Sir Jim Ratcliffe will be feeling the heat at Manchester United, who remain far inferior in every possible department to both their rivals in Manchester City and Liverpool.
While Pep Guardiola’s men have underwhelmed on the pitch this season, they are still fifth in the Premier League while Arne Slot looks set to win the title but as for United, they are languishing in 14th place.
Liverpool could well maintain their reign for the next couple of years while Manchester City have a squad rebuild in store and they could very well compete for the major honours next season.
The same cannot be said about Manchester United, who are several years away from even being considered worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as their bitter rivals — which would irk Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Sir Jim Ratcliffe dislikes Manchester City but he would be envious of how far ahead they are of United.
Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images
Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images
Sir Jim Ratcliffe compares Man United and Man City’s squads
Sir Jim Ratcliffe lauded how Manchester City are run in the past as well.
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But all Ratcliffe can do is accept that the Sky Blues are in a different league to Manchester United both on and off the pitch.
Having appointed former City employees such as Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox, perhaps the British businessman’s vision from day one was to replicate Manchester City.
But in a recent interview with The Overlap, Ratcliffe admitted that one of the reasons why Manchester United have been in such dire form is because they do not have the same calibre of squad as Manchester City and are missing key players through injuries.
“So if you modify our salary bill to the players that are not available to Ruben, then our salary bill ranks us about middle league, second half of the table.”
“We’re sort of level with the likes of a Nottingham Forest or Everton, not Manchester City. So that salary bill, if you look at that salary bill, is probably about 130 million. And we’re talking about Liverpool has got salary bill of 200, and Manchester City got salary bill of 300.”
“So that’s the squad that Ruben’s [Amorim] playing with. So he’s not got the Liverpool squad, he’s not got the Manchester City squad, he’s got the Manchester United squad. I mean, how many players did you recognize on that bench?”
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s challenge to Man City has now backfired
But when Sir Jim Ratcliffe walked through the Old Trafford doors, he was far more confident than he seems about his club now.
So much so that when the veteran was quizzed about City’s alleged financial wrongdoings, he admitted that them getting punished would bring him no joy.
Instead, Sir Jim Ratcliffe wanted to “smash” Manchester City as he admitted in February last year.
“I wouldn’t wish that upon them. I don’t understand any of that. I just want to smash them on the football field.”
But as Manchester United are 13 points away from Manchester City now, Ratcliffe may regret his comments.