Sir Jim Ratcliffe insists Manchester United could have gone BUST by Christmas had he not embarked on brutal cuts as co-owner takes aim at six ‘overpaid’ players in series of interviews

Sir Jim Ratcliffe named the stars who are costing Manchester United millions as he laid bare the chronic overspending that has dragged the club to the brink of oblivion.

Ratcliffe revealed that United still owe money on Jadon Sancho, Casemiro, Antony, Rasmus Hojlund, Lisandro Martinez and Andre Onana, admitting that some of them are ‘overpaid’ or not good enough to play for the club.

In a brutally frank series of interviews, the minority owner also said: United could have gone bust by Christmas had he not slashed costs;  Ruben Amorim will bring success back to the club and win the title in the next three years; It was a mistake to give Erik ten Hag a new contract and hire Dan Ashworth as sporting director;  United are set to announce plans to build a brand new £2billion stadium.

Ratcliffe publicly outed the players who continue to cost United in transfer instalments, admitting it was a situation he ‘inherited’ after investing £1.3billion in the club. The 72-year-old said: ‘This summer, we will ‘buy’ Antony, we’ll ‘buy’ Sancho, we’ll ‘buy’ Casemiro, we’ll ‘buy’ Martinez, we’ll ‘buy’ Hojlund, we’ll ‘buy’ Onana, and they’re all about £17m each. 

‘If we buy nobody, we’re buying those players. It’s not a light switch (that can be turned off).

‘These are all things from the past, whether we like it or not, we’ve inherited those things and have to sort that out.

‘For Sancho, who now plays for Chelsea and we pay half his wages, we’re paying £17m to buy him in the summer.

‘Some are not good enough and some probably are overpaid, but for us to mould the squad that we are fully responsible for, and accountable for, will take time.

‘We’ve got this period of transformation where we move from the past to the future.

‘There are some great players in the squad. As we know, the captain is fabulous. We definitely need Bruno (Fernandes), he’s a fantastic footballer.’

Ratcliffe has set about saving money at United by implementing a raft of cuts that include axing up to 450 jobs and scrapping free lunches for staff.

Fans are upset over the threat of further ticket price rises and thousands marched in protest before Sunday’s game against Arsenal at Old Trafford, calling for the Glazer family to give up their control of the club which is costing United millions more in interest payments.

But Ratcliffe defended his policies in the strongest terms, warning that United could have gone out of business had he not taken steps to avert disaster.

‘The simple answer is the club runs out of money at Christmas if we don’t do those things,’ he added. ‘If you spend more than you earn eventually that’s the road to ruin. Manchester United had gone off the rails a long way. If you look at the numbers, they were fairly scary because they had lost control of where the ship was headed. And the costs had got out of control.

‘In super-simple terms the club has been spending more money than it has been earning for the last seven years, including this year. If you do that for a prolonged period of time it ends up in a very difficult place, and, for Manchester United, that place ended at the end of this year.

‘At the end of 2025, Manchester United would have run out of cash. That is the first time we have ever said that in public, but that is the fact of the matter.’

Ratcliffe, who admitted that Sir Alex Ferguson was a ‘little bit grumpy’ when he told the legendary United boss that he was losing his £2m-a-year contract as a club ambassador, added: ‘I don’t enjoy reading the newspaper very much these days, I have to say.

‘I know it’s unpopular, and this period of change is uncomfortable for people, and some of the decisions we have to make are unpleasant. But they are necessary to put Manchester United back on to a stable footing.

‘The headcount has increased by 250 people. You are going through this period where you are losing lots of money and at the same time you are recruiting heavily. It doesn’t make any sense. We’ll give you free lunches, we’ll give you all these perks and we’ll pay for your first-class train fare. We’ll give you a free taxi for this, but we’re going to cut back here. It’s not coherent.

‘You can’t be half pregnant. You either get it sorted out or not.’

Some of the problems were of Ratcliffe’s own making after United paid out millions in compensation to sack Ten Hag and his coaching staff just months after giving the Dutchman a new contract when he won the FA Cup. They then paid Sporting Lisbon to hire Amorim and his staff, and also sacked sporting director Ashworth after 159 days.

‘I agree the Erik ten Tag and Dan Ashworth decisions were errors. I accept that and I apologise for that,’ said Ratcliffe, who said Ashworth lacked ‘chemistry’ with the rest of the leadership team. ‘If you look at the time we made the decision about Erik, the management team hadn’t been in place more than five minutes.

‘He had just won a Cup final. We get criticised for being unemotional and there was a bit of emotion in that decision.

‘It became clearer three months later that we got it wrong, but we moved on. I think we corrected it and we are in a very different place today.’

Ratcliffe insists Amorim is the right man for the job despite failing to lift United above 14th place in the table — the same position as when Ten Hag was sacked.

‘If I actually look at the squad which is available to Ruben, he is doing a super job. He’s an excellent manager and I think he will be there for a long time,’ he said.

On United’s ambition to win the Premier League title again by 2028, the Ineos billionaire added: ‘I don’t think it’s mission impossible. I think it’s good to have goals and objectives.’

Ratcliffe is set to make an announcement on United’s plans for Old Trafford today with all the indications that Foster + Partners will be appointed to build a brand new stadium.

‘We’re not going to ask the government for any money to build the ground but we can’t afford to do all of the other stuff around there because that we can’t finance,’ he said. ‘But I would like to build a really iconic stadium.

‘They can’t get (Sir) Norman (Foster) to concentrate on anything other than the stadium because he’s a Mancunian and he’s really got captivated by this. I think he’s done a fabulous job of it.’