Sir Jim Ratcliffe will make another round of about 200 redundancies at Manchester United, part of a bid to counteract the club’s £300m loss over the past three years.
While Ratcliffe cut around 250 staff in the autumn, he has made the decision due to the club’s stricken finances. United employees are yet to be contacted formally by management regarding their jobs potentially being in danger, but it is believed they are braced for this to occur.
After becoming the single largest minority shareholder last year Ratcliffe injected $300m (£240m) into the club. But despite this funding the redevelopment of United’s Carrington training base, the long-term financial situation remains challenging due to the on- and off-pitch costs remaining high.
In the January window United bought only Patrick Dorgu from Lecce for £25m despite Ruben Amorim’s squad needing a major overhaul – the majority of the players he inherited on becoming head coach in late October not being suited to his 3-4-3 system.
How much finance Ratcliffe’s proposed redundancies will generate for the summer transfer market is unclear. United’s limited winter window budget came despite the 250 previous cuts and offoading 75% of Marcus Rashford’s £365,000 weekly salary by loaning him to via the deal struck with Aston Villa.
In late November United’s accounts revealed the club had to pay £21.4m to sack Erik ten Hag and hire Amorim as the Dutchman’s replacement. Ten Hag was removed on 28 October, with his coaching staff René Hake, Jelle ten Rouwelaar, Pieter Morel and Ruud van Nistelrooy all following. A total of £10.4m was paid in compensation to do so.
Signing Amorim, plus the coaching quintet of Carlos Fernandes, Jorge Vital, Adélio Cândido, Emanuel Ferro and Paulo Barreira who followed him from Sporting, cost a further £11m.
