Gary Lineker has savaged Sir Jim Ratcliffe for his "shambolic" tenure at Manchester United. Following a dismal3-2 home defeat to Nottingham Forest, United have slumped to a new low for the season, particularly in light of the shock exit of sporting director Dan Ashworth after just five months.
The club now sit uncomfortably at 13th in the Premier League league, teetering a mere 10 points above the relegation zone, with issues mounting both on and off the field. On The Rest Is Football podcast, Lineker didn't mince words about Ratcliffe's 10-month stewardship, saying: "Ratcliffe came in and everyone thought that all was going to be well, but it's actually been more shambolic in many ways.
"We've seen the whole Erik ten Hag situation over the summer when they were interviewing other managers. They ended up going back to Ten Hag and giving him a contract, and then a few months later they fire him and there's loads of compensation for that."
The Match of the Day host added: "They brought Dan Ashworth in and now he's out the door. They've put the ticket prices up and lots of fans are not happy about that. They've made big changes at the football club, they've moved out the women's football team. It's been a shambles."
Alan Shearer agreed, noting: "Not only are they poor on the pitch, what on earth is going on off the pitch? I mean, it's embarrassing to go out and get a guy [Ashworth] and for him to be on gardening leave for six months, he spent longer on gardening leave than he did in his position at Man United.
"They paid, what, £3million compensation for him and then he leaves, it's a terrible look. What on earth is going on at that football club?"
Ruben Amorim, who replaced Ten Hag at the helm last month, starting fairly brightly with two wins and one draw from his opening three games. But after two consecutive losses against Arsenal and Forest, tension is on the rise at Old Trafford, especially with challenging fixtures against Manchester City and Tottenham to come in the next week or so.
Their grim predicament is made even starker by the club's whopping expenditure on players in the recent years. During Ten Hag's two-and-a-bit year reign, an eye-watering sum of nearly £600million was splashed on new players, and Lineker reckons Amorim will be scratching his head wondering how the money was spent.
"They spent £600m in the Ten Hag tenure... Amorim must have come in and thought 'Is this what you've got?' However good Amorim is he's got one hell of a job on his hands," he said.
With Amorim eager to introduce a three-at-the-back system at United, additions are expected to be made in January. However, it's understood that before the 39-year-old took over, Ratcliffe wanted the new manager to get the best out of the existing squad before approving another spending spree.
Yet, with problems mounting both on and off the field, the pressure to spend may be too great to resist.