Former Manchester United first-team coach Rene Meulensteen has revealed the current “power struggle” Sir Jim Ratcliffe has created during his first year as co-owner.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe‘s first domestic year as a co-owner of Manchester United has seen the club undergo a wide range of changes, leading to a completely new structure across all levels.
Control of United’s footballing side has been entirely delegated to Ratcliffe’s INEOS-led team, with the most significant change coming in November when Rúben Amorim was appointed as the new first-team head coach, replacing former manager Erik ten Hag.
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However, the club have also changed other departments, with plenty of new faces in the boardroom and around 250 staff having been let go from their roles across the club.
The most bemusing change has been that of former sporting director Dan Ashworth. After United spent five months chasing Newcastle United for their former employee, they paid a £3 million fee to recruit him, but just five months after he started his role, he departed.
United’s current “power struggle”
Ashworth was one of multiple changes at the club, with Omar Berrada joining as the new CEO, while Jason Wilcox joined as technical director and Christopher Vivell as head of recruitment, albeit on an interim basis.
Although the new look boardroom was dubbed the “Avengers of football’s upper management,” many have been unimpressed with the work done so far, and former United coach Rene Meulensteen, who retains good connections at Old Trafford, believes Ratcliffe has created himself a power struggle – and this is what led to Ashworth’s departure.
“The Dan Ashworth news was a big surprise for me,” said the United first-team coach from 2007-2013 to Lucky Block. “It just doesn’t make any sense.
“You look at Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s tenure at the club so far – obviously he started with all those mass redundancies and everything, which is fine if you get your communication about your vision for the club spot on so people can understand these decisions.
“It’s like when they got rid of Sir Alex Ferguson as an ambassador – there may have been absolutely nothing in that, but because the communication is so poor, people start to guess about things going on behind the scenes.
“My instinct with Ashworth leaving is that there was a bit of a power struggle. It shows that there are a lot of unclear things going on behind the scenes.
“You don’t bend over backwards to get someone in from Newcastle and pay a big fee to secure his services and then say ‘see you later’ after five months. It doesn’t make any sense to me. The communication with all of these decisions has been poor in my opinion.”
INEOS are upsetting people
Further, Meulensteen explained that he believes INEOS are not making a true positive mark on football so far, and that they are consistently upsetting people though bizarre decisions.
“INEOS really haven’t covered themselves in glory since the start of the summer when they were talking to other managers while still employing Erik ten Hag. You can’t say, ‘Ten Hag’s our man’ and then four months later say the opposite.
“It shows a lack of clarity and a lack of direction and, most importantly, a lack of communication. Over the past 12 months, they’ve done nothing else than just upset a lot of people.”
With almost one year having passed since Ratcliffe’s investment, the club continue to look far from complete – and the Ashworth saga will only further set back the outlined plan.
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