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Manchester United are reportedly set to make 250 members of staff redundant after the completion of Ineos’ cost-cutting investigation.
The majority of fans will be delighted with the recruitment by the new owners of outstanding candidates like Omar Berrada, Jason Wilcox and Dan Ashworth to reinvigorate the footballing structure of the club.
News that United are making progress on deals for names such as Matthijs de Ligt, Joshua Zirkzee and Manuel Ugarte will also do much to satisfy fans.
Nonetheless, the new owners have not been universally popular in their decision making as the loss of key players and less than adequate responses in interviews about the women’s team has not done much to quell concerns that Ineos are not that concerned over the future of the club.
In another unpopular move, The Daily Mail has reported that “Manchester United are set to make almost a quarter of its workforce redundant.”
“At a series of meetings early on Wednesday, staff were given the bombshell news that up to 250 of the club’s 1,100 employees will be losing their jobs”, after the club had finalised its wide-scale cost review.
“It subsequently recommended that cuts should be made across all departments as the new investor seeks to return United to its former glories. As a result, a ‘proposed redundancy process’ will take place, with a significant reduction in head count to follow.”
The BBC’s Simon Stone reported that it was interim CEO Jean-Claude Blanc who was tasked with giving the devastating news to an all-staff meeting of around 800 people.
Told interim chief executive Jean-Claude Blanc delivered the @ManUtd redundancy news at an all-staff meeting attended by around 800 people. Affects all levels of club, including managers. Sir Jim Ratcliffe was at the club yesterday but not today.
— Simon Stone (@sistoney67) July 3, 2024
It had previously been reported in March that staff were nervous about the potential of a ruthless cost-cutting exercise taking place at the club.
This news was then followed by reports that Ineos would ban remote working and force all employees to work from the office.
What’s more, staff were also offered an annual bonus if they voluntarily resigned before the start of June in an effort to reduce staff numbers.
The main reason behind the move to cut staff is that Ineos believe that United have a bloated workforce in comparison to rival clubs and the numbers do back this up.
“At 1,112 as of June 30 last year, United had by far the biggest staff of any club in the Premier League. That number is considerably higher than all of their Big Six rivals, with Liverpool having around 1,005 employees, Chelsea 788, Tottenham 719, Arsenal 649 and Manchester City 520, according to each club’s latest figures.”
The new owners believe that savings from staff cuts could save millions that could be spent on the first team and another reason behind the move is to help comply with PSR financial restrictions.
It is also claimed that “the feeling within the powerbase is that United’s staffing operation needs to be leaner and more agile. There is also a desire to be ‘best in class’ with increased accountability among the workforce.”
Club employees are still in the dark however on who will be facing the axe and a club employee stated, “No one knows yet. It is really sad.”
People losing their job is always a sad state of affairs. There is the school of thought that Ineos are picking on easy targets and making life unnecessarily difficult for staff as they made them pay for their own coach tickets to the FA Cup final and banned ones that do not work directly with the first team squad from eating in Carrington’s dining area.
The other argument however is that the Red Devils have had a massive problem with financial wastage for years and with increasing debt and PSR restrictions, drastic action needs to be taken in some regard.
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