Man Utd 'no less dysfunctional than on the day Ratcliffe walked in'

Ruben Amorim's toxic and unceremonious exit from Manchester United is yet another undignified chapter in the Old Trafford tenure of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos.

United are no less dysfunctional now than they were on the day Ratcliffe walked in, then portrayed as the mega-rich saviour destined to clear the clouds of ill-feeling hanging over the club under the ownership of the Glazers.

The reality has proved different.

Put brutally, Ratcliffe and those working with him have got very little right, stumbling from one poor decision to another, leading to the dismissal of the 40-year-old Portuguese only 14 months after triggering a £9.25m release clause from his previous club Sporting of Lisbon.

This, of course, came hard on the heels of the shambles surrounding the sacking of his predecessor Erik ten Hag in October 2024, the Dutchman handed a contract extension and £200m in transfer funds on the basis of beating Manchester City in the FA Cup final, only for the folly of that decision to be confirmed when he was out only months later.

United's pay off to Ten Hag and his staff was £10.4m.

One of the men in on the face-to-face meeting at United's Carrington training complex in which Ten Hag discovered his fate was then sporting director Dan Ashworth. He then left in December 2024 after only five months at Old Trafford.

The cost of Ashworth's appointment, taking in compensation to Newcastle and his own pay-off, was revealed to be £4.1m.

For a club earning a reputation for savage cost-cutting under Ratcliffe, with many staff leaving among other "efficiencies", United were not just making mistakes, but making very expensive mistakes.

The latest Old Trafford upheaval comes after Ratcliffe told BBC sports editor Dan Roan in March: "I think Ruben is an outstanding young manager. I really do. He's an excellent manager and I think he will be there for a long time."

This has now become a trust issue between Ratcliffe, the others who occupy Old Trafford's corridors of power and United's vast global fanbase.

Watch Sir Jim Ratcliffe talking to BBC sports editor Dan Roan in March 2025 below...