Sir Jim Ratcliffe's reign of terror! 10 moments that have shaken Man Utd just one year into INEOS' partial takeover

The week before an FA Cup final is normally one of great excitement, but United's top brass chose to spend it sounding out potential successors to Erik ten Hag. That United wanted to replace the Dutchman was totally understandable after he had overseen the club's lowest league finish, but the news that the club had been speaking to Kieran McKenna in addition to other candidates completely overshadowed their preparation for the final against Manchester City and undermined Ten Hag ahead of the biggest game of the year.

As it turned out, the situation ended up being a rallying cry for Ten Hag and the team as the Dutchman out-smarted Pep Guardiola at Wembley, with Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo firing United to an unforgettable victory over their local rivals. However, the fact that talks with other managers had taken place behind Ten Hag's back left a sour taste, and Ratcliffe remained silent when asked whether or not Ten Hag would be staying.

The Dutchman's moment in the sun was thus spoiled, and his post-game press conference, which should have been a moment of celebration, was dominated by questions about whether or not he would be sacked.

United's victory over City at Wembley did leave Ratcliffe and his colleagues in an awkward situation, but the general consensus among pundits and supporters was that one great result could not erase an embarrassing season and that Ten Hag still had to go. So there was a huge amount of surprise when, one month after the cup final and after further discussions had been held between United and Thomas Tuchel, it was announced that Ten Hag was not only staying in charge, but had been offered a contract extension.

Ten Hag was then backed in the transfer market as the club spent close to £200 million on five new signings, with Noussair Mazraoui and Matthijs de Ligt having previously played under the manager for Ajax. But the fact that the club had come so close to sacking Ten Hag undermined his position, and when the team got off to a rocky start, losing three of their opening six league games, including being thrashed at home by Liverpool and Tottenham, it felt like a matter of when he would be fired, rather than if.

There had been a steady stream of stories regarding Ratcliffe's cost-cutting measures following his arrival, some of which many supporters agreed with, such as cancelling credit cards and private cars for senior staff. But the most impactful measure was the July announcement that 250 employees would be losing their jobs.

Among those cut were long-running media officer John Allen, who had been at the club since 1999, as well as historian Cliff Butler and kitman Alex Wylie, who had each been working at Old Trafford for 40 years.

Another bombshell landed in October when it was revealed that Ratcliffe had decided to end Sir Alex Ferguson's role as a club ambassador at the end of the 2024-25 season. Ferguson had held the position since retiring in 2013, and while the Scot could no doubt take the financial hit, the move felt hugely insulting given that he single-handedly turned United into the global phenomenon they are today.

It was also a statement of intent from Ratcliffe. As Rio Ferdinand put it: "If Sir Alex can be taken out, then no one is safe at Man United. Anyone can get it now." Eric Cantona was a bit less diplomatic when he heard the news. "Sir Alex Ferguson should be able to do anything he wants at the club until the day he dies," the legendary former United striker wrote on Instagram. "Such a lack of respect. It’s totally scandalous. Sir Alex Ferguson will be my boss forever! And I throw them all in a big bag of sh*t!"

No one was really surprised when United announced that Ten Hag had been fired a day after the disheartening loss at West Ham in October, which was the team's fourth defeat in nine league matches. But the decision came about four months too late, and it underlined how much of a mistake it was to give Ten Hag another season and another contract, which raised the cost of sacking both him and his staff.

United paid £10.4m to dispense with the Dutchman's services and then forked out an additional £11m to hire Ruben Amorim from Sporting CP, despite the Portuguese admitting he would much rather have agreed to take charge the following season. It has left United with a fiercely ideological coach who is willing to die with his ideas, but with a squad that is completely ill-equipped to suit his playing style, as demonstrated by the club's worst run of results at home since 1893-94.

Ratcliffe horrified match-going supporters when the club introduced shocking ticket prices in the middle of the season. Paid-up club members learned that all of a sudden it was going to cost them a minimum of £66 ($82) to attend matches, and that there were no longer discounts for children or over-65s. Before the changes, which were introduced without any consultation, those tickets started at £40 ($50) for adults and £25 ($31) for children, increases of 65% and 164%, respectively.

Ratcliffe sought to justify the price hikes in a brazen interview with fanzine United We Stand, declaring: "I don’t think it makes sense for a Manchester United ticket to cost less than a ticket to see Fulham."

Perhaps Ratcliffe's most damning move of all was the decision to sack Dan Ashworth, whom he had previously called 'a 10/10 sporting director', just five months after hiring him. United had gone to great lengths to tempt the transfer guru away from Newcastle, and it has since been revealed that they spent a combined £4.1m to first release him from his contract with the Magpies and then pay compensation after firing him.

Ratcliffe had talked so much about the importance of hiring the right people and creating a proper structure to support the manager and the players. But the ruthless call showed that he could turn off people in an instant and was ready to throw the highly-respected Ashworth under a bus not long after singing his praises.

Ratcliffe has repeatedly upset those with an interest in the club's women's team. He did not attend the women's FA Cup final against Tottenham in May, instead opting to watch the men play at home to Arsenal, and then sounded clumsy when he said in an interview with Bloomberg in June that he "hadn't gone into that level of detail with the women's team yet" and said he was primarily focused on "resolving the first-team issues".

The women's team were shown more disrespect when they were ordered to leave their newly-built dressing rooms at Carrington to make way for the men's team, whose facilities were being renovated, and had to use portable buildings in the mean time. Ratcliffe also showed his lack of knowledge about the women's team in one of his first visits to Carrington, when he asked then-women's captain and England international midfielder Katie Zelem what her job within the club was.

The sense that Ratcliffe was not just ruthless but heartless began to emerge when it was revealed in November that he had planned to halve the funding to the Manchester United Disabled Supporters Association, which came after disabled supporters had been hit with price hikes to matchday parking. The club have since performed a U-turn and will continue to provide MUDSA with £40,000 per year.

A month later, it was revealed that Ratcliffe had also decided that the club should cut funding to the Association of Former Manchester United players, an organisation that looks after many of those who played for the club before the era of lucrative salaries and whose careers were cut short by injury.

Monday's announcement that there would be up to 200 further redundancies was the latest blow to United staff morale, and came at the same time it was revealed the club was going to end free lunches for employees at Old Trafford and would only put on soup and sandwiches for staff at the club's training ground in Carrington.

The redundancies are clearly the bigger issue, but both decisions showed a contempt for his employees from Ratcliffe, who had previously sent out email complaining of a lack of cleanliness around Carrington and ordered that all remote workers returned to the office, even though there was not enough space for them, meaning that hospitality suites at Old Trafford had to be temporarily converted into offices.