LAST CHRISTMAS they gave him their hearts.
But the following year, many Manchester United fans begin to believe that Sir Jim Ratcliffe is giving it away.
It's been exactly 12 months since Ratcliffe and his Ineos Group announced they were taking control of the Glazers' football operations at Old Trafford.
Ratcliffe made a bold statement after the initial £1.03 billion buy-in, which secured a 25 percent minority stake, but it rings hollow and even embarrassing at this point.
Ratcliffe, a lifelong Red Devils fan from Failsworth, said: “Our shared ambition is clear: we all want to see Manchester United back where we belong, at the top of English, European and world football.”
Forget Europe and the world: United celebrated Christmas in the bottom half of the table for the first time in the Premier League era in thirteenth place.
All the fans' hopes and dreams of ending almost a quarter of a century of disputes among the Glazers and bringing back the good old days of Premier League dominance under Sir Alex Ferguson still seem far away.
Old Trafford chased the players off the pitch in the 3-0 home defeat to Bournemouth, but it is not just the results on the pitch that have caused unrest.
Ratcliffe's ruthless cost-cutting saw 250 staff axed, saving around £45 million annually.
In addition, Ratcliffe also axed Ferguson, who has won a record 13 Premier League titles, from his £2million-a-year role as global ambassador in October.
FOOTBALL FREE BETTS AND SIGN UP DEALS
United great Eric Cantona criticized his former club as the Frenchman furiously said: 'It's completely outrageous. I will throw them all in a big bag of shit.”
As the public relations disasters progressed, the downgrade of the legendary Scot's position – even though he was still a non-executive director – was a bellwether.
But there have been enough. The latest came after the loss to the Cherries when new boss Ruben Amorim's post-match press conference was postponed due to a leaking roof.
It wasn't good optics, but there have been few, if any, good looks since United's announcement of the Ineos takeover on December 24.
Ratcliffe, along with chief accomplice Sir Dave Brailsford, who made 'marginal gains' during his time as head of British Cycling, at least enjoyed last season's 2-1 FA Cup final win over rowdy neighbors Manchester City.
But those gains were only marginal at best, given the turbulence surrounding then-manager Erik ten Hag before Wembley and the complete 360-degree turn to retain him afterwards.
Just about everyone and their dog were named as his successor, not least former England boss Gareth Southgate, Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi.
Ten Hag himself went on holiday to Ibiza, convinced that his two-year term in office was over.
Having found no one willing to replace him, Ratcliffe and Brailsford turned up on his doorstep in Spain to say that he could finally keep his job.
Five months later, of course, he was sacked, complete with around £17 million in pay-off money that the couple hadn't wanted him to leave in the first place.
Ratcliffe had fought hard and paid £3 million to Newcastle for the transfer of Dan Ashworth as sporting director.
He would be the top dog of a recruitment drive to bring in only the best new stars.
But he was gone after just 160 days – just 27 days more than Ashworth had spent on garden leave awaiting his departure from the Toon Army.
After also bringing in Omar Berrada from Manchester City as CEO and Jason Wilcox as technical director, it was decided that too many chefs were spoiling the broth by the time Ashworth was brutally dumped at the start of this month.
Yet Ratcliffe, Brailsford and Ineos are now eating from a poisoned chalice. Old Trafford – even under brilliant new boss Amorim – is in danger of becoming as toxic as it has ever been since the Glazers took control in 2005 and dumped £660m of debt on the club.
The hits about Britain's richest man kept coming, with issues over a new stadium and ticket prices.
Ratcliffe said in March he would build a “Wembley of the North” and increase Old Trafford's capacity to 100,000.
Even with his wealth, he wanted to go to the government with cap in hand for Leveling Up money to fund the £2 billion-plus project. But he was soon told that taxpayers would not benefit.
The future of the new stadium should be decided next summer.
Meanwhile, there is outrage among supporters over the rise in members' ticket prices to £66 and the axing of concessions for children and pensioners.
That led to demonstrations outside Old Trafford and the first signs of anti-Ratcliffe chants.
Ratcliffe is also considering plans to halve the £40,000 annual budget given to the Manchester United Disabled Supporters' Association.
United's defense was that they had to borrow the money after their latest financial results showed the club had eaten £232.3 million of their revolving credit facility at the end of September, compared to £35.6 million in June.
A MUDSA (Manchester United Disabled Supporters' Association) insider said: “The optics would be terrible – it feels like the club has lost touch with its soul.”
Then there was Ratcliffe's criticism of the women's team in the FA Cup final when they beat Tottenham 4-0 in May.
The co-owner opted to stay in the North West and watch the men's team lose 1-0 to Arsenal. Ratcliffe claimed: “There's only so much you can do. And our focus was on the men's team.”
Beating Pep Guardiola's City under the famous arch was ultimately a happy occasion.
But United staff were told in advance that they would have to pay for their own food, hotel and transportation, a break with tradition.
Senior employees had their company credit cards revoked and could no longer use cars, while race staff no longer received free packed lunches for their efforts.
The staff Christmas party was also canceled. Ratcliffe has complained about the facilities at the club's headquarters in Carrington, labeling the “mess” of an IT department as a “disgrace”, while the “under-18s and under-21s changing rooms were not much better” .
Amorim also happens to have taken over a mess. The day before Ineos' announcement last December, Ten Hag's team lost at West Ham and ended up in eighth place.
Now they are thirteenth and the £200m spent on keeping Ten Hag is not helping.
The arrival of Noussair Mazraoui from German giants Bayern Munich alone could be worth his initial fee of £12.8 million. Leny Yoro's start to his United career, following a £42 million transfer, was hampered by injury.
The rest – £36.5m for Joshua Zirkzee, £38.5m for Matthijs de Ligt and £42.3m for Manuel Ugarte – looks like a waste of the money Ratcliffe finds so precious.
Their presence spells another disaster for both Ratcliffe and the recruitment team at the end of what was little short of an annus horribilis.
Oh and Jim, those leaks from the roofs around the ground at Old Trafford still need to be fixed. . .
Comments