‘That’s negligence’ – Gary Neville takes Sir Jim Ratcliffe to task for controversial view on Glazers in heated debate

Manchester United great Gary Neville has accused Sir Jim Ratcliffe of 'providing an umbrella' for the barrage of criticism directed at the Glazer family.

Ratcliffe has become the public face of United ever since he took up a minority stake in the club in February 2024.

Despite his investment, Ratcliffe has made a string of unpopular decisions to balance the books amid United's dwindling performances on the field this season.

Ratcliffe has overseen hundreds of redundancies, reduced food options for non-playing staff at Carrington to soup and sandwiches, increased season ticket prices and controversially axed legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson's paid ambassadorial role to name three.

Many of these have come in the wake of United's alarming Q2 fiscal results being revealed, which confirmed the club paid an eye-watering £14.5million to sack Erik ten Hag in October.

This was despite Ratcliffe overseeing the decision to hand Ten Hag a new deal in the summer following the Red Devils' upset win over Manchester City in the FA Cup final.

However, in an interview with Ratcliffe on Sky Sports, Neville felt the blame for many of United's off-field woes should be pointed at the Glazers, who have owned the club since May 2005.

Neville, who has been a staunch critic of the Glazer family for years, asked Ratcliffe whether he had ever questioned why the Americans seem reluctant to pump any of their own money into the club.

"It's not the solution to keep throwing money at the problem" Ratcliffe said.

"You've got to get the house in order. If you look at the reason the debt is at the level it is at the moment, that's increased by £330million in the last four years because the club's been spending so much more than its earning.

"It's a bloated organisation."

Ratcliffe explained the reason why the club has been plunged into vast amounts of debt is because of two things.

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"The costs of running the club have gone through the roof," Ratcliffe said.

"The expenditure on the squad has gone through the roof and the salary bill has gone through the roof. And the performances have declined.

"They bet the bank on Champions League, but it hasn't happened."

Ratcliffe, who insists he has 'a very professional relationship' with the Glazers, added the family allow him and the rest of United's top brass to 'get on with it'.

Despite Ratcliffe's explanations, Neville hit back.

Neville pointed out Ratcliffe was 'now starting to get the flak they've (Glazer's) been getting.

"You're providing an umbrella over their heads," Neville said.

Ratcliffe didn't refute Neville's claim but defended his actions, insisting 'people never like change.'

"They like the status quo, they'd much prefer if people stick their head in the sand and hope it will go away, but it won't," Ratcliffe said.

"Change requires some unpopular decisions. I think I have to accept that I'm going to be unpopular. I don't know how long I'm going to be unpopular, maybe I'll be unpopular for a long period time.

"But I think it's worth being unpopular to fight our way through the changes that are necessary to get Manchester United back to where it should be.

"And hopefully the attitude will change a bit if we come out the other side with a successful outcome."

Neville continued to rally against the Glazer's, claiming that 20 years ago United had "the best stadium in the country, the best training ground in the country, the best team in the country and were debt-free."

Yet Ratcliffe believed the finger of blame should be pointed to the management groups that preceded his arrival rather than the family.

"If you look at some of the other characters in English football that are owners, and you know them very well, they're heavily involved in all the running of the club," Ratcliffe said.

"They gave management an awful lot of rope, too much rope, obviously. But the previous two teams of management have to take a lot of the blame for the decisions they made.

"They have to, I'm afraid. It's not just the Glazer family. They've not been involved in a level of detail."

Neville blasted the Glazer's lack of interest in wanting to know the finer details of how the club was run and branded it 'negligence.'

"You're involved in the level of detail and you're having to correct their mistakes," Neville said.

"If they've not overseen the club in the last ten years to the point where it's run out of cash, that's negligence.

"You know that better than anybody."

Yet Ratcliffe preferred to look towards the future and is adamant the club will emerge 'in a much sunnier place.'

However, as Ratcliffe outlined throughout, United fans may need to be prepared for darker days at Old Trafford before the sun peeps its head from out of the clouds.