Sir Jim Ratcliffe reveals Ten Hag was 'doing too much' when he arrived at the club

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has made his feelings clear about Erik ten Hag’s time at Manchester United

In December 2023, Ratcliffe acquired a 25% stake in Manchester United and assumed control over the football operations at the club.

Since then, United have failed to impress and, despite an impressive FA Cup victory over local rivals Manchester City last season, they finished eighth in the Premier League, their lowest finish since the competition began in 1992.

Despite this, having considered several potential replacements, Ratcliffe and his staff decided to stick with current manager Ten Hag, and he has now broken his silence regarding the Dutch manager and his time at the club.

Speaking to The Times, Ratcliffe said: "Erik is a good guy and had been doing his best, but doing too much.

"He was trying to sort out the squad and fix leaks in the roof at the same time."

However, the INEOS chairman acknowledged that leading Manchester United as manager was a highly difficult job after the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson and managing director David Gill in 2013.

"Up until that point, those two had been managing the sports side of the club and the Glazer family had managed the commercial side very well. And then all of a sudden there's this vacuum," Ratcliffe added.

"Manchester United has the biggest fanbase of any football club in the world, probably the biggest of any sports team in the world. They say about 10 or 12 percent of the planet are either Manchester United fans or sympathisers, which is getting close to a billion people. It is a colossal enterprise."

Manchester United were lost the Community Shield match to local rivals Manchester City on August 10 after the game went to a penalty shootout.

In the interview, Ratcliffe also offered a brutal assessment of United’s history since the departure of Ferguson and his staff, saying that it has not been good enough.

"I mean, the results speak for themselves. In the last ten or eleven years, it should have been a contender for the Premier League and Champions League [trophies] every year and it hasn't at all.

"It is a big responsibility to return the club to where it should be. It should be performing at least in the top eight in Europe. Now if we can't do that then we won't have been successful."