Manchester United's new co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has had a “poor start” at Old Trafford, according to Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher.
Ratcliffe's arrival was welcomed after he bought a minority stake in United in February, taking over the football operations from the Glazer family, who are largely unpopular among supporters. But fans' opinions are already starting to sour due to the big decisions the billionaire's new regime has made.
Sporting director Dan Ashworth was sacked this weekend after just five months – the same time he spent on gardening leave after Man Utd paid Newcastle £2-£3million for him following a lengthy pursuit.
Erik ten Hag was also sacked and replaced by Ruben Amorim as boss, just months after his contract was extended by a year and around £200m was spent on improving his squad.
These costly 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.
“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 that he's gone a few months later.
“If you're a Manchester United fan then I don't think it's been a great start. The initial joy that someone else was in charge and it wasn't the Glazers was almost everyone but the Glazers.
“It has been very bad for Jim Ratcliffe and the INEOS team and that needs to change very quickly.”
Neville hits out at 'weak' statement from Man Utd
Gary Neville has hit out at Man Utd's “weak” statement announcing Ashworth's departure from Old Trafford, claiming it would only fuel speculation about the reason for his sudden departure just five months after joining the club .
Neville said the speed of Ashworth's departure was “not a good picture” for the club, and would require “a lot of explanation” to reassure fans about the direction of travel under new co-owners INEOS.
The Sky Sports pundit told NBC: “Something like that can't be mutual. When INEOS came in, everyone knew there would be huge changes.
“There have recently been mass redundancies within the club, and there has recently been a complete overhaul of the club's governance, such as the CEO, the CFO, the sporting director, the technical director and now the manager.
“You expected big changes, but not for this position. Ashworth was headhunted for months, he was chased for about 10 months.
'He was on garden leave for four or five months, they paid millions of pounds to get him.
“I worked with Dan for two years in the FA and he has been very successful everywhere he has gone. I am very shocked that this has happened, it doesn't look great at all. It is something that needs a lot of explaining.
“The statement the club has made is really bad. Man Utd have not had a voice for ten years. They have lost their authority and courage. They have regained it a bit in the last twelve months. But it is clear that there is a there is a fracture.
“You can't bring in someone like Dan Ashworth, lose him after five months and think nothing has gone wrong.
“Fans will be wondering what went wrong. They will speculate, huge gaps will arise.
“Sometimes it's better to hit us in the face with the truth when it's so obvious that something has gone wrong, between the personalities of Dan Ashworth and Omar Berrada, Dave Brailsford, whoever it is that doesn't get along.
'Just tell us, because it's clear something happened. That explanation is weak.'
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