Club ownership | Senior management team talk


Call me tin foil. But looks like a dig at Ashworth, and yes at the same time I do have a feeling a lot of the stuff that came out against Ratcliffe was from Ashworth.

In any normal world why would that even be news? Don’t forget also Ratcliffe described our data department as none existent and there was a quote about him being angry with Ashworth over something about data.
 
Pardon my ignorance but something that I'm curious about. SJR is obviously getting all the blame at the minute for all the negative publicity from cancelling parties, reducing bonuses etc, but is all this not Berrada's job as CEO? Not seeing anyone mentioning him. Is it just that the media get more engagement/clicks via SJR?
This stuff all started earlier in the year before Berrada was on the job. It's part of why Blanc replaced Patrick Stewart as interim CEO. It's a brief from INEOS.
 
I guess they'll be unpopular to some for making tough decisions, and doing what needs to be done to fix some of the damage by the previous regime. A bit like labour I suppose
 
What's tone deaf about it? We are a business, with tickets in more demand than Fulham's. The same fans crying about this, are the same ones who want a refurbished Old Trafford/ new stadium, that laugh about how the club's facilities are run down and that want impactful new signings every summer. In order to do these things, we need to generate revenue and keep costs low. If we're being told that other teams at a similar stature are operating with less employees or have higher ticket prices; a smart club, who has debt and are struggling on the pitch would try to ensure that they are at least in the same vicinity of operational efficiency as their competitors, in this case that would mean letting go of unneccesary positions or hiking ticket prices.
United fans seem to forget that we are a business as well as a football club. We aren't a small community club, this is a global organisation with many moving parts. Bottom lines must be met, balance sheets balanced. We need to make money, it may sound harsh but it's the reality. If 70k United fans in Manchester strike and say they won't go to Old Trafford again, another 70k will replace them instantly. Seats will be filled. INEOS know this.
 
I never really felt the Sir Jim buy-in was in the best interests of the club from the start and their tenure seems to have been a disaster so far with one piece of negative publicity after another and the club looks in a worse position than ever.

I still fully believe that accepting the offer that was on the table for the Glazers to sell their enrire share holding and leave was the best option for tbe club and feel that the club would likely be in a much better position now if we had have done
 
I never really felt the Sir Jim buy-in was in the best interests of the club from the start and their tenure seems to have been a disaster so far with one piece of negative publicity after another and the club looks in a worse position than ever.

I still fully believe that accepting the offer that was on the table for the Glazers to sell their enrire share holding and leave was the best option for tbe club and feel that the club would likely be in a much better position now if we had have done
Worse position than ever. Give over.
 
I never really felt the Sir Jim buy-in was in the best interests of the club from the start and their tenure seems to have been a disaster so far with one piece of negative publicity after another and the club looks in a worse position than ever.

I still fully believe that accepting the offer that was on the table for the Glazers to sell their enrire share holding and leave was the best option for tbe club and feel that the club would likely be in a much better position now if we had have done

How has it not been? Would you prefer we continued burning through money with no structure and get relegated?
 
I guess they'll be unpopular to some for making tough decisions, and doing what needs to be done to fix some of the damage by the previous regime. A bit like labour I suppose
Exactly; we will never make real progress in developing the team on the pitch until the team off the pitch gets things sorted. I suspect Ruben has been told to sort out the squad and avoid relegation as minimum this season, anything else will be a bonus.

Ashworth, despite his reputation and the 'pantomime' in bringing him into the club, has somehow 'blotted his copy book' or otherwise 'crapped on the table' and clearly became "Persona non grata" .
No messing about from Sir Jim, let's hope this mentality extends everywhere within the club, otherwise as we all know in reality, nothing will change!
 
I never really felt the Sir Jim buy-in was in the best interests of the club from the start and their tenure seems to have been a disaster so far with one piece of negative publicity after another and the club looks in a worse position than ever.

I still fully believe that accepting the offer that was on the table for the Glazers to sell their enrire share holding and leave was the best option for tbe club and feel that the club would likely be in a much better position now if we had have done
Where's the like button?
 
People are acting like snow flakes. United is an absolute shit show. It will take more than 1 summer window to sort out the mess. Its a 3 year build.
 
I think Ratcliffe is taking the Machiavellian approach to running the club. In his political treatise "The Prince", Machiavelli famously argued that in order to be a respected leader, a new ruler must be perceived as incredibly harsh, and must be feared.

This in-turn benefits his subjects, because after an initial "shock and awe" period, there should be a period of stability, as coups and general crime are severely punished which discourages further unruly behaviour.

Longer term, the ruler can start to show more leniency - as his reputation now proceeds him, he no longer risks being seen as a soft touch, his territory is stable and his subjects are happy.

We have heard SJR talk about "dumb money", about a culture of mediocrity etc...I think his goal, in cancelling staff parties, making staff redundant, calling people back into the office, "sacking" SAF etc...is to say "the gravy train is over"...this club is no longer a soft-touch run on sentiment and emotion. It's a business AND it's an elite sports team.

SJR is a very smart man. He's a self-made billionaire. He's not some idiot who "borrowed" £100m from his father and bankrupted just about every business he ever started. He's not some Eton-educated Trust-fund idiot. He made his money through savvy business deals and ruthless decisions. He knows that taking £60 off staff and cancelling a party has no impact whatsoever on the clubs finances and he also knows it will be unpopular...so why do it?

Think about it...we're talking about PSR...but reducing staff bonuses from £100 to £40 does nothing. It doesn't even register. Even removing SAF, for example, only saves £2m per annum. That's less than two months salary for Marcus Rashford.

We saw over the Summer that the club raised more in transfer funds than it ever has before. We saw McTominay leave after being with the club from the age of 6. We saw players released on free transfers. Hangers-on like DvdB moved on for effectively nothing. Rashford will be next, his card is marked. No way on God's green Earth SJR continues to hand him £325K of his hard-earned cash every week.

I honestly believe it's all about setting new standards. Rule with an iron fist, send a message. In time, we'll see this change, I an sure...once the club starts to win again and SJR and his team are satisfied the "cultural reset" is complete, I don't think we'll read stories about staff losing £60 at Christmas.

At the moment, we're all feeling it. Staff have lost bonuses or been made redundant. Fans have seen ticket prices increase. Players have been let go or face uncertain futures. The executive team is not safe, as we saw with Ashworth, nor was SAF.

This actually makes a strange kind of sense.
 
I think Ratcliffe is taking the Machiavellian approach to running the club. In his political treatise "The Prince", Machiavelli famously argued that in order to be a respected leader, a new ruler must be perceived as incredibly harsh, and must be feared.

This in-turn benefits his subjects, because after an initial "shock and awe" period, there should be a period of stability, as coups and general crime are severely punished which discourages further unruly behaviour.

Longer term, the ruler can start to show more leniency - as his reputation now proceeds him, he no longer risks being seen as a soft touch, his territory is stable and his subjects are happy.

We have heard SJR talk about "dumb money", about a culture of mediocrity etc...I think his goal, in cancelling staff parties, making staff redundant, calling people back into the office, "sacking" SAF etc...is to say "the gravy train is over"...this club is no longer a soft-touch run on sentiment and emotion. It's a business AND it's an elite sports team.

SJR is a very smart man. He's a self-made billionaire. He's not some idiot who "borrowed" £100m from his father and bankrupted just about every business he ever started. He's not some Eton-educated Trust-fund idiot. He made his money through savvy business deals and ruthless decisions. He knows that taking £60 off staff and cancelling a party has no impact whatsoever on the clubs finances and he also knows it will be unpopular...so why do it?

Think about it...we're talking about PSR...but reducing staff bonuses from £100 to £40 does nothing. It doesn't even register. Even removing SAF, for example, only saves £2m per annum. That's less than two months salary for Marcus Rashford.

We saw over the Summer that the club raised more in transfer funds than it ever has before. We saw McTominay leave after being with the club from the age of 6. We saw players released on free transfers. Hangers-on like DvdB moved on for effectively nothing. Rashford will be next, his card is marked. No way on God's green Earth SJR continues to hand him £325K of his hard-earned cash every week.

I honestly believe it's all about setting new standards. Rule with an iron fist, send a message. In time, we'll see this change, I an sure...once the club starts to win again and SJR and his team are satisfied the "cultural reset" is complete, I don't think we'll read stories about staff losing £60 at Christmas.

At the moment, we're all feeling it. Staff have lost bonuses or been made redundant. Fans have seen ticket prices increase. Players have been let go or face uncertain futures. The executive team is not safe, as we saw with Ashworth, nor was SAF.
This post is becoming more and more astute by the day. High profile sacrificial lambs at every corner of the business.

25% of staff gone, WFH cancelled - Support Staff on their toes
Ashworth gone, ETH Gone - Senior Management not safe, arguably the highest profile director gone
Rashford up for sale - Highest paid player, highest profile player, gone

Sir Jim is ruthless. Consistently ruthless. This is how you run a football club

I just hope he bans that journo that leaked the team as well.
 
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Just read this piece by Jamie Jackson https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ited-marcus-rashford-cultural-reboot-garnacho

Wow. The club clearly just gave this to Jackson and it essentially blames Marcus Rashford for the decline of Manchester United. Who's gonna touch Rashford now?

There's nothing really new in that article and no reason to believe it came directly from the club. I also don't get your interpretation that he's personally being blamed for the decline of the club from reading it.

There was a bunch of transfer rumour tweets early last week saying that United would be prepared to sell Rashford in the Summer. Now he's been dropped your man's come out with this article.
 
I get some of the frustration with Ineos but you cant deny that things for the club are improving a lot
 

Old Trafford was regenerated when I lived there as a kid. When I've gone through since it hasn't really changed much and the parts around the two stadiums have always been the more well off parts. If anything it's changed more since the TV companies moved up.
 


It’s just so destructive to the culture of the club, one to the very few things left from our glory times. No way it’s a net positive to save those 20 fecking thousand pounds. It’s as sad - if not more sad - than our results on the pitch. And it makes me very sad there won’t be another Kath Phipps, that the club employees feel abandoned by the club for the first time in decades. All to save a fraction of a weekly salary of one player or a fraction of what Ratcliff earns daily.

If I were not a United fan I’d probably actively cheer for our further downfall and would welcome the news our management is so out of touch


Spot on. Jimmy really has no fecking clue what he is doing with a football club. Him and the marginal gains fraud need to get as far away from the running of the club as possible.
 
Spot on. Jimmy really has no fecking clue what he is doing with a football club. Him and the marginal gains fraud need to get as far away from the running of the club as possible.

While I wouldn't go that far, the penny pinching on things like the staff party and cutting the 100 quid bonus for office staff is just so mean and petty, especially in the context of the amount they've paid out for mistakes like keeping ETH on and the Ashworth debacle. The savings on the staff party and bonus along with the proposed cuts to the 40k they give to the disabled fans association wouldn't cover someone like Casemiro's weekly wages.

It really does leave a bad taste in the mouth.
 
While I wouldn't go that far, the penny pinching on things like the staff party and cutting the 100 quid bonus for office staff is just so mean and petty, especially in the context of the amount they've paid out for mistakes like keeping ETH on and the Ashworth debacle. The savings on the staff party and bonus along with the proposed cuts to the 40k they give to the disabled fans association wouldn't cover someone like Casemiro's weekly wages.

It really does leave a bad taste in the mouth.

My words where harsh but these kind of things really annoy me because they are so, as you describe yourself, meaningless in the grand picture. Its such an dinosaur way of doing business and doesnt match what United has always been about.
And then when you add how him and Brailsford bungled Nice it reeks of a scary repeat.
 
It really does leave a bad taste in the mouth.
Yet, people will still keep going and paying for season tickets etc. whatever the club charges. These are the really 'hard-nosed' business men, who will probably finish up making the Glazer's look 'saintly' by comparison?

Yet, if they are successful and the club gets back to winning everything on offer, it will all be forgotten.

Martin Edwards had no (real*) idea what he was doing when he quoted on the stock exchange.

(*Or perhaps he did!!!)
 


It’s just so destructive to the culture of the club, one to the very few things left from our glory times. No way it’s a net positive to save those 20 fecking thousand pounds. It’s as sad - if not more sad - than our results on the pitch. And it makes me very sad there won’t be another Kath Phipps, that the club employees feel abandoned by the club for the first time in decades. All to save a fraction of a weekly salary of one player or a fraction of what Ratcliff earns daily.

If I were not a United fan I’d probably actively cheer for our further downfall and would welcome the news our management is so out of touch

If i was a player of this club i would pay for that bonus myself. As you say …petty money for most players.
 
I never really felt the Sir Jim buy-in was in the best interests of the club from the start and their tenure seems to have been a disaster so far with one piece of negative publicity after another and the club looks in a worse position than ever.

I still fully believe that accepting the offer that was on the table for the Glazers to sell their enrire share holding and leave was the best option for tbe club and feel that the club would likely be in a much better position now if we had have done
If you can’t think for yourself - I don’t mean that rudely though it might come across that way - you’re going to think much of what they do is a disaster because of how the media make money from United.

The only real news that has happened is Ashworth and we don’t know if it’s bad or good. It’s an aggressive move to bin him off so early but let’s see how things go. Don’t read the regurgitated articles and opinion pieces designed to generate United supporters to get annoyed, or if you do have the common sense to see them for what they are.

Ineos might end up being awful but we simply don’t know. The facts though are they have ploughed money into the club, have a plan that seems to be a good broad idea and now have their top pick of manager here.

Saying the glazers should have fully sold ideally is like me saying we should have sold to Bill Gates for £10b. It never was an option, notice how Jassim’s party never followed up re the SEC proof of funds stuff. There was one deal on the table and it was Ineos.