The staggering £86m Manchester United sum that INEOS wants to avoid

The era of excess at Manchester United appears to be over, with minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS having wasted little time over the last 11 months in ringing the changes at Old Trafford behind the scenes.

Some 250 staff were made redundant earlier in the year, while certain ‘perks’ that had existed for club official were removed, including the use of the club credit card. Ratcliffe, handed football and strategy oversight following the acquisition of 27.7% of the football club from the Glazer family, was doubling down on his intention to stop the haemorrhaging of cash while the team continued to fail competitively.

His willingness to keep faith in Erik ten Hag for so long, agreeing to an extension at the end of last season despite many question marks over the Dutchman’s suitability for the top job at United, was, perhaps, a sign of Ratcliffe wanting to avoid the ‘hire em, fire em’ culture that had maybe been previously seen. In the end it was unavoidable and the publishing of the club’s first-quarter financial results earlier this week showed the financial strain.

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The dismissal of ten Hag, along with the exits of his coaching staff, cost the club £11.4m, while the compensation required to bring his replacement, Ruben Amorim, to Old Trafford from Sporting CP came in at around £10m.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire crunched some of the numbers over the past 10 years at United, highlighting that in sacking managers, coaching staff and parting ways with club officials such as Richard Arnold, the club had burned