Man United concerns raised over £245m Ratcliffe news - 'too little, too late'

By Kieran Maguire

19th Nov, 2023 | 7:00am

Kieran Maguire raises concern about £245m Ratcliffe news at Man United - ‘too little, too late’

A £245million infrastructure investment from Sir Jim Ratcliffe is not enough for Man United to fix the issues at Old Trafford.

That is the view of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who exclusively told Football Insider that the investment from Ratcliffe is ‘too little, too late’.

According to Sky News, Ratcliffe is set to include an additional £245million in infrastructure investment following his acquisition of a 25 percent stake in the Red Devils.

The British billionaire is on the verge of completing a deal worth more than £1.25bn for 25 percent of the club’s stakes.

Ratcliffe will be tasked with improving United’s training facilities, which have been previously criticised by former player Cristiano Ronaldo, as well as tackling issues at Old Trafford such as a leaking roof.

However, the Daily Mail claims that any renovations or rebuild project has been estimated at a cost between £1bn and £2bn.

Maguire believes United will be left with infrastructure issues regardless of how Ratcliffe uses his investment.

“To me, this looks like too little, too late,” Maguire told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.

We’ve seen a lack of care displayed by the Glazers towards the hardcore Manchester United fan base for a very long time.

This is partly due to the fact that under both Project Big Picture and the Super League there was going to be a central fund that would have given out grants to clubs to spend money on infrastructure.

We now know that both of those projects are not going to take place.

A decent revamp of Old Trafford would cost considerably more than the $300million or so which is being linked to Ratcliffe.

What will the fans think? I’m not sure what Manchester United are going to get from this, and I’m not sure where it’s going to be spent either.

If it’s going to be spent on training facilities, which is good, and improving the corporate experience, then we’re still going to be having the problems of holes in the roof when it comes to the stadium itself.

In other news, Man United set sights on Evan Ferguson after deal agreed