Manchester United are languishing one point above the Premier League relegation zone after two wins from 12 games this season, a stark outcome two-and-a-half years after Sir Jim Ratcliffe's INEOS took control of football operations. Ratcliffe purchased a 27.7 per cent stake in the club for £1.25billion.
Despite the poor run, Michael Carrick remains in charge following Sunday's 3-0 home defeat to Bournemouth. Mirror Football has examined the six biggest mistakes under INEOS.
The Ten Hag-Tuchel debacle
In the summer of 2024, United chiefs were convinced to sack Erik ten Hag after a 4-0 defeat to Crystal Palace, but they U-turned after beating Manchester City in the FA Cup final. They had reportedly met then-Brentford manager Thomas Frank on the morning of the final, while Thomas Tuchel sat down with Ratcliffe in Monaco before ruling himself out.
After a summit in Ibiza, Ten Hag stayed and was given a new contract. By October, he was sacked following a poor start, costing United £21million to dismiss him and hire his replacement.
Hiring Amorim mid-season
Ruben Amorim was prised away from Sporting Lisbon despite initially not wanting to join mid-season. His three-at-the-back formation took months to gel, leading to a 15th-place Premier League finish. After a slight improvement following pre-season, a January 2026 fallout with director of football Jason Wilcox led to Amorim's sacking.
Sacking Ashworth
Dan Ashworth was hired from Newcastle after fraught negotiations, but departed after 159 days. He was against Amorim's appointment, preferring Frank, Eddie Howe and Gareth Southgate. Ashworth left 37 days after Amorim began, with the hiring and firing costing the club £4.1m. He is now back with the FA.
Failing the women's team
Ratcliffe has been criticised for his handling of the women's side, from allegedly asking captain Katie Zelem what she did at the club to missing both Women's FA Cup final appearances. Marc Skinner quit in August, four months after publicly questioning United's ambitions on a lower budget than WSL rivals.
After a Women's Champions League quarter-final exit to Bayern Munich, Skinner said: "If we want to compete at this latter stage, we've seen what we've got to do, as a club. And then it's our choice now, isn't it? We have to look at what we seriously want to achieve and we'll learn and grow from it. Even as a club, we're still learning. It takes, sometimes, a punch in the face to wake up."
Giving Carrick the permanent job
Carrick's successful interim period made him favourite to replace Amorim, but a quarter into the 2026-27 season he looks doomed. His players' lack of effort has been stark, and not using the first half of the calendar year to recruit a world-class manager is already coming back to bite them.
Not signing a defender
United have an injury-prone defensive department, and Carrick is being forced to play square pegs in round holes, with the team conceding 22 goals this term. Any addition would have helped in the absences of Luke Shaw, Leny Yoro, Lisandro Martinez and Matthijs de Ligt, but United tightened the purse strings only to leak goals.
