Rene Meulensteen's comments about Man Utd speak volumes after Sir Alex Ferguson axe

Rene Meulensteen said Manchester United’s “warmth” had “gone out of the window” – even before the decision to drop Sir Alex Ferguson as a club ambassador.

Ferguson will leave the lucrative role at the end of this season following what is believed to have been an amicable face-to-face meeting with Sir Jim Ratcliffe. He told the club’s greatest-ever manager they could no longer afford to keep paying his reputed £2million-a-year retainer, which he has held since stepping down as manager in 2013.

It is part of a club-wide cost-cutting exercise by Ratcliffe’s INEOS operation, with United working to put themselves on a more sustainable financial footing. Earlier this year, 250 staff were controversially made redundant.

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Meulensteen spent 16 years working with Sir Alex and told the MEN in the summer how the club had changed since his time – and not for the better. The Dutch coach, 60, called for an explanation for the axing of many loyal employees.

On his time at Old Trafford, he said: "It was just a big, big family. It was a massive club that was growing year on, year on, with the greatest manager that England has ever seen at the head of it.

"It never lost its warmth. If I had people over to visit and they watched training, they were all in awe at how wonderful it was, and how welcoming everyone was, and how friendly it all was. That apparently has all gone out the window. You hear that so many people have lost their jobs.

"Sir Alex was there 26 years and had people who had been with him for 20 years, 22 years, 23 years. They were all there for a long