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Manchester United co-owner has said that the club has become “mediocre” as he insisted that more difficult and unpopular decisions will be needed to get the Red Devils back to where they want to be.
This development comes amid mounting pressure on Ratcliffe following the removal of concessions for what the club claims are the remaining 3% of unsold tickets for Premier League matches, alongside the introduction of a minimum price of £66.
This move sparked fan protests at Old Trafford before last weekend’s 4-0 win over Everton.
Ratcliffe spoke to Andy Mitten’s ‘United We Stand’ fanzine and defended the decision, as he pointed out that it’s aimed at ultimately improving the club’s fortunes.
He also gave his verdict on other aspects of United such as recruitment and data analysis, which he labelled as “mediocre.”
Ratcliffe told Mitten [via The Athletic], “To get Manchester United to where we need to get it — it’s a bit like the country.”
“We have to make some difficult and unpopular decisions. If you shy away from the difficult decisions then nothing much is going to change. We won’t get everything right and it won’t happen overnight, but we haven’t been sat on our hands for nine months. There has been a lot of change. Here at Carrington as you can see. We didn’t waste any time to get Old Trafford on the agenda. Changes in the football and executive structure. New players. Ruben (Amorim) has arrived.”
“We still have a long way to go and we still have a number of difficult decisions to make but we have to do that for the better. The club has drifted for a long period of time, a decade or so. Manchester United has become mediocre. It’s not elite and it is supposed to be one of the best football clubs in the world. That’s what it used to be under Alex. There is major change to come to achieve elite status. There has already been huge change.”
“We have a fantastic coach. He’s intelligent, thoughtful.” Ratcliffe continued, “We have a great chief executive in Omar. We’re on the way, but this won’t happen overnight. There are financial issues which we need to address because we’ve inherited a financial situation that only time will solve.”
When asked what are his long-term plans for tickets and whether he is concerned that the recent price hikes exclude young and old fans, the INEOS billionaire responded, “It’s an emotive one, ticketing, but we have to have some benchmarks with ticketing.”
“We must make sure that we look after the community because at the end of the day it’s their football club. We need to make sure that people who are genuine supporters can afford to go. Maybe their circumstances don’t allow them to spend a fortune on tickets.”
“I 100 per cent get that. But we have to balance that and optimise our ticket income because it feeds back into how do we win the Champions League or Premier League. I’m very cognisant that we have to look after the community because it’s the community’s team, but equally I want to optimise the revenue from people who can afford it.”
Mitten put it to Ratcliffe that supporters are worried this is just the start of more price raises over the next few months and years. In particular, Mitten asked the British businessman about the growing perception that the controversial decision is taking advantage of the working-class residents of the city of Manchester.
He responded, “I understand that. I was brought up on a council estate in Manchester, I absolutely get that. I don’t want to end up in a position where the genuine local fans can’t afford to come, but I do want to optimise the ticketing. We need to find a balance. And you can’t be popular all the time either.”
“Here, we’re talking about three per cent of the tickets. That’s not the issue. The issue, as you say, is whether this is the thin edge of the wedge. I don’t think it makes sense for a Manchester United ticket to cost less than a ticket to see Fulham.”
On data analysis and recruitment, Ratcliffe stated, “We’ve not been good enough at recruitment, you probably agree with that. And until we’re as good as anyone in the world, then it’s not good enough for Manchester United. We must have the best recruitment in the world. Data Analysis comes alongside recruitment. It doesn’t really exist here. We’re still in the last century on data analysis here.”
“There’s an immense amount of useful data that we can get from data analysis and we’re in the ‘very poor’ bracket with data analysis here. These things don’t happen overnight. You can’t just flick a light switch and sort out recruitment. It’s all about people and we need to find the right people.”
“The other big one is we need to run the club efficiently and well. We need to sweat every pound so that we have more capacity for the investment in players. Those are the big-ticket items which take up time. The other point here is how you grow the amount of money that you can spend on players. You can run the business more efficiently. And you can grow the top line.”
Ratcliffe divulged that he enjoys a “very good” relationship with the unpopular Glazers, who are still majority owners of United.
He said that the Glazers get a lot of very bad press but despite this, they are United fans who have the club’s best interests at heart.
On United’s league position following several poor performances and results, Ratcliffe noted, “I don’t enjoy losing. I find that very difficult. I quite like the picture of Pep Guardiola (with marks on his head). He does not like losing.”
“Our results have not been fantastic and I don’t like where we are in the league. I like the challenge. It’s one of the biggest challenges in the sporting world, taking United back to where the club should be. That’s a very rewarding challenge if we get there, but it’s a rocky road with ups and downs.”
“The objective is unchanged. The measure of success unchanged. We always need to be challenging for the Premier League and the Champions League. The size of the task is considerable and to get there, a lot of things have to change at United.”
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