Even the Glazers cannot show the little ambition they have at Manchester United this time

Sir Jim Ratcliffe appears to abide by the old Tesco motto: every little helps. The little is a lot for Manchester United staff and supporters.

The club's workforce will be slashed by a third come the conclusion of the latest round of redundancies. Club members now have to fork out £66 for a ticket.

Ineos are accustomed to running chemical plants, where cost-cutting is commonplace, and have applied that to a world-renowned sporting institution. Saving £1million on free lunches and raising £2m through ticket rises? Every little helps.

Some of the measures are understandable. As stingy as it seems of Ratcliffe, this century's Ebenezer Scrooge, hardly any workplaces provide free lunch for staff. It is still an unedifying look when United are haemorrhaging the best part of £300,000-a-week to pay Casemiro.

Staff morale has been on the floor for the best part of a year and it is just as bad with paying supporters. The presence of local matchgoers, already alienated, will subside if the ticket prices remain so steep.

Ratcliffe showed how tone-deaf he is when he argued United's ticket prices should not be lower than Fulham's. Ineos's office is opposite one of the entrances to Harrods, Ratcliffe owns the Grenadier pub in Belgravia and he once had a season ticket at Chelsea. Time in the West London bubble has clouded his judgement.

Walk from Putney Bridge tube station, through Bishop's Park and along the Thames to Craven Cottage and you will understand why Fulham charge up to £105 for a ticket. A property on Stevenage Road is on the market for £6m.

Targeting lower-level staff at United is indubitably undermined by the hundreds of millions frittered on players' transfer fees and salaries. United invested more than £200m in another