Another win off they pitch for Torychester United
Club ownership | Senior management team talk
- Thread starter golden_blunder
- Start date
I can see what INEOS are trying to do...cut costs and make the club more efficient off and on the pitch so we can have a fresh start. But they are clearly reading from the Kier Starmer how to crush public goodwill in 1 month after winning office book.
He also bought two other football teams and a bicycle team, tried to buy Chelsea and is a businessman. He partnered with the Glazers to make money.
Are people really so dumb? The Glazers run the club into the ground, Ratcliffe comes along to pick up the pieces and it's him who gets all the criticism? Unbelievable! Yes, Ratcliffe is having to make some unpopular decisions but it's a consequence of what came before. The only people who warrant any criticism for these cutbacks are the Glazers.
Unfortunately I think he's going to be the new Daniel Levy. He's in it for the money, not football success.
You sound like Starmer. 22 billion pound black hole!
It's his idea to spend billions on illegal migrants, and his idea to spend billions on green causes. Meanwhile we are taxed to the teeth and hes freezing our grannies to death to make savings.
Its SJR's idea to kill christmas and chairty. Nobody else.
Last edited:
Levy doesn’t own Spurs
Has anyone considered that SJR is actually a hardcore Chelsea fan and is doing all this to sink the club?
Yup, of course he would. With all that lovely imaginary oil money that he couldnt/wouldnt prove funds for.
Name checks out.
25% he does.
There’s one thing Glazers did, that was feck all. So many things were rightly untouched. Ticket prices, employee bonuses, charitable things, history. Ratcliffe has come and done all the bad things Glazers wouldn’t do.
No idea how profitable cycling teams are, but the usual business model for trying to get money out of football clubs is to acquire full control very cheaply, make them stable and preferrably get into better competitions/hope that competitions grow without your input and sell them on. The first point is insanely important though and Ratcliffe massively overpaid by any usual metric to even get to his 29%.
Hey, someone needs to keep this place interesting
Perhaps certain things should be sacrosanct. However, I don't think like a multibillionaire. He's a ruthless man and has shown that he isn't scared of making big decisions. Unlike the Glazers of course, who created all of this mess and are now cowering behind Ratcliffe as their human shield.
Watch the talkSPORT interview with Andy Mitten. He talks about the £40k for the former players charity - he says once distributed to players it is generally donated on to other charities- if that’s the case then it really is unnecessary spending because it doesn’t benefit the intended recipient in any case.
As ever there are two sides to the story, but too many are falling for the big bad billionaire narrative because things are going well on the pitch. This fanbase always has to have a whipping boy or spacegoat, and SJR fits the bill at the moment.
I mean, what's so bad about that!?
Cutting 40 grand for the former player thing is not about cost cutting or balancing the books.
The club spends half a billion a year to operate, its loose change and will make no difference to the books (not least because, like the foundation, a good portion is tax deductable anyway).
He's doing this stuff because he wants to.
The club spends half a billion a year to operate, its loose change and will make no difference to the books (not least because, like the foundation, a good portion is tax deductable anyway).
He's doing this stuff because he wants to.
The glazers also clearly Liverpool fans. Nothing else makes sense
It's horrific PR and fair play to Ratcliffe if he is willing to take it but I understand what he is doing even if I don't agree with it.
Quite hopeful they are just as ruthless with players which I am pretty certain they will be.
Quite hopeful they are just as ruthless with players which I am pretty certain they will be.
I think the whole cost cutting is handed poorly by the club. I understand that INEOS found tons of small “unnecessary” cost that could be cut, could be in the tens of millions in total per year. Like SAF ambassador role, Gill Role, excess company staff, benefits, ticket prices, charity etc and other efficiencies. INEOS wants us to focus on the football side, which I think is fair I personally believe general goodwill is important with strong staff loyalty as fans will be proud over that, but I understand that they want to slim down our focus.
However, right now, each cut is announced separately, which creates a steady stream of bad will news, even for the smallest of cuts. If they went out and said we will save £x millions to finance Y, people would get behind it. They would be able to announce it all in one go. Show a large figure of cuts, and people will be more supportive.
However, right now, each cut is announced separately, which creates a steady stream of bad will news, even for the smallest of cuts. If they went out and said we will save £x millions to finance Y, people would get behind it. They would be able to announce it all in one go. Show a large figure of cuts, and people will be more supportive.
It's extremely easy to do that when club is constantly growing just because Premier League has been massively growing during the 2010s and then pass off the sporting control when club is hemorraghing money.
Its obviously the concerned parties going to the press (no pun intended). So maybe you are right, INEO should publicise what they are trying to do so there are no more suprises and they can let us know what the end result of this cost cutting will be.
Exactly right. Ticket prices should have gone up years ago. Only reason they didn't was because the Glazers were scared of the backlash. Ratcliffe is making the hard-hitting unpopular decisions that the Glazers should have made, but were too afraid to. The Glazers sat there twiddling their thumbs, whilst loading the club with more and more debt. Yet, it's Ratcliffe who is now the getting all the blame, despite putting £300m of his own money into the club. Hilariously myopic by so many fans.
Ya im cautious of being too reactionary - there have been more negative press stories about Ratcliffe than the human rights abusing owners of city for example. Often these stories cause a splash then context gets quietly added later - but hes not exactly winning a PR battle at the moment, a few things have rubbed people the wrong way and separately I do just feel people I know are further removed from the sense of 'club' of the various teams they support
I don't agree with the criticism they're taking for cost cutting. They've took over a club in shambles that has been mismanaged for years. It's necessary to act with decisiveness in putting right the wrongs of the previous CEO's. Sentimentality doesn't come into it.
Obviously if it were possible they'd cut the costs that make a significant difference, but they can't do anything about the excessive player contracts that were handled before they arrived. I'm sure they will do their best to offload as many of the current lot as possible though, but they've only had one transfer window so far. What else could they have done so far?
You can't expect them to improve the situation at the club without making decisions that piss a few people off. It's no different to Amorim and his short term pain speech. Things may get worse before they get better.
Bottom line is this club has been run in to the ground. To put it all right will require management doing things that will be unpopular. The media will obviously have a field day with it. Don't take what they say at face value. Apply some critical thinking
Obviously if it were possible they'd cut the costs that make a significant difference, but they can't do anything about the excessive player contracts that were handled before they arrived. I'm sure they will do their best to offload as many of the current lot as possible though, but they've only had one transfer window so far. What else could they have done so far?
You can't expect them to improve the situation at the club without making decisions that piss a few people off. It's no different to Amorim and his short term pain speech. Things may get worse before they get better.
Bottom line is this club has been run in to the ground. To put it all right will require management doing things that will be unpopular. The media will obviously have a field day with it. Don't take what they say at face value. Apply some critical thinking
I am not talking about Making United Great again, I am asking for coherence.
If the football side always wanted to move to 343 why hasn't this been implemented at every level down to under 8 or whatever?
Last season there was all this talk about 'game model,' where's that gone? Haven't heard a peep of it this season. Hard to see how it's informed our transfer strategy or who is getting pushed through the academy. After a year of INEOS I can't be the only one thinking all that was bullocks.
I had expected the football structure to set the parameters and all staff, coaches at all levels included, to have to fit a clear vision. If there's evidence of that happening I'd love to see it. But, at the moment, this feels as disjointed as the Bristol Uni Mafia days.
I feel like people arguing the opposite are just trying to convince themselves of what they'd like to be true, instead of being honest about year one under INEOS.
Saying all that it could still get better and, frankly, I still prefer anyone but Glazer. At least Sir Jim is actually putting cash into the club. However, as far as I can see, all the stuff they did at Nice that we were warned about is just being repeated at United.
At this point I have no confidence that Berrada, Wilcox or Amorim will be at the club by the end of next season. At Nice has anyone survived over two years..?
The ticket price hike makes sense. All the other cost cutting measures dont. They dont move the needle for the club one bit, but they do add a ton of bad pr and ruin the mood in the club. Trying to absolve Jim for this is silly. Glazers are the reason we are in debt and have been rightly called out by us fans since day one. Only fair we give the new owner the same treatment when he acts like the old out of touch billionaire cnut he is.
Putting the "Manchester" back into Manchester United
It's true, they're having to cover for the millions wasted including on triggering the extension in Ten Hag's contract, appointing and then firing Dan Ashworth within months and buying bobbins players like Zirkzee for big money. It's not their fault that they have to fire loads of people, cut charitable donations and oversee massive ticket price rises to pick up the pieces for the dickheads who oversaw many of those decisions.
Glad you agree.
Look if they want to run a storied football club like any random PE company looking to rollup a group of dental office then whatever, but that ruthlessness better stay when making decisions that actually affect the squad and staff as well.
I'm not sure it always wanted such a thing. It was clear EtH had to go and Amorim was the bedt replacement available.
The 3421 template is one which the board feels has the legs, as we need to get away from chronic 4231.
I disagree. Ineos have managed to bungle a few key decisions (EtH, Ashworth - though I agree with both) and it's cost us in this dizzy PSR world.
You're right to highlight the Glazer's role but it does not absolve Ineos.
I've been wondering about this since the ticket increase...
Clearly Ratcliffe is having some say but this feels like Glazer decision making but using the new guy to take the blame.
At the very least, they're certainly not saying no to anything he is suggesting
Every decision like that is ultimately a bet and there has literally never been a manager/director in the history of the world that got everything right, even if they were making only reasonable bets. The only thing that can reasonably be guaranteed is progress over the long term if they keep making them, but that is at least 2 years into the future unfortunately before there can be any informed evaluation from a fan perspective.
I agree. But does he have a say in these things? All I recall reading was that he’d bought an interest to take control of the football side of the business.
I am very much in the wait and see camp, but I have to admit that INEOS have done nothing to convince me that they know what they are doing.
Depends on your perspective doesn’t it. In one hand nothing at all, but that money from the club is intended to support former players and if they don’t need it or can afford to give it away then it is the definition of unnecessary spending.
To be fair it’s the cut to funding for the Foundation that hits far worse than that for former players, but at this juncture it early enough that I’m willing to keep my council and let them work before judging the outcome. If we win the league or the CL before 2028 (which looks unlikely currently) then will we still be crying about all this or will we be singing the praises of the people who have turned us round and brought success back to the club?
You are just making my point. All the talk of a game model last season was PR.
They were not running the club according to a vision of where they wanted to go. They sacked off Ten Hag, then looked for the hot young thing and that turned out to be Amorim.
If they had a game model they couldn't just go for any coach. They'd have to recruit to fit their long term plan.
And if they have fully decided that 343 is the way the club is going, nothing about how we recruited last summer or we're configured at junior level suggests that.
It's just more on the fly decisions that get justified by briefs to favoured members of the Manchester press pack. It may all work out, I hope it does. Fundamentally though it's the same roll of the dice stuff that we had under Arnold and Woodward.
Last edited:
Yes, and Newcastle. I know stories about United garner more clicks and cash than the others and many oppos will be revelling in our apparent turmoil, but it’s really very frustrating when United fans are buying into the narrative and leading the criticism.