These are tricky times on and off the pitch at Manchester United as the club tries to reset itself.
After the discontent around the Glazer regime, most fans welcomed Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s arrival as co-owner with open arms.
However, the veneer is beginning to wear off and news around Old Trafford in the past 48 hours has shone a spotlight on the club in a way that is not positive for the new regime.
It has long been decided more needs to be sweat out of the club to generate more income to spend on the first team.
Part of this came through a mass redundancy programme, in which many long-serving and popular figures at the club – some of whom were lifelong fans – have lost their jobs.
Then this week, it has been confirmed matchday prices are going up to £66, with no concessions, for tickets not already sold.
At the same time, United have also revealed the cost of sacking Erik ten Hag and bringing in Ruben Amorim as head coach is in excess of £21m.
The argument will clearly be that instead of targeting ‘normal’ workers and fans, Ratcliffe and co need to be sorting out United’s terrible recruitment – which now includes their decisions given the choice to keep Ten Hag after the FA Cup final victory went wrong.
It is not as linear as that obviously. But at any Premier League club, costs associated with the first-team far outweigh anything else.
Getting recruitment right is imperative.
