The Glazers: Sir Jim Ratcliffe breaks silence on hated Man Utd co-owners | OneFootball

Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe delivered a surprisingly passionate defence of the Glazer family, the club's hated majority shareholders, while blaming Ed Woodward and Richard Arnold for the demise of the historic giants.

Ratcliffe invested more than £1.2bn last season to buy 28.94% of United and guarantee control of sporting decisions. The Glazers, who have had a controlling stake in the Red Devils since the late Malcolm Glazer completed a leveraged buyout in 2005, boast 67.9% of shares.

The US family, which is fronted by brothers Joel and Avram, are despised by United supporters. As recently as last weekend, thousands of fans marched through the streets in protest. Banners demanded "we want our club back" and "£1bn stolen", a reference to the debt loaded onto the club by the loathed owners.

As Ratcliffe outlined in his interview with The Times, he has been urged to refrain from taking a positive stance on the Glazers. "The people who advise me say the fans don't want to hear it. So I've got to be cautious," he warned. But the British billionaire couldn't help himself.

"I get a lot of criticism if I support the Glazers, but the fact is they're really decent people. They're East Coast, you know - that old East Coast America, they're very polite, they're very civilised, they're the nicest people on the planet. I mean, there isn't a bad bone in Joel Glazer's body. I mean, part of the problem is there isn't a bad bone in his body."

Manchester United fans regularly protest the Glazer ownership / Carl Recine/GettyImages

United continued to pile up domestic and continental silverware in the years after the Glazer family took control before that torrent of success promptly dried up following the retirement of legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson and - crucially - director David Gill in 2013. Ed Woodward replaced the latter, taking control of recruitment as the club's executive vice-chairman.

Woodward was a former JP Morgan investment banker with no background in football and oversaw some calamitous and expensive transfer flops. Richard Arnold took the reins in February 2022 but also struggled to oversee any sustained success.

"I mean, I wouldn't have tolerated Ed Woodward, or Richard Arnold," Ratcliffe seethed. "Richard was a rugby man, he didn't even understand football. Ed didn't have the credentials to manage the club. He was a merchant banker, an accountant. He wasn't the chief executive."

Ratcliffe continued his defence of the Glazers by stressing how much control the likes of Woodward and Arnold had at the club. "The management of Manchester United have been given a huge amount of rope. The owners just managed the club and left the football side alone and they've made a lot of very poor decisions over 12 years, stupid things.

"They made a complete cock-up of it, shocking really. They couldn't see where they were headed. The first management group, they thought they understood and wanted to get involved in buying footballers but they didn't have the knowledge to buy footballers, you know, so they went in the marketplace, spraying money around and it was just random, wasn't it?"

United have had an entirely new-look hierarchy installed under Ratcliffe's watch. The process was not without its hiccups - manager Erik ten Hag was erroneously given a new contract four months before getting sacked, while sporting director Dan Ashworth lasted just five months. However, Ratcliffe is confident that the belatedly settled group of directors can oversee United's first sustained title challenge since Ferguson's retirement.