Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s redundancies hurt, but Man Utd’s £132 million shame highlights the real problem

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Just when one thinks it’s over, Manchester United and Ineos hit the fans with the news of another round of redundancies at the club.

While there’s certainly an argument to be made that Man Utd’s workforce was bloated and this was something they should’ve done a long time ago, the big picture isn’t as black as white.

The cuts have contributed to an already toxic environment around the club, with the first team struggling as the engine of it all.

While the first-team improving will take care of some financial issues, the real shame is how Ineos and Sir Jim Ratcliffe are completely ignoring the £132 million question that forms a huge part of the main problem.

Man Utd’s £132 million problem

This current round of redundancies and the previous ones too form the dream scenario for the Glazers, happily counting the billions in the bank account while people on a living wage have their jobs cut.

Most importantly, they keep flying under the radar, despite this disaster being of their making through the £731 million debt on the club.

However, the money sucked out of the club doesn’t stop just there. While the interest payments to service the Glazer debt are extraordinary, they were a necessary expense.

What wasn’t necessary was the £132 million they took for themselves from the club in the form of “management fees”, also termed the dreaded “dividends”.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure that no “management” was done by the Glazers, except for acting as a roadblock to stop the club from making quicker decisions.

For context, Sir Jim Ratcliffe spent about £300 million to take control of 27.7% of the club. This £132 million could’ve easily been worth about 13% of the club and renovated Carrington on its own.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe stopped dividends but needs to read the room

The bar has been set so low that Sir Jim Ratcliffe can be feasibly credited with stopping the dividends practice by the Glazers since becoming part-owner.

The current situation is dire but it didn’t happen overnight. A club that’s laying off employees and shutting down canteens to save £1 million a year paid the Glazers 20 times that figure in dividends just three years ago.

Ineos have kept stressing that this current ruthlessness is a necessary evil but the biggest evil is the one he’s shaken hands with to come to United.

The fans would be a lot more understanding of this “ruthlessness” if they acknowledged their own mistakes first instead of putting Ruben Amorim in front of the press four times every week to explain the decisions he has no hand in making.

A billionaire being asked to read the room is a tough ask but they’re currently going against the very ethos of United being a family club. The Glazers sucked that out of it.