Sir Jim Ratcliffe has caused outrage with his comments when asked about the Man Utd women's team

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has caused outrage among fans on social media with his telling comments about the Manchester United women's team.

Just like the men's team, Man United endured a difficult league campaign last season as they finished in fifth place in the Women's Super League - their lowest finish since promotion to the WSL in 2019.

But, again like the men's team, they bagged silverware in the shape of the FA Cup following their 4-0 triumph over Tottenham.

The 71-year-old praised the women's team for their FA Cup victory but admitted they have not begun planning the team for next season despite the women’s transfer window opening on Monday.

Asked what they are doing with the women's team, Ratcliffe replied: "Well they’ve just won the FA Cup."

Pressed on whether they have looked at emulating Chelsea, who have recently announced that their side will become a standalone entity, sitting alongside the men’s team and with the club ownership group as the controlling shareholder, he said: "We haven’t gone into that level of detail with the women’s football team yet. We’ve been pretty much focused on how do we resolve the first-team issues, in that environment, and that’s been pretty full time for the first six months."

The INEOS boss then responded "correct" when questioned whether plans were TBC.

The Manchester United women's team celebrate winning the FA Cup. Image: Getty

Ratcliffe's comment on the Man United women's team didn't sit well with fans and critics alike on social media.

One X user wrote: "'First team' what is the women's team? The second team?"

A second tweeted: "Ffs. It’s not rocket science to dedicate a little bit of time and resource to the Man Utd Women’s team."

A third added: "The fact that Ratcliffe views the men’s team as the “first team” and doesn’t consider the women’s team worthy of that moniker says it all."