Manchester United replace £100 staff bonus with £40 M&S voucher in Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s latest cut

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s radical cost-cutting at Manchester United has included the staff’s £100 Christmas bonus being replaced by a £40 voucher for Marks & Spencer.

The United co-owner has overseen 250 redundancies at Old Trafford among other changes since taking control of football operations with his £1.3 billion investment for a 27.7 per cent stake of the club.

With jobs axed and spending cuts, many were not expecting any form of bonus so there was an element of surprise from some staff that was a gesture of goodwill heading into the festive season.

While the Glazer family were running the club, staff received their £100 bonus each year before Christmas but this time around they are receiving a £40 voucher instead. The Christmas party has also been cancelled for this year, given the job-losses at the club.

United sources are not expecting Ratcliffe’s cost-cutting to end imminently, with this view backed up by the co-owner’s interview with the United We Stand fanzine, published at the weekend, where he stated he had to make “difficult and unpopular decisions”.

“We still have a long way to go and we still have a number of difficult decisions to make but I think we have to do that for the better good,” he said.

Ratcliffe added: “There are financial issues which we need to address because we’ve inherited a financial situation that only time will solve. I know we get criticism in the press but we do need to challenge the cost of running this club, because what I want to be free for us to do is buy really good footballers, not spend so much of the money on the infrastructure.”

United have posted losses before tax totalling £312.9 million over the past three seasons, leaving the club in a persistent battle to comply with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR).