Gary Neville was visibly 'gobsmacked' by Sir Jim Ratcliffe's reaction to £40,000 donation being cut for club legends

Gary Neville admitted he was "alarmed" by Sir Jim Ratcliffe's response to a question around the club's decision to cancel an annual £40,000 charity donation for club legends.

The former Manchester United defender sat down with Ratcliffe this week as they touched on a number of subjects, including the club's plans to announce a brand new stadium worth £2 billion.

He also brought up United's ongoing cost-cutting measures, with the decision to cut an annual charity donation to The Association of Former Manchester United Players being mentioned.

For almost 40 years, the Premier League club donated £40,000 each year to a not-for-profit set up that supported players of the past who did not make anywhere near the modern day salaries.

In fact, the association was in touch with nearly 300 former players but in the wake of staff redundancies and ticket-price hikes, United decided to cut the scheme in December.

It was a decision that sparked a huge amount of controversy and in his interview with Ratcliffe on The Overlap's YouTube channel, Neville questioned the thought process behind such a big call while offering solutions.

"Obviously £15 million was spent to remove Erik [ten Hag] and Dan [Ashworth] which are expensive errors. £40,000 was taken away from the former players association," Neville began. "That's not the players that played under Sir Alex Ferguson or the last 10 years, they're players from the 1960s and '70s.

"I just look at that and think it's £40,000 from players who are giving a lot back to the local community, big supporters of United.

"Why not look at that £40,000 and put Harry Maguire and Bruno [Fernandes] in a dinner. Sell 1,000 tickets for 30, 40, 50 quid, raise the money through a dinner, maybe do a raffle, an auction, give the ex-players their money and do it in a way where it's not looked at as a cruel decision, which it is.

"Why would that not be looked at as a shopping list of things, that's got health warnings to it? They're former players, people who do a lot of good. Why would that decision be made?"

After taking a second to process Neville's argument, Ratcliffe responded: "Well nobody suggested that, I would have supported that."

Neville then hit back: "Well Jim, that alarms me, because if people aren't suggesting that to you at the club," before Ratcliffe added: "The people at the club, you know most of them. They're not cruel or heartless people. But it's 40 grand."

The conversation around cost-cutting has since gone viral on social media, with fans having their say on Ratcliffe's response.

One wrote: "It's crazy to admit that people who are being paid to problem solve and come up with creative solutions couldn't do that. Really caught me by surprise, even Gary was gobsmacked."

A second said: "Evidence that the club is ran poorly," while a third commented: "Wow this says a lot."

A fourth wrote: "Who on earth have INEOS employed at the club if none of them can come up with a better option than redundancies galore and taking funding away from ex-players etc? They’re either alarmingly stupid or Ratcliffe is being purposely obtuse."

A fifth added: "Watched the entire thing, noticed it at well. You could tell it caught Jim off guard as well cos it actually made sense."

Ratcliffe spoke about cost-cutting measures with Neville. Image credit: YouTube/The Overlap

Thoughts on the situation? Let us know in the comments.