Ratcliffe ‘spy’ spreads ‘fear’ at Man Utd and Bruno Fernandes can’t do anything about it

Sir Jim Ratcliffe now has a ‘spy’ patrolling the halls of Carrington, creating a ‘growing culture of fear’ at Manchester United, and there’s nothing Bruno Fernandes can do about it.

Ratcliffe arrived as co-owner almost exactly a year ago and has overseen dramatic changes off the pitch that have thus far failed to reap any reward on it, save for the FA Cup final win, which has inarguably set them back in the long-run anyway.

Erik ten Hag was offered an extension thanks to that win over Manchester City but was booted out in October and replaced by Ruben Amorim, against the wishes of former sporting director Dan Ashworth.

He was poached from Newcastle for £3m and lasted five months, with his sacking costing the club £4.1m, which when added to the £14.5m cost of dismissing Ten Hag, has seen the club’s operating profit drop by a mammoth 88.7 per cent. 

Those expensive calls have come amid the backdrop of over 250 staff being made redundant, with more exits in the offing, and ticket prices rising to £66 per game, with no concessions for children or pensioners.

As one staff member told the Telegraph: “What good is penny-pinching when savings are obliterated by hare-brained decisions like that?”

That report claims that ‘no exit generated shockwaves quite like that of Ashworth in December’, with that decision the ‘clearest demonstration to staff that no one was safe and deepened what several sources describe as a “growing culture of fear”’.

“It’s like this axe is hanging over your head all the time and you’re just waiting for it to drop,” one staffer said.

Ineos chiefs are said to be taking on more roles and ‘assuming greater importance’ as time goes on, with one such individual ‘regarded as something of a “spy” for Ratcliffe and Sir David Brailsford, with staff ‘treading carefully and being extra vigilant about what they say in his presence’.

Ashworth’s exit is thought to have been particularly bad news for the women’s team, with the former Newcastle, Brighton and England chief thought to be a real champion of the women’s game.

Ratcliffe has confirmed that they are not the priority, which was very apparent in May, when he opted to watch United’s men take on Arsenal at Old Trafford rather than attend the Women’s FA Cup final at Wembley, when United beat Tottenham 4-0 to lift the trophy for the first time.

With no after-party originally planned, ‘United hastily arranged for a bash at the team hotel but with the venue situated miles outside London it presented a series of last-minute logistical challenges for the women’s team and their loved ones’.

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The report also detailed the kind offer from men’s captain Bruno Fernandes, which was denied by Ineos as they felt it ‘would have reflected badly on the new regime’.

The report states:

‘Many of the women’s players had only been given small ticket allocations for friends and family for the final. When the men’s players heard about it, captain Bruno Fernandes and veteran goalkeeper Tom Heaton, who is part of the leadership team, intervened and covered the cost of additional tickets using dressing room “fine” money accrued over the course of the season.

‘It was a touching gesture and it would not be the last of its kind. When Fernandes discovered that free travel for staff had been scrapped for the men’s FA Cup final and they would instead have to pay £20 for a coach trip to Wembley, the Portugal midfielder offered to pay for all of the usual extras out of his own pocket. His offer was rejected, the feeling being among staff that it would have reflected badly on the new regime. The move is understood to have saved the club around £6,500 only for staff to be then left bemused to see the club shell out thousands on private chauffeured cars to take Ineos executives to the game.’