Sir Jim Ratcliffe 'declares war' on Man Utd's bloated wage bill with plans to copy Todd Boehly's Chelsea contracts model

Ratcliffe has undertaken several cost-cutting measures since buying a minority stake at Old Trafford, including mass redundancies and the raising of ticket prices, as he and INEOS look to improve the club's financial situation.

The British billionaire is ready to 'declare war' on United squad's wage bill to help save money and The Sun reports INEOS will adopt the same model as Chelsea. Ratcliffe wants to reduce weekly wages paid to players and instead focus more on performance-related bonuses. Under co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, Chelsea have handed out long-term contracts, sometimes up to nine years, with a focus on incentives.

Ratcliffe has suggested there could be a wave of departures at Old Trafford this summer after he declared that some players are "not good enough". He said last week: "Some are not good enough and some probably are overpaid, but for us to mould the squad that we are fully responsible for, and accountable for, will take time. We've got this period of transformation where we move from the past to the future. There are some great players in the squad as we know, the captain is a fabulous footballer. We definitely need Bruno [Fernandes], he's a fantastic footballer."

United sit 13th in the Premier League and will only qualify for next season's Champions League if they win the Europa League this term. Failing to do so would have a big impact on the club's finances and could hinder their efforts to strengthen the squad in the summer.