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Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has praised Sir Alex Ferguson for accepting the termination of his consultancy contract at the club.
Earlier in the season, Ineos hit the headlines once again as news broke that they had cut Sir Alex Ferguson’s salary in a cost-reducing scheme.
Former players expressed concern at the decision as both Rio Ferdinand and Eric Cantona took umbrage at the decision, claiming it lacked respect.
Ineos also asked the legendary manager to stay away from the dressing room and even irked fans when they claimed that the shadow of United’s most successful manager over the club has had a detrimental effect on the team.
Speaking to The Times, Sir Jim Ratcliffe admitted it was a tough decision but ultimately defended the choice to terminate Ferguson’s contract with the club.
He praised the selflessness of the Scottish coach in finally accepting the ownership’s decision.
“I take my hat off to Alex. I sat down with Alex, just the two of us in the room, and I said ‘look, the club isn’t where you may think it is. It is spending more than it’s earning and we’re going to finish up in some difficulties. Honestly, we can’t really afford to continue to pay you £2 million a year’.”
He claimed that he told the former manager to have a think about the decision and get back to them when he’d had a chance to process it.
Commenting on the feeling of the meeting he claimed, “it was very grown up. Maybe a little bit grumpy at the beginning but he got it, and he came back three days later, after talking to his son” and agreed to step away as his decision.
Reflecting on the Scot’s reaction to the news he said, “I think it reflects really well on Alex, because he put the club before himself.”
The move has come as a series of cuts around the club such as removing a free lunch scheme and making hundreds of staff redundant over the past year.
In a previous segment of the interview relayed by The Peoples Person, Ratcliffe described the financial situation as “fairly scary” and the club would have been “running out of cash” by the end of this year if they hadn’t taken action.
Featured image Michael Regan via Getty Images
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