Revisiting Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Man Utd promises: Three years on, is anything ‘best in class’?

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has laid blame for the ongoing mess at Manchester United at the door of the Glazer family, stating that they made a complete cock-up of running the club. According to Football365, the Glazers saddled Manchester United with six hundred million pounds worth of debt following their leveraged takeover twenty-one years before. Ratcliffe promised the best in class when he arrived in February 2024, but critics argue he has done the exact opposite. A year on from acquiring a twenty-seven percent stake in Manchester United to take control of football operations, Ratcliffe criticized the way the club had been run under the Glazers.

Ratcliffe told The Times in March 2025 that the Glazers just managed the club and left the football side alone, making a lot of very poor decisions over twelve years. He stated that the first management group led by Ed Woodward did not have the knowledge to buy footballers, spraying money around the marketplace in a random fashion. A former Premier League executive told ESPN that Ratcliffe is currently pinning the current chaos on the Glazers, noting that it takes about five years for owners to learn their lessons and take some responsibility. The executive added that up until year three or four, owners are still putting the blame on what they inherited.

Manchester United are currently weighing up whether to sack the third permanent manager of Ratcliffe's reign, Michael Carrick. The Guardian reported that director of football Jason Wilcox is leading the review and will consult with chief executive officer Omar Berrada before giving a recommendation to Ratcliffe, who will have the final say. Carrick was nearly let go after a three-nil defeat to Bournemouth followed a four-one humiliation against Como in the Champions League. He was given three games to save his job and led United to a two-nil defeat to Chelsea, a three-two comeback win over Roma, and a dramatic four-four draw with Aston Villa at Old Trafford.

Fans continue to make their feelings clear on the ownership of the club and INEOS. Prior to kick-off, a banner reading we don't want a new stadium, we want new owners was unfurled, though it was later confiscated by stewards who told fans it was blocking the view of others in the stand. Ratcliffe previously stated in his March 2025 interview that if he faced abuse to the extent the Glazer family experienced, he would walk away and tell somebody else to do it.