Manchester United staff reportedly booed Sir Jim Ratcliffe during the Red Devils’ defeat to Tottenham in the Europa League final as a “death knell” sounds at Old Trafford.
Brennan Johnson scored the only goal of the game at the San Mames to end Spurs’ 17-year wait for a trophy and secure Ange Postecoglou’s side a spot in the Champions League next season.
Johnson’s darting run into the six-yard box caught Luke Shaw on his heels at the end of the first half as he attempted to divert Pape Matar Sarr’s cross in, with the ball rebounding off Shaw and past Andre Onana.
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Defeat in the final confirmed United’s worst season in 51 years, with the run to the Europa League final putting gloss on a miserable domestic campaign which has seen the Red Devils win just six of 26 league games since Amorim took charge in November.
Amorim said after the game he would leave the club without a “conversation about compensation” if the United board wanted to replace him and Bruno Fernandes made a similar vow to fall on his sword.
But Ratcliffe, who took charge of football operations in February last year and has overseen significant cost-cutting at the club, including making 450 members of staff redundant, must take more than his fair share of the blame for the “monumental mess”.
And The Athletic revealed the frosty reception he received from the United staff and their families, who are now expecting a further round of redundancies.
The report states:
‘Staff at United’s screening to watch the game in Manchester were concerned about the financial impact of that failure, given Berrada said in February the second redundancy round was based on United qualifying for the Europa League for the next four seasons.
‘The event was at Diecast, a trendy warehouse venue in Ancoats. Inevitably, there was gallows humour about this being a death knell. When Ratcliffe and Avram Glazer appeared on screen boos rang out among the 1,000-strong crowd of staff and family, once during the game and then again at full-time. The mood afterwards was described as very sombre.’
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The United co-owner looked downcast as he handed out the medals to the players after the game and has a big decision to make after Ruben Amorim said he would leave the club if that’s what the board decides is best.
“In this moment, I am not going to be here defending myself, is not my style,” Amorim said. “I cannot do it, is really hard for me. So I have nothing to show to the fans to say I am going to improve because of this, I had these problems, I will not do nothing.
“In this moment, it’s a little bit of faith. So let’s see. Like I said before, coming here before in the flash, I am always open. If the board and fans feel that I’m not the right guy, I will go the next day without any conversation about compensation.
“But I will not quit again. I am really confident in my job and, as you can see, I will not change nothing in the way I do things.”