if he knows what's going on, why not try to do anything about trying to improve things? Probably because they don't care.
The Glazers are also those responsible for employing people such as Woodward and Arnold, people that Ratcliffe has heavily criticized. Wonder what his mates Joel and Avram will think about that?
I'm also not sure why he bought Nice if it wasn't exciting enough for him. If you're buying a club of that stuture with all due respect, you have to show it and their fans respect by trying to help them improve which clearly, INEOS haven't done. A lot of the Nice supporters were a bit disappointed with how Sir Jim and INEOS have poorly managed their club even though they were happy with the financial stability brought on by INEOS.
Ratcliffe brutally dismissing his own French club makes you wonder even more what type of owner we have at United. Will he be saying the same of us in a few years?
Nice fans who see these comments by Ratcliffe probably won't have much affection for him, if they did in the first place. So disrespectful towards the French club even more so when he says that the level of football doesn't make him excited. Maybe as the owner, do something about it to make it exciting? This shows that lack of care from the Englishman. Also makes him look a little foolsih to be so disinterested in one of his own acquisitions.
It seems to me that this whole buying of clubs or putting money into sport is a bit of fun for Sir Jim, which is a word he used on a couple of occasions when discussing why he took co-ownership of United and Nice.
I get that as a billionaire, you do want to have a bit of fun considering the large amounts of money you have but it isn't 'fun' for us die hard fans whom this club (and all the clubs or sports teams you own) means everything to. We don't find it fun to see where our team is languishing and yes you can put blame onto managers and players both past and present as to why we're in this situation, but it isn't all on them. As owners, if you truly cared about something, wouldn't you want it to be the best it can be?
And you're supposed to be a fan of this club Sir Jim!
But this is ultimately the problem. Whether you like or agree with how other clubs run their operations, Man City, Chelsea (even with Todd Boehly in charge), PSG, Real Madrid and more, they have owners who look like they actually care about their clubs. They want them to be the best.
Ours don't seem to have that same feelings towards United. I'm sure that they would like to see us at the top but that is something that if it happens, it happens, otherwise we couldn't care less as long as we keep making money.
I believe this was the case during the Sir Alex Ferguson days as well once the Glazers took over in 2005. We were a champion team in spite of them as owners rather than because of them. Sir Alex was a genius and with the help of someone like David Gill, who knew how to run a football club at executive level, United remained a powerhouse but if you looked at the quality of the squad over the years from 2009 to 2013 (Ferguson's retirement) it was nowhere near world class like what we had in the previous couple of years.
A lot of those players were aging despite their quality (Giggs, Ferdinand, Neville, Scholes) and after Ronaldo's departure, we never really replaced him although admittedly, it is hard to replace a GOAT of football. Yet we didn't do much to truly compete with the best.
The 2011 Champions League final is a great example. The quality of the two teams were night and day as Barcelona were loaded with world beaters whereas we had one or two. Even the last title we won in 2013, not the best of squads yet because of the brilliance of Sir Alex, we won the league all the same.
There is also the dividends the Glazers take out, the lack of their own money they put into the club and of course, not updating the facilities which Ronaldo spoke about in his explosive interview. He also mentioned how the Glazers "don't care about United" as well.
Look at the stadium. A prime example of how little they actually care about the club. We're having to move away from our home, our home of 115 years, our home that's seen so much and a stadium that is one of the most iconic arenas in the world.
See, so much about this interview. I didn't even expect to be saying all I just did above!
Sir Jim Ratcliffe doesn't seem to know what he's on about with a lot of what he's saying which is just further damaging his reputation as co-owner of United.
What did you make of this interview by the INEOS boss? Very contradictory and hypocritical, isn't it?
Background Image: Sir Jim Ratcliffe speaks openly about Man Utd and the Glazers | Image credit: Getty Images via Goal