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As forklift trucks ferried building materials across Manchester United’s Carrington training centre this week as part of a £50mn upgrade, another reboot got under way at one of the world’s most famous sports teams.
On Thursday Ruben Amorim made his debut at Old Trafford as United’s new head coach, the latest move by Sir Jim Ratcliffe to restore the club’s fortunes since his company Ineos acquired a 27 per cent stake in February.
In the months that have followed, United have cut a quarter of the club’s staff, while Ratcliffe has appointed his own people to all the top executive positions. Amorim’s arrival is meant to be the final piece in the puzzle. While the Glazer family still owns a controlling stake in United, this is now Ratcliffe’s operation.
“We have to improve as a club,” the 39-year-old Portuguese coach said during his first press conference. “We will try to do it our way. The Ineos way, and my way.”
Other key arrivals this year include chief executive Omar Berrada, who joined from crosstown rivals Manchester City, and chief financial officer Roger Bell, a veteran of Ratcliffe’s Ineos chemicals empire. Sporting director Dan Ashworth was brought in from Newcastle United, while former Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus executive Jean-Claude Blanc, who heads up Ineos Sport, now sits on the United board and will represent the club at meetings of the European Club Association. Joel and Avram Glazer remain executive co-chairmen, but have taken a step back from day-to-day running of the club.
Ratcliffe’s impact was evident in the club’s quarterly accounts released this week. In the three months ending September 30, United booked costs of £8.6mn related to redundancy packages as it reduced headcount by about 250 people. The club has also recently ordered staff back to the office five days a week and cut travel budgets.
The decision to sack Dutch head coach Erik ten Hag just three months after extending his contract and bring in Amorim will lead to more than £21mn of additional costs in future accounts, the club said this week.
Berrada said in the earnings release that cost and headcount reductions “remain on track”, and that the club leadership was “committed to returning Manchester United to the top of domestic and European football”.
United reported an operating loss in the period of £6.9mn, as a lack of Uefa Champions League football and a shorter pre-season tour of the US resulted in an 8.9 per cent drop in revenue to £143.1mn. The club’s New York-listed shares currently trade at about $17, down 15 per cent since the start of the year and well below the $33 paid by Ratcliffe as part of his $1.3bn stake acquisition agreed on Christmas Eve last year. That deal valued United at $6.3bn including debt, a record not just in football but across global sport.
United spent more than €200mn on new recruits this summer, the third highest in European football. In the past 10 years, United’s net outlay on new players stands at €1.35bn, according to Transfermarkt, the highest in the game and €300mn more than PSG, football’s second biggest spender. Yet performances on the pitch have not lived up to expectations. United have not won the Premier League since 2013, when legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson retired. Amorim is the sixth coach to be given the task of bringing back the glory days.
Not all the changes introduced by Ratcliffe and his Ineos lieutenants have been well received. One fan group said this week that it would organise protests against a move to increase ticket prices and remove concessions for children and pensioners. Another group, the Manchester United Supporters Trust, described the decision as “offensive” and called on United’s shareholders to put in more of their own money if extra funds were needed. The club believes the changes will only be felt by a tiny portion of match-going supporters.
Since the Glazers bought the club in 2005, United fans have regularly protested against their ownership.
United also faced criticism when its women’s team was relocated to a group of temporary cabins at Carrington this season to make way for the men’s team due to the renovation work at the training centre.
Having put his team in place to run the club and its football operations, Ratcliffe’s next big decision will be what to do about Old Trafford, which regularly suffers from a leaking roof and has fallen behind rivals in terms of premium hospitality. The club has appointed a task force, which includes Lord Sebastian Coe and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, to make recommendations in the coming months on whether to renovate one of the most famous stadiums in the world or replace it.
For now the focus is on the pitch. The team currently sits 12th in the English Premier League table, wedged between Brentford and Bournemouth. Ratcliffe has set a target of competing for both the Premier League and Champions League crowns within three years. Hopes now rest on Amorim’s shoulders.
“I’ve done nothing for this club yet,” the head coach said following his home debut, a 3-2 victory over Norway’s Bodø/Glimt in the Europa League. “But the way [the fans] support me in the beginning, I felt that I’m not alone. I’m one of them now.”
