Manchester United axe football staff two days after final flop

 Manchester United stepped up their latest round of brutal cost cutting on Friday by telling a number of football staff they were being sacked less than 48 hours after the club’s Europa League final defeat.

Around 250 jobs were shed by United last summer during the first wave of redundancies and now up to 200 more staff are set to be axed over the coming weeks as part of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s ruthless drive to save money and reduce costs.

Several football staff were brought into 15-minute meetings at United’s Carrington training base on Friday to be informed they were being made redundant.

Some are said to have been left close to tears and hurt by the timing of the announcements. United had deferred the process for those involved in the first-team set-up with a view to not disrupting the final weeks of the season.

Members of the football department had been informed by email they would learn their fate less than 48 hours after the Europa League final loss to Spurs – and the day after a barbecue at Carrington that had been arranged for staff, the players and their families regardless of the outcome of the game.

With Ruben Amorim and his squad due to fly to Asia after their final Premier League match at home to Aston Villa on Sunday, United did not want the situation to drag on longer and sought to provide clarity.

Many staff had been informed at the start of the month they were at risk of redundancy with swingeing cuts expected across an array of football and non-football departments, including scouting, analysts, sports medicine and commercial, as United streamline operations. Between 150 and 200 jobs are due to go in total.

Some staff already know they are going and have been negotiating their exits. On the football side, they include United’s director of scouting Steve Brown, director of football insights and innovations Richard Hawkins and David Harrison, the director of football operations.

United have already taken steps in recent years to reduce their scouting numbers - which at one stage stood at 140 part-time and full-time staff - but the existing global network of 80 will be further reduced.

It emerged earlier this month that United’s longest-serving employee, Marie Marron, was told she was at risk of redundancy.

Marron has been at United for 47 years, initially serving as personal assistant to then club secretary, Ken Merrett, before becoming a central figure in first team logistics and a key liaison with Uefa, the Premier League and the Football Association.

The mood among staff has been described as being on the floor for much of the past year as they sweat over their own futures and/or watch friends and colleagues depart.

The anger and resentment towards the club’s ownership among the rank and file was very much evident at a staff screening in Manchester city centre of Wednesday’s Europa League final.

When Ratcliffe and fellow co-owner Avram Glazer appeared on the screen at the event at Diecast, a warehouse venue in the Ancoats district, boos rang out among the crowd of employees and their families. Hundreds of staff and their loved ones were present.

United went ahead with a BBQ on Thursday night that had been organised primarily for first team staff, the players and their families. Internally, there has been a feeling that this season cannot end soon enough, although Amorim’s squad must first navigate post-season tour matches in Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. The revenues from that are expected to mostly offset the £10m penalty payment to kit supplier Adidas for failing to qualify for the Champions League.

Ratcliffe has claimed the club would have gone “bust by Christmas” without the severe cost-cutting. United have made losses of £313 million in the previous three years and it is reported the club is set to post a third quarter loss for this season of £40m in the coming weeks based on a consensus of Wall Street analysts.

Failure to qualify for the Champions League and United’s dire performance in the Premier League are anticipated to cost the club more than £150m in prize money, broadcast income, gate receipts and penalty payments.

United will finish in 17th position should they lose to Aston Villa and Tottenham claim at least a point at home to Brighton, which would be their lowest placing since the club was relegated 51 years ago.

As United prepare to axe more staff, supporters are readying themselves for fresh protests against the club’s ownership on Sunday.

Hierarchy to feel fans’ wrath

United’s hierarchy are expected to come under heavy fire in the directors’ box at Old Trafford from fans who are being controversially forced out of their seats next season to make way for VIP hospitality.

It emerged in March that some supporters who sit behind the home and away dugouts in the lower south stand will be relocated so their seats can be turned into a lucrative hospitality section for next season.

Numerous fans affected or angered by the contentious move have been making their feelings known at recent games to the executives who are seated directly behind them in the directors’ box and are now preparing to set up their protests at the Villa match.

With emotions running high over the issue, there is a growing expectation that some fans will not hold back in venting their anger, disgust and frustration at those in charge during the game against Villa.

United are not thought to have arranged for additional security in that area of the ground although the club are aware of the protests from that group of fans and are said to understand their feelings.

Banners decrying the changes and accusing co-owners Ratcliffe and the Glazers and the board of disregarding decades of loyalty have been brandished amid awkward, angry scenes.

One of those fans is 81-year-old Michael Carney, who has sat in the same seat since 1980. During the second half of United’s 0-0 draw with Manchester City last month, Carney held up a sign at the directors’ box bearing the words “74 years of loyal support - for what????????”.

Other banners and placards have been paraded, too. At the 2-0 defeat to Wolves a fortnight letter, one read: “Sir Jim, what has the club we love turned into? You know the price of everything and value of nothing”. Two others said: “Tourists over fans” and “Decade of loyalty - Sold Out”.

In addition, the 1958 fans’ group are calling for fans to meet at the top of Sir Matt Busby Way at the junction with Chester Road at 3pm, an hour before kick-off, and march down to the stadium forecourt in protest at the ownership.

“We will start on Sir Matt Busby Way to symbolise the standards that are being decayed and lost, installed by Sir Matt and profoundly precious to all of us,” the 1958 said.

Former United striker Norman Whiteside and his wife Dee have revealed they are not renewing the season tickets they have had for the past 28 years at Old Trafford amid frustration at their treatment by the club and the perceived indifference of the players.

A cult hero and club legend, Whiteside scored the only goal in United’s 1985 FA Cup final win over Everton.

“It is with unbelievable sadness that after more than 28 years of having season tickets at Old Trafford Norman and I are now renewing next year,” Dee wrote on X. “Having been forcibly relocated last season, “red carded” for not attending enough games, unable to give my ‘paid for’ seat to my children … enough is enough.

“I’ll still be at games. I’m MUFC until I die, and I’ve seen worse times than now, but I’m not sure I’ve seen players less interested in pulling on our shirt for very many years.”

Meanwhile, former United captain Gary Neville has criticised the club’s willingness to sell their best academy players. Scott McTominay was sold to Napoli last August and United could cash in on Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo this summer.

“There is something fundamentally wrong when you are ripping the heart out of an academy,” Neville told The Overlap US. “We are now becoming a model of a team that are selling young players to fund the mistakes of the ownership over the last 10 years.”

Neville also told Amorim to stop “offering himself up” over the club’s failing and to “wipe out” the negative dressing room influences.

“Ruben Amorim is so honest to a point of fault,” Neville said. “Don’t offer yourself up, don’t offer yourself up ever, don’t do that. Stop doing the honourable thing. The reasons this club is failing is a series of things that are not all down to you.

“Now is not the time for him to offer himself up, just tell us how you’re going to get it right.”