Sir Jim Ratcliffe loses confidence

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is facing a difficult time at Manchester United currently after a poor start to the season.

United, who have picked up just four points in there opening four games of the campaign, were knocked out of the EFL Cup on Wednesday, piling pressure on Michael Carrick and those at the top to improve.

It remains unclear where the Red Devils co-owner may look to improve in the coming weeks and months although he is operating in an extremely tight position, both on the field and off the field.

Manchester United is not Ratcliffe’s only problem currently, too, with him facing difficulties in his leadership of both OGC Nice and INEOS.

The latter of those has now forced the 73-year-old to open up on his frustrations with the United Kingdom to the BBC, saying that he has lost confidence in the union.

“In America they applaud people who create wealth,” Ratcliffe said.

“Unfortunately the UK has got a bit of a green eye towards wealth at the moment.”

The 73-year-old’s ownership of Forties, which transport around 30% of the UK’s North Sea oil, has pushed him to call on the government to take more advantage of what was in front of them.

“You would expect [the government] to exploit our natural resources and we’re clearly not doing that. We’re shutting it down,” said Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

“If you tax everybody to death, they’re all going to leave. And that’s what’s happening.”

Warning of what could happen during the winter, Ratcliffe also said: “If we have a really sharp cold spell, then there is conceivably the possibility that we’ll run out of gas and have to switch industry off… our storage is not full.”

The Manchester United co-owner attracted large amounts of criticism for his comments on earlier this year, which claimed that the United Kingdom had been colonised by immigrants.

Those comments, which reportedly mortified many inside United, were eventually clarified by the INEOS owner as he apologized to those he may have offended.

With issues now filling the 73-year-old’s plate both on a football and business level, it is time to act to save both Manchester United and INEOS and to secure their short-term and long-term success.