Man Utd co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has admitted that if he was forced to “retreat into the shadows” like the Glazer family then he would sell up.
The British billionaire and INEOS completed a deal to buy 27.7 per cent of the Premier League club in February last year.
Ratcliffe and his team assumed control of the football operation at Man Utd with the INEOS owner already making a number of difficult and controversial decisions.
Man Utd chose to keep Erik ten Hag on over the summer before sacking him early inot the new season and hiring Ruben Amorim, who has had a poor start to his time at Old Trafford.
The Red Devils are currently 14th in the Premier League and Ratcliffe has made the mood around the club even bleaker by implementing a number of cost-cutting measures.
That has made Ratcliffe extremely unpopular already in his first year at the club and the Man Utd co-owner insists he could walk away if the abuse got too much.
Ratcliffe told The Sunday Times: “I mean, I can put up with it for a while. I don’t mind being unpopular because I get that nobody likes seeing Manchester United down where they are, and nobody likes the decisions we’re having to make at the moment.
“If I draw a bit of the ire, I can put up with that. But I’m no different to the average person. It’s not nice, particularly for friends and family.
“So, eventually, if it reached the extent that the Glazer family have been abused, then I’d have to say, look, enough’s enough guys, let somebody else do this.
“They can’t really come to a match, the Glazers. They’ve retreated into the shadows a bit now, so I’m getting all the stick.
“We bought in and I haven’t seen them since. It’s, ‘thank you, Jim, you’re doing a really good job’.
“At the moment, I don’t have security, I don’t have to walk around like that. But it would defeat the object, wouldn’t it? You couldn’t tolerate it at that level, it just wouldn’t be fun.”
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But Football Insider insists that a ‘full takeover [is] now on the cards’ as the issue of who pays for a potential new £2billion stadium is debated.
Former Everton CEO Keith Wyness thinks it’s a “big issue” and could lead to a full takeover of the club by Ratcliffe and INEOS.
Wyness told Football Insider: “You can also see rumblings of discontent with Ratcliffe and the Glazer Family. That’s a big issue coming up, in my opinion.
“There’s this £2billion stadium coming, and I think they will find the money to finance it – but just look at the Glazer debt.
“There’s going to have to be some financial engineering and a way for Ratcliffe to take that Glazer debt over.
“He has to keep the club from swimming under a huge burden of debt. There’s a lot of work to be done.”
On Ratcliffe, Wyness added: “He’s showing a complete lack of understanding of how to run a football club and how to maintain the culture. The stadium design is very impressive – but is Ratcliffe the right man to lead this club?
“There are still some big questions on the football side. And let’s not forget, Man United are a football club. That’s what everyone seems to forget.
“When I took over at Villa, I found they were running a catering business that happened to play football.
“Man United will only increase revenue if they are winning on the football pitch. What we’ve seen in the last couple of seasons has been disastrous.
“The jury’s out on Ratcliffe. All those lovely artists impressions don’t make a difference.”
