The phrase that is coming out of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Manchester United is that there’s a “culture of fear” within the club, because so many people are afraid for their jobs.
The British billionaire has overseen another round of redundancies at Old Trafford and is at risk, as Miguel Delaney argues, of prioritising financial gain over Manchester United’s infrastructure, legacy and culture.
One of the reasons that we are here, and Ratcliffe’s INEOS have made these decisions, is because the Glazers’ model ultimately reached a reductio ad absurdum of modern football.
In May 2005, the Glazer family completed the takeover of United through a leveraged buy-out, where half a billion pounds’ worth of borrowings were loaded onto the club.
That is one reason for the flood of details about how absurdly parsimonious United have become, right up to how staff will be given fruit instead of being afforded a proper canteen.
