Former Manchester United women’s manager Casey Stoney has said that the club’s co-owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, would be better off not talking about the women’s team, following his comments at the start of the season.

The United chief caused controversy when he described the club’s men’s team as the 'first team' in an interview with Bloomberg back in the summer.

“We haven’t gone into that level of detail with the women’s football team yet,” he said when asked his plans for the women’s side of the game. “We’ve been pretty much focused on how do we resolve the first-team issues, in that environment, and that’s been pretty full time for the first six months.”

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He appeared to double down on his comments back in December in an interview with the United We Stand Fanzine, saying: “There's only so much that you can do and our focus has been on the men's team. If not, you get spread too thinly. We need to sort out the main issue - the men's team.”

The comments drew criticism from around the game, and Stoney believes the remarks could hurt the side in terms of attracting players to the club.

“I think if he doesn’t stop talking, they’re going to struggle with recruitment,” she told the Manchester Evening News. “I wish he wouldn’t talk about the women’s team at all to be honest because I think it’s not great for them.

“I wouldn’t want to be a player in the dressing room hearing that, I wouldn’t want to be the manager of the team hearing that, but I understand the club has priorities and that isn’t the women’s team from everything he said, but it doesn’t need to be vocalised.”

“You don’t feel like you’re valued, that you are not cared about and therefore you probably know resources are not going to be put into your team the way you might need them to be,” she added on the impact the comments can have on players and staff.

“So it’s not ideal and the players will hear that, the staff will hear that and it just created a negativity within the locker room that you don’t need. You have enough negativity outside without it being internal.”

One of the areas for investment pointed out by Stoney is the marketing of games, something that became apparent on a visit to her former club earlier in the season.

“I think it’s about how much money and investment you put into your marketing strategies,” she said on how the growth of women’s football can continue. “I went to the Manchester United game at Old Trafford at the beginning of the season and there was zero money put into the marketing by the look of it, it was’t advertised anywhere, there wasn’t big promotions around it. I went to the game and there was barely 10,000 people there and it was like a ghost town.

“You have to invest in it, you’ve got to let people know where it is, where it’s on.”

On the pitch United currently sit in second place in the WSL, and Stoney revealed how she is still follow the progress of the team.

“The women’s team I think have done fantastic,” she added. “I think they’re going from strength to strength, I watch them play often, it’s great to see. I still keep in contact with Millie Turner, Ella Toon and it’s great to see them still thriving.”