Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has blasted the club for poor recruitment and data analysis, while also defending increases to ticket prices.
Many United fans have long held the Glazer family as being primarily responsible for the struggles of the club since Sir Alex Ferguson's departure from Old Trafford in 2013, with managers like Jose Mourinho and Erik ten Hag ultimately failing to take the team forward.
New boss Ruben Amorim and new part-owner Ratcliffe have brought in a sense of optimism amongst fans, but the team's 3-2 loss at home against Nottingham Forest on Saturday was a reminder that the side are still some way from competing for the biggest honours.
Ratcliffe has acknowledged the difficulties on the pitch and has insisted that he is working behind the scenes to fix the problems at the club, and when speaking to the United We Stand fanzine, the billionaire said: "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."
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Poor recruitment
One of the areas that Ratcliffe highlighted as an area that could improve was recruitment, and it is fair to say that the Red Devils' have not necessarily operated shrewdly over recent years.
Indeed, Antony was signed from Ajax in the summer of 2022-23 for a fee of roughly £85m and has since scored just five Premier League goals, while Casemiro was signed in the same summer but has shown significant signs of decline as the veteran midfielder has aged.
Ratcliffe was scathing of United's approach to transfers, saying: "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.
"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."
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Ticket prices
Though Ratcliffe's investment into the club was met positively, there has been sizeable backlash against his plans to increase ticket prices in a move that some believe would prevent many local fans from attending matches at Old Trafford.
United made the controversial decision on November 26 to sell all remaining tickets for home games this term for £66 per person regardless of whatever the age of the person buying them.
Speaking about the decision, Ratcliffe defended the increase by referencing prices at other clubs, saying: "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 have to balance [affordability] and optimise our ticket income because it feeds back into how we win the Champions League or Premier League.
"We're talking about three per cent [increase] of the tickets. That's not the issue. The issue 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."
Lewis Nolan
