Mary Earps' exit & portable facilities: Man Utd won't become an elite women's football team until Sir Jim Ratcliffe & INEOS devise that well-needed plan

Despite the success of the 2022-23 season, there were a couple of warning signs off the pitch for Man Utd, most notably the departure of Alessia Russo. While it felt like there was little the club could do to stop star full-back Ona Batlle rejoining childhood club Barcelona on a free in the same summer, the England striker was supposedly open to staying.

However, United’s negotiating has become infamous by this point. Talks are often slow and the offers presented to players can be underwhelming. This was the case for Russo, with the Athletic even reporting that the club went back on some conditions they’d shaken hands on previously. She would instead join WSL rivals Arsenal on a free transfer.

Things have hardly improved in that sense over the past year. United ended the 2023-24 season with no fewer than five key senior players still yet to agree new contracts, despite their current deals expiring this summer. Those players are Earps, captain Katie Zelem, the prolific Nikita Parris, fan favourite Lucia Garcia and super-sub Rachel Williams.

Earps’ situation has been under the microscope most, given her profile and the fact that Arsenal were heavily interested last summer. Despite some thinking that could be a catalyst for United to sort a new deal for the Lionesses’ No.1, negotiations have dragged on. It’s hardly a good look when it takes this long to come to a resolution – not least when that resolution is a departure for the England star, who is set to join Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer.

It seems unlikely that Earps will be the only player to leave. Garcia is in line for a move to Mexico’s exciting Liga MX Femenil, just a month on from her match-winning display in the Women’s FA Cup final. It’s fair to say fans are not happy about that.

After captaining the club for the past five years, Zelem is attracting interest from elsewhere and the same goes for Parris, who showed her commitment to the cause when she decided against a move to the U.S. ahead of the FA Cup final. Despite that, she is still set to become a free agent in the coming days.

Even a standard released and retained list has yet to come from Man Utd, some five weeks after the season ended. It means that there will be no real goodbye to the supporters for those who do depart, which is just another factor in the feverous frustration building within the fanbase.

That was all heightened this week in an interview given by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, CEO of Man Utd’s minority owners, INEOS. Ratcliffe spoke at length about the Red Devils’ men’s team with Bloomberg and when asked about plans for the women’s side, he responded: “We haven’t gone into that level of detail yet. We’ve been pretty much focused on how we resolve the first-team issues, in that environment, and that’s been pretty full-time for the first six months.”

The use of the term ‘first team’ to describe the men’s side hasn’t sat right with many, with both the men and the women having a ‘first team’. While that could just be a poor choice of words in the moment, the fact that it came at the same time as Ratcliffe admitting there’s not a detailed plan in place for the women’s side has been a bitter pill to swallow for many.

In a way, such comments weren’t a surprise because of the situation the Red Devils’ women’s team find themselves in.

The season came to a close with five important senior players out of contract. Two are set to leave this week and that number could increase. It means Man Utd have entered the transfer window without clearly knowing who remains from last season and, as such, all the areas which they need to address in the market. It doesn’t allow for optimal planning.

If the news of Earps’ feared exit wasn’t enough to raise concerns, it emerged on Tuesday that the women’s team are moving into portable buildings at the training ground at Carrington to accommodate the men while their facilities are revamped. It only adds to existing concerns.

This is not all on Ratcliffe and INEOS, of course, as issues existed long before their arrival. However, many fans were hopeful that new investment and leadership could change things for the better. So far, they are waiting for that optimism to be justified.

Man Utd need to do better if they want to establish themselves among the elite in English women’s football – and beyond. They need more clarity in contract negotiations, to be more aggressive in the transfer market and to create an environment that gives the team every chance of being as successful as possible.

They need a plan, a detailed plan, on how to improve. Ratcliffe has admitted that is not there yet, and it shows. Until that changes, how can Man Utd make progress?