Scholes and Lineker in agreement on Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Man Utd concern
Paul Scholes and Gary Lineker have both revealed their doubts over Sir Jim Ratcliffe's chances of turning Manchester United around.
The Red Devils have made one of their worst ever starts to season and were last week dumped out of the Champions League. They currently sit seventh in the Premier League, with boss Erik ten Hag coming under renewed pressure as he struggles to kickstart their campaign.
United are also still waiting for British billionaire Ratcliffe to finally complete his deal to buy a 25 percent stake in the club. Once he arrives at Old Trafford, Ratcliffe will assume control of all sporting matters, with the Glazers stepping back.
But given how far United have fallen and Ratcliffe's minority shareholding, doubts have been raised about his ability to take them back to the top. United legend Scholes is one of those who has questioned how much power the Glazers will actually give him.
"I just find it difficult to believe that he’s going to be left to his own devices only owning 25 percent of the football club. How are the Glazers not going to want a say at the top table when it comes to football decisions?" Scholes said in November.
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"Obviously you can draw up contracts, of course you can, but if stuff is then happening that they don’t like, you’re telling me they’re not going to come to the table and have something to say about it? I’m sure they will.
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Doubts have been raised over how quickly Sir Jim Ratcliffe can turn Manchester United around (Pascal Della Zuana/Icon Sport via Getty Images)“I just find it bizarre. It’s obviously a stepping stone to him [Ratcliffe] taking over the club permanently, but how long that is going to be we don’t know. And how much time has he got to try and get things right?"
Even if Ratcliffe arrives before the New Year, United are not expected to be busy in the January window with Financial Fair Play concerns restricting the ability to bring in any reinforcements.
Those likely struggles led to Lineker joining Scholes in expressing his doubts over Ratcliffe's ability to turn United around. The former Barcelona star insisted that even if they could spend, one transfer window is not enough to improve Ten Hag's struggling squad.
"Ratcliffe is supposedly coming in, it's supposed to be quite imminent and Brailsford is supposed to be coming in, but it's hard to envisage it changing it that much, really," he told The Rest Is Football podcast.
“If you look at them now, how many players do they need to change things? Half the team? That takes time, that takes money and it takes good recruitment, which is the same with any club, whatever your budget is. Their [spending power] has been pretty big, but it just shows you how big recruitment is and getting it right."
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