Back him or sack him - Sir Jim Ratcliffe must make his biggest Manchester United decision public

The social media memes for those taking delight in another year of misery for Manchester United were all too easy. After Sir Jim Ratcliffe had told staff to return to the offices to work and slammed tidiness levels in some departments as a "disgrace", the real issue preventing this football club from achieving its potential was on show to a worldwide audience.

For all Ratcliffe's tinkering around the edges, staff throwing their sandwich wrappers in the bin and spending a bit more time in the office isn't going to improve the quality of football being put out on the pitch week after week, game after game. The 71-year-old billionaire knows plenty about the world of business and he is right that standards must be right across the board, but the most pressing problem is unavoidable.

After a drawn-out strategic review, Ineos have received a hospital pass, but their dithering is helping nobody now. For much of that process, Ratcliffe would have hoped Erik ten Hag was the right man. It's looking increasingly likely that isn't going to be the case.

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He looks out of ideas to fix the tactical problems that have left United looking like "one of the most poorly coached teams in the Premier League," to quote Jamie Carragher. It's certainly difficult to argue that the players are still fighting for him after they laid down tools so meekly at Selhurst Park.

The end of this season is now being used as a game of brinksmanship with Bayern Munich. United won't want to pay Ten Hag off when their position within the Premier League's