After three months, United's vow to "renew the future" has passed like a breeze, and with the first-team players threatening to pay for their own flights back to Manchester after the FA Cup final, the promise seems hollow. The team offered alternative transportation options, but the players stuck to their guns and said they would make their own return arrangements.
When confronted by reporters, United insisted they had return arrangements in place for Sunday morning - even though some of their players chose to depart for their vacation directly London after the team beat Manchester City to win the title in London.
Sources close to the situation revealed: "The players and senior management felt it was not professional enough to travel back to Manchester by public transport, simply because it was more economical, and informed the team that they would pay for their own flights. United backed down quickly but were embarrassed. After all, this is Manchester United and the players are seen as a League One team."
Manchester United has had a period of instability far longer than any time in memory, and the latest disruption - as recently departed employees have put it - "terrible" - - can be traced back to the Glazer family's November 2022 announcement that they were seeking outside investment and might even sell the team they have acquired since 2005.
The strategic review lasted months as Ratcliffe's Invesco group battled rivals led by Jassim for ownership of Manchester United. Neither side reached the Glazer family's psychological price of £6 billion. Ratcliffe ultimately bid £1.25 billion, as expected, for a 27.7% stake in United and control of the soccer business.
At the beginning of the takeover of Manchester United's soccer business, Ratcliffe promised to lead the team "back to the top of English, European and even world soccer" and asked fans to be patient.
Ratcliffe's first question to the United staff was, "How did you guys get it so bad? What went wrong here?" Now, the Inglis Group must take responsibility.
Eight months into running the Manchester United soccer business, Inrix has made sweeping changes. The addition of new CEO Omar Berrada, sporting director Dan Ashworth and technical director Jason Wilcox failed to save the team from struggling in the second half of the Premier League. Manager Ten Hahn failed to answer Ratcliffe's questioning about job security after every game or every disappointing result.
In an effort to cut costs and optimize operations, Ratcliffe & Invesco has announced 250 layoffs, the elimination of the company credit card, and plans to reduce its workforce to the same size as Real Madrid.
"Woodward wants us to be like Barcelona, Richard Arnold thinks the F1 model should be emulated and now the Invesco group want us to be like Real Madrid." A source close to the situation talked about how "we've all been told that United are the biggest team in the world, so why should we keep imitating others?"
Players say the pride of playing for Manchester United is gone. It has been revealed that Bruno Fernandes was ready to leave this summer after getting fed up with the team's constant failure to deliver on their promises, but eventually stayed and extended his contract. "The team panicked at this and offered him a lucrative new deal", according to a source.
Players are "overwhelmed" by the influence of Inglis, and there is anger in the dressing room at the departure of long-serving staff due to cutbacks, and dissatisfaction with the treatment of some of them.
A source said, "A backroom worker had been with the team for more than three decades but was finally optimized. On his last day, he worked while in tears. No one did anything for him, even though he had worked for the team for so many years."
Manchester United's woes persist
After winning last season's FA Cup final against Manchester City, Manchester United are looking forward to an exciting new season. It was predicted that then-England boss Gareth Southgate would become the new manager in late July, but after a long period of "deliberation", Ratcliffe and United's senior management decided to keep Ten Hahn - even though they were concerned about the ability Ten Hahn had shown both on and off the field. ability on and off the field.
"Tenhave is very blunt and direct," said a source close to the situation, "He's an honest man by nature, but last season he was forced to take a softer approach with his players."
In addition, people seem to be overly critical of Tenhach, even when it comes to his language issues. "He speaks English, but doesn't understand the nuances of the language. For example, last season he angered Casemiro. Even though Ten Hahn spoke for tactical reasons, he ended up angering a multiple Champions League winner."
Ten Hahn's handling of Sancho and Rashford also caused discord within the squad. While most of the players initially supported Ten Hahn's decision to discipline Sancho, some felt that Ten Hahn's punishment was too harsh and saw him as inflexible because of Sancho's comments on social media.
The source revealed that Rashford's form slumped last season and did not improve as a result of Ten Hahn's criticism in public - exacerbated in part by Ten Hahn's limited grasp of the English language.
Some players are finding it difficult to boost their self-confidence under Tenhagarh's tough attitude. One senior player asked the general staff to give him some motivational talks before matches to help boost his morale, sources said.
Although Ten Hagh kept his job after the FA Cup win, he was left as the "survivor" of a rebuilt coaching staff. Mitchell van der Gaag, Steve McClaren and Bennie McCarthy, all of whom Ten Hahn brought with him, left the team, and the team's executives hired a few more coaches to replace them.
Ten Hahn has recruited Rene Haque from the Forward Eagles, the pair having spent some time together at Twente. Former Manchester United striker Fanny is now back at Dream Theater as an assistant manager after coaching Eindhoven in the 22/23 season. Vanney hadn't had many working interactions with Ten Hack before, but his arrival this summer has had an immediate impact.
"Fanny looks like a skipper and he acts like a skipper." A source said, "He has one-on-one meetings with the players and there is definitely an aura about him." No one would say that, but no one would be surprised if he ends up being the new United manager.
Vanney, who made 219 appearances for United between 2001 and 2006, scoring 150 goals and enjoying great popularity among the fans, was the last to leave the pitch after the 3-3 draw away to Porto in the UEFA Cup in October. The substitutes, who were not on the pitch at the time, carried out a post-match warm-up and the 48-year-old applauded the fans who stayed behind while they chanted his name.
Ten Hahn prefers to train in Manchester and travel to away games in the late afternoon, not unlike coaches of other teams, but sources said the players were "unhappy" about having to spend the night in Porto after the match and return to Manchester on Friday afternoon.
"They just wanted to go home, sleep in their own beds and then train in the afternoon." A source said, "But they came back to England at rush hour and then had to travel to Birmingham the next day for the game against Villa."
United then extended their winless run to five games with a 0-0 draw against Villa in front of Ratcliffe, Brailsford, Berrada, Ashworth and Wilcox. Speaking after the game, Ten Hahn spoke about United keeping four clean sheets in five games and insisted that the worrying situation of just five goals in seven games will soon improve when his side take their chances.
Manchester United's stadium woes persist
When the Glazer family announced their 'strategic review' in November 2022, one theory was that the motivation behind the decision was the realization that their Old Trafford and Carrington facilities were so far behind their rivals that they didn't have the funds to improve them.
In June 2022, former CEO Richard Arnold said the same thing when he held an impromptu meeting with disgruntled fans at a bar near his home.
"For the future, a new stadium and training base, we have to do something. We have to involve investors. We need it to do what I want to do for the team. I have to have more money now because no team in the world has the money to build a new home stadium. You either have to take out a loan or find investment."
Almost nine months have passed since the strategic review was formally concluded and Ratcliffe completed its acquisition of a minority stake in Manchester United, but the search for funds to rebuild Old Trafford is still ongoing.
Sources close to the matter have revealed that United are now undecided whether to rebuild Old Trafford or build a new stadium. A search task force set up by Ratcliffe - including Gary Neville and Sebastian Coe - is expected to make recommendations by the end of the year. The project could cost more than £2 billion, but it is unclear where the money will come from.
"We have to consider all possible financing options," team COO Collette Roach said at a fan forum in July, "It's still early in the process and we haven't made any decisions yet."
Sources close to the matter have revealed that Ratcliffe prefers to rebuild a 100,000-seat stadium on the same site at Old Trafford. However, there are concerns about how United's history of this century-old Theater of Dreams will be maintained. Just this summer, it was initially proposed that Old Trafford be downsized and used as the home of the women's and youth teams, but discussions since then have made it clear that the plan would not be cost-effective.
What's next for the women's team?
Ratcliffe is well aware that every decision he has made since taking over United's soccer business - whether it be a high-profile appointment or a layoff - has been aimed at improving the team's on-field performance. But there are already voices out there that suggest Ratcliffe and the Inglis Group are only interested in the men's team and not in women's affairs.
Sources close to the situation have revealed that the entire squad was frustrated that the Inglis Group was not represented at Wembley Stadium for the Women's FA Cup final in May - a game that United eventually won, lifting their first major trophy since the team's 2018 reforms. The decision to move the women's team out of the bespoke facilities at the Carrington training base to accommodate the men's players this summer threw Ratcliffe and his team completely over the edge.
Around the same time, women's captain Katie Zelm and England international Mary Epps left on free transfers.
United insist they are "totally committed" to the development of the women's team, but women's boss Mark Skinner has had to try to act as a peacemaker between disgruntled fans and the team's owners, says Collette Roach.
Can Manchester United be among the title contenders by 2028?
Ratcliffe has always believed that given some time, things will get better. He accomplished his goal - which was to bring in the best executives - by hiring Ashworth as athletic director, Wilcox as technical director, and Berrada as CEO.
They bear most of the responsibility for sorting out the previous mess and getting United back to the top of soccer. Ashworth will have a huge impact on reinforcements. United have experienced huge failure in this area since last winning the Premier League title. Ashworth was happy with the transfer back deal last summer, but it is recognized that one window was not enough to fix a team that was seriously underperforming.
Publicly, United have been reluctant to give an exact timetable for them to be among the title contenders. However, in some communications earlier this season, Berrada said United were aiming to win the title by 2028 - the year United will celebrate their 150th anniversary.
It gives Ratcliffe more than three seasons to realize his ambition to get United back to where they should be. It also shows how far behind United have fallen and the amount of work required to reverse a vicious cycle that has been going on for more than a decade.
