SIR JIM RATCLIFFE has insisted the Glazers are not to blame for Manchester United’s sorrows, an opinion he admits will not make him popular among Red Devils fans.+
Since taking over the club in a leveraged buyout 20 years ago, the Glazer family have become some of the most hated people in football.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has delivered a verdict on the Glazers Man Utd fans won’t like[/caption]
Ratcliffe actually praised the much-maligned majority owners of the club as ‘decent people’[/caption]
Recent accounts revealed Man Utd have debts of more than £1billion, including £300million in transfer fees owed to other clubs, compared to the club being debt free before their arrival.
A lack of investment off the pitch and radio silence from them about the direction of the club have not seen them win over anyone else either.
But minority shareholder Ratcliffe, who brought a 27.7 per cent share in the club in December 2023 before taking control in February, has defended his co-owners a number of times.
And in an interview with The Times, Ratcliffe once again refused to criticise the club’s majority owners.
He said: “To be fair to the Glazers, they’re really good on the commercial side.
“The people who advise me say the fans don’t want to hear it. So I’ve got to be cautious.
“I get a lot of criticism if I support the Glazers, but the fact is they’re really decent people.
“They’re East Coast, you know — that old East Coast America, they’re very polite, they’re very civilized, they’re the nicest people on the planet.
“I mean, there isn’t a bad bone in Joel Glazer’s body.”
Ratcliffe continued by instead planting the blame at who was in charge of the day-to-day running of the club; Ed Woodward and Richard Arnold.
The British billionaire said: “I mean, I wouldn’t have tolerated Ed Woodward, or Richard Arnold.
“Richard was a rugby man, he didn’t even understand football. Ed didn’t have the credentials to manage the club.
“He was a merchant banker, an accountant. He wasn’t the chief executive.
“The management of Manchester United have been given a huge amount of rope.
“The owners just managed the club and left the football side alone and they’ve made a lot of very poor decisions over 12 years, stupid things.
“They made a complete cock-up of it, shocking really. They couldn’t see where they were headed.”
“The first management group, they thought they understood and wanted to get involved in buying footballers but they didn’t have the knowledge to buy footballers, you know, so they went in the marketplace, spraying money around and it was just random, wasn’t it?”
Ratcliffe, 70, also admitted he would consider walking away from Man Utd if he was subjected to the same level of abuse as the Glazers have been.
However, Ratcliffe also admitted he has not seen them since his buy in more than 12 months ago.
He said: “They’ve retreated into the shadows a bit now, so I’m getting all the bloody stick.
“We bought in and I haven’t seen them since. It’s, ‘Thank you, Jim, you’re doing a really good job.’ At the moment, I don’t have security, I don’t have to walk around like that.
“But it would defeat the object, wouldn’t it? You couldn’t tolerate it at that level, it just wouldn’t be fun.”
Ratcliffe blamed Ed Woodward and Richard Arnold for the mess the club are in[/caption]
Man Utd player ratings
CAPTAIN Fantastic rescued Manchester United once again – scoring a hat-trick as the Red Devils overcame an early scare to beat Real Sociedad and advance in the Europa League.
He was the coolest man inside Old Trafford twice as he slotted home penalties either side of half-time to put his side in control against the Spaniards.
Joshua Zirkzee was another who impressed as Manchester United secured a tie against Lyon in the quarter-finals.
But it wasn’t all positive.
Rasmus Hojlund drew a blank yet again. That’s now 21 games and no goals – the equivalent of over THIRTY HOURS without the £72m striker hitting the net.
Check out our full Man Utd player ratings.
