Sir Jim Ratcliffe compared to Elon Musk after brutal cost-cutting measures at Man Utd as football finance expert claims INEOS' actions have revealed true plans for their 'crown jewel asset'

INEOS, a British multinational conglomerate led by Sir Ratcliffe, completed their minority takeover at Manchester United in December 2023 as they reached a deal with the Glazer Family to buy a 25 per cent share of the Red Devils and took control of football operations. The new ownership has since made a number of cuts to backroom staff at Carrington in order to reduce operational costs, which has been met by fierce criticism. Football finance expert Professor Rob Wilson has now likened Ratcliffe's work to billionaire Musk's takeover and cost-cutting at X (formerly Twitter).

Speaking to Spin Casino, Wilson said: “The big thing with Manchester United is that the organisation became bloated. Just because Sir Jim Ratcliffe has gone in, he's seen as the bad guy that's making the cuts. The reality is any sensible business owner would have done very similarly. They might have done it in a different way, might have done it over a longer period, might have gone deeper, but anybody that is smart and has made money in business will have cut costs at Manchester United because they needed to be cut.

“What we see generally, typified in US-style ownership, is they look at revenue generation first and they look at cost control second. So go back to Manchester United, what did the Glazers do? They've tried to ramp up revenue as much as they possibly could. Actually what they did was they put an army of people behind that to make sure that you could sign your big deals with Snapdragon or Team Viewer before that and the big deal with Adidas and the Nike deal that came before that.

“So I think what we typically see with US ownership in the first instance is let's go after revenue, particularly in sponsorships and then we look at the other things thereafter.

“Elon Musk is slightly different because his acquisitions that we've seen, particularly at Twitter or X, is that he goes in after the cost-cutting because his investment methodology is more akin to what we would see with a British investor who looks at costs first."

Wilson also believes that INEOS have accepted that Manchester United are the 'crown jewel' in their portfolio and that could be the reason why they are divesting from other sports.

The football finance expert said: “I’m wondering if the sporting strategy has been to build a stable to improve awareness and legitimacy to go after a tier one asset, Manchester United. Now they have that, they divest from other properties to increase their profile in Manchester. This would be bad news for some of the other partners, cycling in particular, if true, and potentially good news for United as they look to recover on the field and finance a stadium regeneration project.

“It’s damaging in the short term if INEOS leaves other properties high and dry, but that’s the nature of business. They are also forced to consider where they spend given the challenges they’ve faced in the European trading markets. My theory is that it’s all linked to Manchester United in one way or another. They will also be reviewing the impact of the deals they have and maybe New Zealand simply didn’t deliver what they’d expected?

“Sport sponsorship is expensive and it’s clear that the United project is bigger than anyone expected. It’s a crown jewel asset though and single-handedly will provide benefits more significant than the sum total of the other sports properties if they turn the tide with United’s sporting performance. You don’t put your top team in there for nothing.”

Under INEOS and Ratcliffe, the performance of Manchester United on the field is yet to show any sort of upturn despite their massive investment in the summer transfer window and their recruitment of Ruben Amorim. However, they could spend again in the summer as they will look to bring in the Portuguese coach's preferred signings to try and set the team on the right path for next season.