Sir Jim Ratcliffe is getting mixed reactions from Manchester United staff.
That should not come as a surprise after the club decided to accelerate its staff redundancy plan in the summer as part of a cost-cutting strategy.
United started to inform members of staff that they were at risk of redundancy in June and individual meetings were held with members of staff and departments.
The news didn’t go down well, as you’d imagine, but over 250 people lost their jobs.
Redundancies were unpopular
Ratcliffe and his team did a review of the club’s operations and found that United had the highest employee count in the Premier League. That is no longer believed to be the case, and Sir Alex Ferguson has also been dropped of his ambassadorial role.
Without trying to excuse the redundancies, I think it is worth stressing that Ratcliffe has difficult decisions to make at United after 18 years of the Glazers. They’ve inflicted a lot of damage on the club but now is the time to clean it up.
However, some of the shake-ups will change how certain people at the club view Ratcliffe and his new board.
Speaking on talkSPORT, reporter Alex Crook has explained how some of United’s longest-serving members of staff have been left disheartened and downbeat by the recent changes.
“He’s [Ratcliffe] made a lot of changes behind the scenes,” Crook said.
“I’m told, actually, morale among long-serving staff members is not brilliant as a result of those changes.”
'Sir Jim Ratcliffe has to start delivering!' 😡
'I'm told staff morale is not brilliant right now…' 👀
Alex Crook SLAMS Sir Jim Ratcliffe for 'talking too much' & RIPS INTO the signings made at #MUFC during the INEOS era. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/mwHt2o6qve
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) October 18, 2024
Only time will tell if Ratcliffe has anything in store to boost morale at Old Trafford. Hopefully, it’s not a case of more redundancies.
