Manchester United are 16th in the Premier League with 7 points from 8 matches, and the tension around Jim Ratcliffe's role is only getting louder. Ratcliffe and Ineos took 28% of United's shares for €1.5 billion, 500 job cuts have already taken place, and the club's share price was reported at $20.61 on Friday, down from the $33 per share he paid almost three years ago.

Ratcliffe's grip on football operations

Foot Mercato reported that a source at the club said: "The supporters were all chanting in praise of the Glazer, but I’m not sure they realise how bad Jim is. He could not have orchestrated a worse situation. He has been downgraded in every department. It is fundamentally the opposite of what he had announced as a strategy."

The key point is not that United's problems can be pinned on one man. The criticism is that Ratcliffe's control of football operations was meant to look like a reset, and the start to the 2026-27 season has made the opposite case for him. With 7 points from 8 matches, United are already well off the standard the club has lived with for most of the post-Ferguson era.

Why the Glazers are getting restless

The irritation is not hard to understand from the owners' side. Ratcliffe took 28% of the shares and, by the arrangement described in the reporting, gained control of football operations while the Glazers remained majority owners. That leaves them exposed to the football side of the business without being the ones visibly running it.

Joel Glazer has not been to Old Trafford since 2019, another detail that feeds the sense of distance between the ownership and the day-to-day mood around the club. United's share price sitting at $20.61 on Friday, compared with the $33 figure attached to Ratcliffe's purchase, adds another awkward layer to a messy spell.

Wayne Rooney's blast at the players after another defeat also fits the mood around the club. The football is poor, the cost-cutting has been severe, and the ownership setup is now under strain from both directions.

Ryan Giggs' old warning about losing becoming a habit has aged badly for United, though his January 2011 comments were made in a very different context ahead of an FA Cup tie with Liverpool. Even so, the line now hangs over a club sitting 16th with only 7 points from 8 matches, and the pressure on Ratcliffe's project will not ease until the results do.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →