Will walk away from Manchester United if abused like the Glazers, says Sir Jim Ratcliffe

It’s not been smooth sailing for the 72-year-old, who spent £1.3bn for a 28.94% stake in the club last year. According to the deal, his company Ineos is in charge of football operations.

Ratcliffe has constantly spoken about cutting costs and only last month, it was confirmed there would be a second round of redundancies at the club, which will result in up to 200 people losing their jobs in addition to the 250 who departed last year. There has also been a mid-season rise in some ticket prices, affecting under-16s and pensioners.

Several such moves by the club have attracted criticism, including cost-cutting measures such as removing free lunches for staff. These culminated in fans’ protests against United’s ownership last weekend.

What took the criticism a notch higher was when Ratcliffe, earlier this week, announced plans to build a new £2bn stadium with a 100,000 capacity.

“I mean, I can put up with it for a while,” Ratcliffe said. “I don’t mind being unpopular because I get that nobody likes seeing Manchester United down where they are, and nobody likes the decisions we’re having to make at the moment. If I draw a bit of the ire, I can put up with that. But I’m no different to the average person. It’s not nice, particularly for friends and family.

“So, eventually, if it reached the extent that the Glazer family have been abused, then I’d have to say, look, enough’s enough guys, let somebody else do this.”

Ratcliffe went on to say that since the deal with the Glazers, the latter have retreated into the shadows.

“They can’t really come to a match, the Glazers. They’ve retreated into the shadows a bit now, so I’m getting all the stick. We bought in and I haven’t seen them since. It’s, ‘thank you, Jim, you’re doing a really good job’.”