Sir Jim Ratcliffe arrived at Manchester United as the knight in shining armour to long-suffering fans but the honeymoon period has not lasted long. His reign will so far be remembered for widespread cuts and measures which has affected staff and increased ticket prices for supporters.

A deal for a 27.7 per cent stake in United, worth £1.25 billion, was announced on Christmas Eve last year and Ratcliffe wants to lift United from their current “mediocre” status and back to where they once were.

He has warned his “difficult and unpopular decisions” are necessary. Here, Telegraph Sport details the savage cuts he has made during his first year in charge of football operations.

Redundancies

Ed Woodward, executive vice-chairman at United until 2021, oversaw the post-Sir Alex Ferguson decline, but he also treated staff like family. The redundancies since last summer have been brutal, as Ratcliffe has looked to cut the staffing levels from more than 1,100 by around 250.

Some of those who left the club had dedicated their working lives to United and many behind the scenes forged strong relationships with first-team players away from the training pitches. “It’s been hard and difficult to see,” said Jonny Evans on a pre-season tour in the United States. “The new owners feel that’s the direction that they want to go. But, you know, it’s not been easy for everyone at the same time.”

United’s most recent financial figures showed exceptional items in their accounts, with £8.6 million spent on restructuring costs, including the redundancy scheme.

Sporting director

Ratcliffe branded the situation “absurd” when Dan Ashworth was stuck on gardening leave at Newcastle, waiting for a deal to be struck for him to join United. The club made him their No 1 target, having assessed his work at the Football Association, where he turned the national age-group teams into major tournament winners and gave Gareth Southgate the players to reach the final of the European Championship twice.

But Ashworth’s time at United lasted as long as his gardening leave. Last weekend he left the club, who had spent around £3million to acquire his services. He was described as a “10-out-of-10 sporting director, one of the best around” before he arrived, but failed to gel with the football hierarchy. Given his track record, it has raised questions over whether Ashworth was the biggest problem at the club.

Christmas is cancelled

It was probably no surprise that Christmas celebrations were cancelled for staff, given the redundancies. It would hardly be good optics to have an expensive knees-up after seeing so many colleagues leave.

United have traditionally held a party for staff at various locations from on-site at Old Trafford to the cricket ground of the same name. But it has been scrapped altogether this year after being held in a suite at the stadium in 2023.

Other cuts include the staff’s £100 Christmas bonus being replaced by a £40 voucher for Marks & Spencer. Many were not expecting any form of bonus, so there was an element of surprise from some staff at the gesture of goodwill heading into the festive season. While the Glazer family was running the club, staff received their £100 bonus each year before Christmas.

FA Cup final travel

It was their finest moment of the year - Erik ten Hag pulling off a stunning win against Manchester City against all the odds to save his job and bring a major trophy back to Old Trafford. But the backdrop to the showpiece were cuts to the perks for the Wembley final. United traditionally gave staff free tickets for the final plus travel and accommodation to Wembley, a pre-match lunch and after-party.

On the eve of last season’s final, staff and directors learnt they would only receive one ticket and would have to pay £20 coach travel on the day of the game.

Other perks

Ratcliffe has been determined to clamp down on lavish spending at all levels and some staff no longer have access to chauffeured private cars. Some of the corporate credit cards of heads of department were also cancelled.

One of the big decisions Ratcliffe made was to appoint a corporate restructuring firm to oversee his major cost-cutting drive at United. Interpath Advisory was tasked with examining all areas of United’s business with a view to driving greater efficiency and determining where savings can be made. The hope was to free up more money to invest in the first-team squad and ensure the club do not fall foul of Premier League rules governing spending.

No more Fergie time

United would not be the club Ratcliffe invested in had it not been for Ferguson – his 13 Premier League titles are the foundation that make the club the biggest in England. But it was announced that Ferguson would leave as club ambassador at the end of the season, a multi-million pound role that would see savings made on the balance sheet.

Former United striker Eric Cantona called the decision “scandalous”, adding: “Sir Alex Ferguson should be able to do anything he wants at the club until the day he dies. Such a lack of respect.”

Ticket prices

The anti-Ratcliffe chants were a stunning part of the supporter protest against hiked ticket prices ahead of the recent win against Everton. Fans sang about Ratcliffe being put on a bonfire, such was the resentment towards the co-owner once seen as a “local boy” with the supporters at heart.

Match-day ticket prices have risen to £66 with no concessions, and there are fears it will price some supporters out of watching games. “I don’t want to end up in a position where the genuine local fans can’t afford to come, but I do want to optimise the ticketing. We need to find a balance. And you can’t be popular all the time either,” he told United We Stand fanzine.

Amorim: Ashworth exit a bad situation for United

Ruben Amorim has described Dan Ashworth’s departure as Manchester United’s sporting director as a “bad situation” after seeing major upheaval behind the scenes in the first month at the club.

The United head coach insists Ashworth’s departure will not change the running of the club, with Jason Wilcox, the technical director, now assuming the role as point of contact for potential deals in next month’s transfer window.

But Ratcliffe’s first year in control of football operations has been turbulent, with cutbacks behind the scenes, Amorim’s appointment and the new structure of the club ripped apart within five months.

“Of course, it’s a bad situation,” said Amorim, on the eve of his team’s Europa League match with Viktoria Plzen in Czech Republic. “We are talking about a human being, a professional, that supports us as a team but I think the most important thing is the vision is really clear and that don’t change if one person leaves.”

Ashworth was axed at the weekend after five months at the club, having spent that amount of time on gardening leave when United looked to thrash out a deal for him.

Amorim disputed the suggestion United are a more unstable club than when he joined on November 11, adding: “I don’t think so. I felt since day one the support from everybody. One person leaving doesn’t change anything.

“The first thing I want to say since the first day I felt great support from the ownership, from Omar [Berrarda, chief executive], from them also, from Jason, and Dan was part of that. And I really, really, really [received] support from Dan also.

“But this is football and sometimes this happens, happens with players, with coaches, I know it’s not the best situation but the important thing is we continue in our way. The path is really clear for everybody and I think this can happen in football.”

Amorim has made changes to his team in each of his five games and more are expected as he finds the right combinations to fit his 3-4-3 system. Tyrell Malacia is set to start in Plzen, with the club also looking at long-term wing-backs for the left side of the team. Diego Leon, at Paraguayan club Cerro Porteno, is one they have scouted.

“I’m really focused to see my players and to understand my players, that is one of the problems of the club,” Amorim said. “We have to focus on what we have, we have to focus on the academy and to have a clear profile of the players.

“So it’s a lot of details you have to manage. You can see at set-pieces, sometimes you look at our team, we are a small team compared to others, every detail counts and we have to be very clear in the profiles, arrange all the process and go to that phase of buying and selling players.”

Meanwhile, a group of United fans have been arrested in relation to organised violence in Salford before the Europa League match with Twente in September.

Officers from the specialist operations branch at Greater Manchester Police mounted a dawn raid on several addresses in the region and made 10 arrests.