Sir Jim Ratcliffe dubs Man United ‘MEDIOCRE’ as he tears into ‘very poor’ knowledge evaluation, recruitment of ‘costly gamers we’re nonetheless paying for’ and suggests rebuild will take years

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has slammed Manchester United as a ‘mediocre’ football club that is paying the price for ‘very poor’ recruitment prior to Ineos coming in.

In a bombshell interview with fanzine United We Stand, Ratcliffe gave his verdict on the state of the club, as well as address the contentious decision to scrap concession ticket prices.

‘The club has drifted for a long period of time, a decade or so. Manchester United has become mediocre,’ he said.

‘It’s not elite and it is supposed to be one of the best football clubs in the world. That’s what it used to be under Alex.

‘There is major change to come to achieve elite status. But already there has been huge change at this club.’

Ratcliffe has instigated huge change since spending £1.3billion on a 27.7 per cent stake to become co-minority owner alongside the Glazer family.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, 72, has hit out at the state of Man United in a bombshell interview

United are paying the price for poor recruitment, according to the club’s minority owner

Ratcliffe opened up on recruitment, data analysis and why the club needed to increase income

Dan Ashworth has arrived as the club’s first ever sporting director, while Omar Berrada (CEO) and Jason Wilcox (technical director) have also been brought in by the petrochemicals billionaire to overhaul United’s structure, with that group largely responsible for recruitment moving forward.

Statement signings like the £82million spent on Antony and the £70m spent on Casemiro have previously been held up by Ineos as an example of United’s misguided recruitment strategy.

In the most recent summer, Erik ten Hag was backed with £200m to spend before being sacked in October following defeat to West Ham.

Leny Yoro arrived for £52m, while Manuel Ugarte arrived for a fee close to £50m. Matthjis de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui and Joshua Zirkzee also arrived.

Data analysis, too, is an area where Ratcliffe has been left astounded at how out of touch United have become compared to their rivals.

‘Until were are as good as anyone in the world, then it’s not good enough for Manchester United. We must have the best recruitment in the world,’ the United minority owner said.

‘Data analysis comes alongside recruitment. It doesn’t really exist here. We’re still in the last century on data analysis here.

There’s immense amount of useful data that we can get from data analysis and we’re in the “very poor” bracket with data analysis here. These things don’t happen overnight.

Antony, an £85m arrival from Ajax, has been held up as an example of the poor recruitment

Ruben Amorim succeeded Erik ten Hag as manager and has a huge task on his hands

‘You can’t just flick a light switch and sort out recruitment. It’s all about people and we need to find the right people.’

Ratcliffe has come in for fierce criticism in the past week for the club’s contentious decision to raise matchday ticket prices to £66 per game, with no concessions for children or pensioners.

United fans turned out in their hundreds outside Old Trafford before last Sunday’s game against Everton to protest against the decision.

In front of the Trinity Statue, United fans held onto a ‘Stop Exploiting Loyalty’ banner, with chants against Ratcliffe and the Glazers, accusing them of being ‘touts’ and ‘taking the p***’.