Gary Nevillehas blamed the circumstances which have prompted Manchester United’s harsh cost-cutting measures on the ‘absolute s***fest of management’ by the Glazers in another stinging criticism of the ownership group.
Under new minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Man United have made 250 members of staff redundant, and this week announced that 200 more jobs could be at risk as part of savage cuts aimed at bringing financial stability to the club.
Other measures, including the removal free staff meals, trimming Christmas bonuses, slashing the salaries of club ambassadors, and cancelling charitable donations – including the annual £40,000 donation to The Association of Former Manchester United Players have also caused friction among the supporters.
Under Ratcliffe’s aegis, the club also announced in November that it would be scrapping ticket concessions for children and pensioners, and hiking the cost of home match tickets to a flat £66 rate.
The distressing financial moves have come against the backdrop of another uneven season for the men’s side on the pitch, with Ruben Amorim‘s side sitting 14th in the Premier League standings.
But Neville stressed that while unpopular, the club is in dire need of strong financial management, with almost 20 years of Glazer ownership having heaped over £500million-worth of debt onto the club.
Under the Glazer family’s ownership for Man United the club has struggled from a financial perspective (Avram Glazer pictured left)
Since purchasing his stake in the club, Sir Jim Ratcliffe has embarked on a slew of ruthless cost-cutting measures
Despite Ratcliffe being the face of the cuts the Glazers remain unpopular figures at Man United
‘About three years ago, I said that United needed to bring money in,’ Neville said on Stick To Football, brought to you by Sky Bet. ‘It was a car crash waiting to happen.
‘The club’s finances are shot, absolutely shot to pieces. The debt, the recruitment’s been reckless, the increase in staff from 600 up to 1,200, which is just unbelievable, the lack of Champions Leaguefootball, which is £30, 40, 50 million a year, it’s an absolute mess. The club has run out of cash.
‘What you now see are desperate decisions. Some of them I think are needed, some are bad. You don’t remove food off people at Old Trafford, you don’t take £40K off the ex-players.
‘And to be fair, (the sacking of) Dan Ashworth was a mess, because that’s someone you’ve chased for eight months and you get rid of after three months, that’s a shocker and that’s £4m.
‘But this is a culmination of absolute s****fest of management from the Glazers. To the point whereby a £1bn has been paid off in interest, the club has dipped off in terms of performance, cash flow, profit – it’s lost £300m in three years.
‘Man United used to be the most profitable football club – in 2018 they had £350m in the bank. from that point on now, I think (Ratcliffe’s) Ineos put in £300m and there’s not much of that left.’
Neville’s co-host Ian Wright agreed, adding that the Glazer ownership made the club feel like ‘being scammed’.
Gary Neville was damning in his assessment of where the club is and what needs to be done
‘They’ve come from America and come to the biggest club in the country,’ Wright added. ‘At the end of the day, something has to be done.’
Last week saw news that the club had spent £14.5m alone on sacking former manager Erik ten Hag – £10.4m – and Ashworth, who was relieved of his contract for £4.1m just five months after starting work at Man United.
The Glazers, who retain a 69 per cent majority stake, plunged the club into debt after their buyout in 2005. The latest figures show that the debt still remains on the books and currently totals £516.5m.
United are expecting record revenues of between £650m and £670m for the year.
They also forecast earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), which are used to measure a company’s performance, will be at the higher end of the previously predicted range of between £145m and £160m.
A spokesperson for the Manchester United Supporters’ Trust said: ‘United has amongst the highest revenues in world football and yet we see huge financial problems in these results, driven by £19m in debt interest payments (over six months), mismanagement including paying £14.5m compensation to a manager only given a new contract a few months earlier, a disastrous record in player trading over the last decade, and now dreadful performances on the field making matters worse with every league place we fall costing a further £4m in prize money.
‘In this context, it is clear that ticket prices at United are plainly not the problem with the recent £66 changes raising less than £2m. This shows big increases in prices would be futile and counterproductive, making only a trivial difference to the financial challenge whilst hugely harming fan sentiment and worsening the mood in the ground which inevitably feeds through to even worse team performances.
‘Fans should not pay the price for a problem that starts with our crippling debt interest payments and is exacerbated by a decade or more of mismanagement.
‘It’s time to freeze ticket prices and allow everyone – players, management, owners and fans – to get behind United and restore this club to where it belongs.’