Sir Jim Ratcliffe has opened up on where he has failed at Manchester United (Image: GETTY)
has admitted that he could walk away from if he fails to restore the glory days after messing up two important decisions. The chief has taken a hands-on role at Old Trafford since purchasing a minority stake in the club last year. He has failed to make the sort of impact he would have liked, though, with United still going backwards.
They look set for a bottom-half finish in the Premier League after a disastrous campaign, which has seen them win just nine of their 28 games. Meanwhile, their hopes of winning a domestic trophy went up in flames when they were dumped out of the FA Cup by Fulham earlier this month.
There was plenty of speculation over the future of in the summer, but he was eventually handed a new contract by the Red Devils. Four months later, he was relieved of his duties after overseeing United’s worst start to a league campaign in 38 years.
United decided to extend Erik ten Hag’s contract just months before he was sacked (Image: GETTY)
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Ratcliffe pointed to this decision as one of two major ‘cock ups’ during his time at United, the other relating to Dan Ashworth’s short-lived spell as sporting director.
In an interview with , he thanked the Glazer family for not giving him a ‘hard time’ over those failures. He said: “In my mind, we have a very professional partnership with the Glazer family. But have you met them?
“They’re really honest, straightforward, not what you expect when you read about them in the press. And they’re passionate about . I like them as people.
“To be honest, they could have given us a bloody hard time, couldn’t they, after we cocked up with Dan Ashworth and ? Could have, but didn’t.”
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Ratcliffe added that he would be prepared to sell his stake in United if it becomes clear that he is not the man to lead them into a new era. However, he insisted that he does not envisage that happening any time soon.
“I genuinely believe in the things that we’re doing and I do think that we’ve got the right people in place,” he explained. “I don’t think we’ll get there without making more mistakes because we’re not perfect, but I do think the trajectory will start to step up after the summer.
“What we want is a lean, efficient, elite organisation of about 700 people, not a fat organisation where people are not really focused, confused because there are too many people doing too many things that are not really relevant or important.
“To be honest with you, if I fail, I’ll step down, but I don’t think I’ll fail. As soon as we start playing good football and start winning, it will change.”