Jamie Carragher said new Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has had a “poor start” to his tenure at Old Trafford.
Ratcliffe's arrival was welcomed after he bought a minority stake in United in February, taking over the Glazer family's football operations.
And although the Red Devils triumphed over rivals Manchester City in the FA Cup final last season, problems continued to mount both on and off the pitch.
Sporting director Dan Ashworth left the club last week after five months in the role, the same time he spent on garden leave following a lengthy pursuit with Newcastle United.
Erik ten Hag was also sacked and replaced by Ruben Amorim, despite the Dutchman only signing a contract extension months earlier and spending around £200m on improving the squad.
These decisions have been made amid extensive staff redundancies and rising ticket prices, with the team currently sitting 13th in the Premier League after 15 games.
Dan Ashworth will step down from his role as sporting director of Manchester United by mutual agreement.#MUFC
– Manchester United (@ManUtd) December 8, 2024
Their latest defeat came against Nottingham Forest at Old Trafford on Sunday, with Amorim losing a home game for the first time since February 2023.
And Carragher believes the past few months could not have gone much worse for the United hierarchy.
“The optics are terrible,” Carragher told Sky Sports News. 'Who knows, we might look back and think in the future [getting rid of Ashworth] was the right decision, but when you look at it from the outside it doesn't look good.
“Since INEOS arrived I'm not sure things could have been much worse. They won the FA Cup but they kept the manager, who they didn't really want, and spent £200 million in the transfer market.
“Right now they are in the lowest position they have been at this stage of the season.
“They had to fire a manager and the sporting director early in the season [Ashworth] who they poached from another Premier League club and obviously paid a lot of money for him in terms of sporting director, now he's gone a few months later.
“If you're a Manchester United fan and the first joy that someone else was in charge and it wasn't the Glazers, it was almost everyone but the Glazers, then I don't think it was a great start. It was a really great start.” bad from Jim Ratcliffe and the INEOS team, and it needs to change very quickly.”
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