Sir Jim Ratcliffe slammed over ‘laughable’ start to Man Utd reign as Gary Lineker reveals ‘the worst thing of all’
SIR JIM RATCLIFFE has been slammed over his “laughable” start at Manchester United.
The British billionaire completed a 25 per cent takeover at Old Trafford in December and assumed control of football operations.
But things have gone from bad to worse with sporting director Dan Ashworth’s exit the latest to cause controversy in the red half of Manchester.
It followed less than two months after Erik ten Hag was sacked with Premier League legend Alan Shearer full of criticism.
He said on The Rest is Football podcast: “It’s not a good look at all for them is it?
“It’s pretty bloody embarrassing what’s gone on with Dan Ashworth leaving and the decisions that since they’ve been in there in terms of the money that they’ve spent.
“The decisions that they’ve made with Ten Hag extending his contract, sacking him, paying him off, giving him the players that they have in the summer, then getting rid of him.
“Then putting Dan Ashworth on gardening leave, getting him out of Newcastle, paying compensation for him, then getting rid of him after five months.
“It is laughable really, it’s such a terrible look. So yeah, I dunno, it’s not a good look.”
Ratcliffe sanctioned five big signings since his arrival last year.
Inside Man Utd chaos with Dan Ashworth axed just five months into job
By Neil Custis
The blame game has another victim as things go from bad to worse at Old Trafford.
Manchester United’s first sporting director, Dan Ashworth, arrived in the summer and is gone before Christmas.
SunSport exclusively revealed in November that there was trouble at mill.
That the new senior management team were already blaming each other for the mess the club were in.
Chief executive Omar Berrada and Ashworth were trying to wash their hands of it all, claiming they had arrived too late after serving their gardening leave.
New part owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe said making decisions was all down to them.
Meanwhile, Jason Wilcox thought it was all a mess under previous boss Erik ten Hag but was part of the team that encouraged him to stay after every other candidate ran for cover.
Defeat Nottingham Forest in December, after their second-half capitulation at Arsenal a few days previously, proved too much.
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Man Utd signings under Sir Jim Ratcliffe
- Leny Yoro: £52m
- Manuel Ugarte: £42m
- Matthijs de Ligt: £45m
- Noussair Mazraoui: £15m
- Joshua Zirkzee: £36.5m.
Leny Yoro cost £52million, Manuel Ugarte was signed for £42m, Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui both joined from Bayern Munich for £60m and Joshua Zirkzee was £36.5m.
And Gary Lineker believes the wasteful spending is among United’s biggest sins under Ratcliffe – who hired Ruben Amorim as Ten Hag’s successor.
He said: “Ultimately, the worst thing of all is the recruitment and the amount of money that they’ve paid out for players that have not realised what they obviously thought was good potential.
“So it just shows you down to football, whoever comes in you’ve got to get that side of it right.
“Whatever your budget and it’s not easy because you can never be sure how a player’s going to perform at a football club till he gets there.”
But Micah Richards argued: “The only thing I would say on that one, in their defence the players that they’ve bought at the time were playing really well.
“Where I think they’ve got it wrong is they’ve not bought players for a system, they’ve just bought individuals who have not performed which has just made them look ridiculous.
“If you look at someone like Antony, when he was at Ajax he was on fire but where was he playing?
“And the new manager now, he likes to play three at the back, four in midfield and three up front, what is his strategy going forward now?
“That is what we have to see because you’re right Gary, there’s been a lot of big decisions that have just been awful.”