Sir Jim Ratcliffe admission points to Dan Ashworth's first Manchester United job

Manchester United fans have been waiting for an inspiring new force at Old Trafford for more than a decade and the early signs suggest they may have found it in Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

While his minority acquisition of the Reds was met with scepticism at the beginning, and rightly so, Ratcliffe has admittedly done a good job of distancing himself from his new investment partners. After getting the final seal of approval from the FA on Tuesday night, the 71-year-old made his first in-depth public address to the supporters.

A wide range of topics were discussed and no stone was left unturned in the hour he spent with MEN Sport and other media organisations on Wednesday. Many United fans are desperate to see an owner take a 'hands-on' approach to running the club and in Ratcliffe they may just get their wish.

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However, this does not mean the Reds will have a dictatorial owner calling the shots at Old Trafford. His admission when discussing the future of Erik ten Hag appeared to address those concerns.

"I'm not going to comment on Erik ten Hag because I think it would be inappropriate to do that," Ratcliffe said. "But what I think is relevant to the question or the answer is if you look at the 11 years since David Gill and Sir Alex stepped down, there have been a whole series of coaches, some of whom were very good, and none of them have been successful or survived for very long, which I think is correct.

"And you can't blame all the coaches. The only conclusion you can draw is the environment in which they were working didn't work.

"And Erik has been in that environment. I'm talking about the organisation, the