Manchester United owners Ineos have been making more changes behind the scenes to take control of club operations.
More changes have been made to the Manchester United executive team. The departures of both chief financial officer Cliff Baty and interim chief executive Patrick Stewart have been announced.
Manchester United fans are pleased to see Ineos taking more control, with Sir Jim Ratcliffe hand-picking their replacements.
In the case of Stewart, he was only briefly promoted as a replacement for disastrous former chief executive Richard Arnold, who stepped down before Ineos‘ buy-in became formalised.
Richard Arnold’s disastrous 2023
Richard Arnold was promoted to Manchester United chief executive in 2022, taking over from Ed Woodward.
Arnold had worked as chief commercial officer previously, and we had warned that he was too closely tied to the Glazers and the Woodward regime to make any real difference.
The wheels began to really fall off around his clumsy handling of the Mason Greenwood saga, days before the 2023/24 season began. This prompted high-profile calls for him to resign.
With Ineos looming, his exit felt inevitable, with Arnold’s departure announced before the partial takeover was even complete.
The Athletic reports that prior to his exit, Arnold and Joel Glazer were barely on speaking terms.
This might seem par for the course with Glazer, perhaps, but in Arnold’s role as chief executive, he is the one person who should have an open line of communication with the co-owner.
The same outlet reports that comments made in September by Arnold left Manchester United staff ‘baffled and exasperated’.
The report claims: “Many staff members in the room were baffled and exasperated in September when Arnold claimed in an all-staff meeting that United were “chasing down” Manchester City, last season’s treble winners, despite the two clubs rarely seeming further apart on the pitch.
“Arnold’s seeming complacency appeared to embody a feeling among the executive team that United were heading in the right direction.”
United finished 14 points behind City last season. That was a big improvement on the year prior, and perhaps that was reason to feel like the club were on the right track, but there has been a huge backwards step this season.
This season began with shaky early performances, and complacency seems to be the right words to describe the lead-in to this campaign. Only three major signings were made, and this was not enough to get close to bridging the gap. Currently, United are 26 points off the top.
Arnold complacency should have been no surprise
Richard Arnold was no stranger to talking big, while the team under-delivered on the pitch.
He had praised Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for delivering ‘phenomenal success’ to Manchester United, without any trophies.
During his first summer in charge, United In Focus described the duo of Arnold and John Murtough as representing ‘a fake overhaul’ from the Glazers.
Ineos are shaking things up behind the scenes, with Murtough also recently departing. The recent exits of Stewart and Baty further signify the tightening grip Sir Jim Ratcliffe is taking on Manchester United.