Sir Jim Ratcliffe may or may not be an avid reader of the Manchester Evening News, but the survey we conducted to gauge fan sentiment on his first 12 months as a minority investor in the club doesn’t make for comforting reading.. A total of 67% of the respondents said they were very worried by Ineos’ running of the club on the evidence at hand so far. A further 24% were at least slightly worried, meaning 91% of supporters are concerned by what they have seen during Ratcliffe’s year in command.. It’s a far cry from the feeling in February last year when Ratcliffe’s £1.25bn investment was confirmed, handing him just over a quarter of the club. With that deal came control, however, and it has been the 72-year-old calling the shots rather than the Glazer family for the last 12 months.. It’s been a dispiriting year, however. There has been a change in manager that was more expensive than it needed to be, a five-month spell for sporting director Dan Ashworth that cost the club £4.1m, 250 redundancies with more to follow, a string of cuts to staff bonuses and a rise in ticket prices.. It’s probably not surprising that 79% of fans said they had a worse opinion of Ratcliffe now compared to a year ago. None of this pain was expected back then when there was only positivity that the Glazers’ iron grip on the club was at least being loosened a little.. However, all hope is not lost for Ratcliffe. Although 64% of supporters feel United won’t ever be successful under his control, a figure that feels high after just one year, just over a third still retain the faith that the pain being felt now will eventually be worth it.. And there appears to be one reason for that. Ratcliffe hasn’t had much to celebrate over the last year, but 43% of people believe appointing Ruben Amorim has been his best call. 33% picked progress on Old Trafford redevelopments, and 24% picked modernising the football structure.. Amorim has had a nightmare start to his tenure as head coach, and United have lost eight of their last 12 Premier League fixtures, but the 40-year-old retains the backing of supporters. He has come across as an engaging and open talker in public, statesmanlike when required, but also critical of what he has found at the club.. It is understandable that supporters want him to succeed, and there is an acceptance at the moment that he simply doesn’t have the squad to play the system he demands. With supporters now at least suspicious of Ratcliffe but nailing their colours to the mast when it comes to Amorim, the former has to find the funds to give the latter the transfer window he needs this summer.. There would have been no point in appointing Amorim to play a style that doesn’t fit this squad only to tell the Portuguese head coach that there is no money left to overhaul it. Ratcliffe’s swinging cuts have all been sold as attempts to free up every last penny to go into the first team.. With fans still backing Amorim, he needs to be true to his word and deliver the kind of transformative transfer window that could finally bring some on-pitch progress next season.
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