Sir Jim Ratcliffe claims Man Utd would be bankrupt by CHRISTMAS without cost-cutting

Manchester United part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has come under increasing pressure for a raft of cost-cutting measures at Old Trafford – but he insists they are necessary

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has claimed Manchester United would be bankrupt by Christmas this year if they did not introduce the controversial cost-cutting measures which has seen him face criticism from Red Devils supporters.

The United co-owner has come under fire for numerous decisions since he arrived at the club, even being coined ‘the Jim reaper’ by some fans. He has made a raft of redundancies and reduced meals for non-playing staff at United.

Ratcliffe has also been criticised for a much-maligned mid-season ticket price hike, which saw seats on matchdays at Old Trafford set at £62 with no concessions.

But the club’s co-owner has now laid bare their financial plight, insisting the club could go bust by the end of this year if he hadn’t taken the decisions.

“I don’t enjoy reading the newspaper very much these days I have to say,” he told the BBC. “I know it’s unpopular, and this period of change is uncomfortable for people, and some of the decisions we have to make are unpleasant.

“But they are necessary to put Manchester United back on to a stable footing. If people want to see Manchester United winning trophies again then we have do all this stuff.

“Manchester United would have run out of cash by the end of this year – by the end of 2025 – after having me put $300m (£232.72m) in and if we buy no new players in the summer.

“We are in the process of change and it’s an uncomfortable period and disruptive and I do feel sympathy with the fans. The simple answer is the club runs out of money at Christmas if we don’t do those things.”

Despite the club’s current malaise, Ratcliffe believes they can challenge for the Premier League title again within the next three seasons. He also admitted not sacking Erik ten Hag last summer was ‘a mistake’.

“We are not perfect, and we are on a journey, and there have been a couple of errors along the way, but I think in the main all the things we are doing are the right things for the club,” he added.

“I agree the Erik ten Tag and Dan Ashworth decisions were errors. I think there were some mitigating circumstances, but ultimately they were errors. I accept that and I apologise for that.

“If you look at the time we made the decision about Erik the management team hadn’t been in place more than five minutes. It became clearer three months later and we got it wrong, but we’d moved on. I think we corrected it and we are in a very different place today.”

On his personal target to win the title by 2028, Ratcliffe said: “I don’t think it’s mission impossible. I think it’s good to have goals and objectives. If you look at Arsenal, if you look at Liverpool, if you look at the period of time it took them to get the house in order and get back to winning ways, that’s probably slightly on the short end of the spectrum. But it’s not impossible.”

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