Ruben Amorim will have three years to get it right at Manchester United, says Jim Ratcliffe

LONDON – Manchester United’s manager Ruben Amorim will be given the full three years of his contract to prove himself and turn the club into the most profitable in the world, co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said on Oct 8.

Amorim was Ratcliffe’s choice to replace Erik ten Hag last November but the Portuguese has struggled to turn around the club’s flagging fortunes, winning only 10 of his 34 English Premier League matches in charge.

United endured their worst top-flight finish last season since they were relegated in 1973-74, placing 15th, and they missed out on Europe after being beaten by Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final.

But Ratcliffe has issued his strongest statement of support for Amorim yet, comparing the situation to when Alex Ferguson struggled in the early years of his reign before becoming the greatest manager in the club’s history.

“I remember the clamouring for Alex Ferguson to be fired in his first two years,” Ratcliffe, who owns 30 per cent of the club and controls the football side of the business, told The Times of London’s podcast The Business.

“You look at (Mikel) Arteta at Arsenal. He had a miserable time for the first couple of years.

“We’re results-driven at the end of the day, but we have to be patient and we have to see through the results. I think there’s lots of good things at Manchester United. We have to be patient and we have a long-term plan.

“The press, sometimes I don’t understand. They want overnight success. They think it’s a light switch. You know, you flick a switch and it’s all going to be roses tomorrow.

“You can’t run a club like Manchester United on knee-jerk reactions to some journalist who goes off on one every week.

“Ruben needs to demonstrate that he’s a great coach over three years.”

While the American Glazer family retain majority control of the 20-time champions of England, Ratcliffe rejected suggestions they could instruct him to sack Amorim.

“It absolutely wouldn’t happen because it’s just a good working relationship. They come to the board meetings. We sit down and we talk about things,” Ratcliffe said.

“We’ve made errors. There’s absolutely no question that we’ve made errors as we’ve gone along and we’ve talked about it. But no one’s perfect.”

Asked to confirm whether Amorim would see out his contract, Ratcliffe said: “Yes. That’s where I would be. Three years, because football’s not overnight.”

The Ineos chief said the Glazers were happy for him to take charge, adding: “That probably sums it up. We’re local and they’re the other side of the pond.

“That’s a long way away to try and manage a football club as big, as complex as Manchester United. We’re here with feet on the ground.

“They get a bad rap, but they are really nice people and they are really passionate about the club.”

Despite United’s stock falling on the pitch, off it, they recently posted record revenues of £666.5 million (S$1.15 billion) in the year to June 2025, albeit with a £33 million overall loss.

Amorim’s squad were boosted by more than £200 million worth of new signings in the summer.

“The better your squad, the better your football should be. So a lot of what we have done in the first year is spend an awful lot of time putting the club on a sustainable, healthy footing,” Ratcliffe, who completed his acquisition of a minority stake in the club in 2024, said.

“If you look at our results for last year, we have the highest revenues ever. Profitability, the second-highest. We’re not seeing all the benefits of the restructuring that we’ve done in this set of results and we were not in the Champions League.

“Those numbers will get better. Manchester United will become the most profitable football club in the world, in my view, and from that will stem, I hope, a long-term, sustainable, high-level of football.”

Ratcliffe has also come in from criticism after controversial cuts designed to drive down costs at United saw around 450 jobs axed and the removal of perks like subsidised staff lunches.

“The costs were just too high. There are some fantastic people at Manchester United, but there was also a level of mediocrity and it had become bloated,” he said.

“I got a lot of flak for the free lunches, but no one’s ever given me a free lunch.”

Ratcliffe also said he wants to revive the club’s academy that once churned out the likes of multiple title winners David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville.

“The academy has really slipped at Manchester United,” Ratcliffe said. “You don’t solve the academy problem overnight. It takes time. We just recruited a new academy director.” REUTERS, AFP