Manchester United trade on being a family club - but Sir Jim Ratcliffe has ended that forever

Manchester United likes to think of itself as one big family. Former players often talk about how one of the biggest clubs in the world managed to retain that familial feeling. It's something they trade on. Why else would they have released an entire mini-series in the summer of 2023 about the 'United family' and what it really means?

Go down to Old Trafford or Carrington now and ask staff there what they think of the United family, and you'll get a very different answer. It should be a long, long time before anyone associated with United tries to portray this as being a family club again. If it is, it's a soulless family with the joy long since ripped out of it.

Morale among the workforce at this football club could not be lower, and they now have a decision-maker in charge for who sweating the small stuff is a phrase that should have been invented. Sir Jim Ratcliffe would take that as a compliment, but the ruthless, brutal cost-cutting measures he is introducing will mostly succeed in turning this from a family club to a soulless one.

Ratcliffe is trying to address the debt racked up during Glazer's 20-year reign and the five years of losses that have left United facing financial ruin. At least, they must be on the edge of oblivion if the situation is as grim as Ineos is making out.

Why else would you need to slash Christmas bonuses and turn the cash into Marks & Spencer vouchers? Why else end perks associated with the club's success for most staff? Why else end free lunches at OId Trafford? Why else tell Carrington staff they will now be restricted to soup and bread for their lunch? Why else make 200 staff redundant less than a year after 250 were axed in what was, at the time, sold as a one-off measure?

Are things so