ALL THE GEAR, NO IDEA: Ratcliffe is the real problem at Man Utd - he's put clueless yes-men in charge despite exorbitant wealth

Sir Jim Ratcliffe had all the answers when his investment in Manchester United was confirmed in February 2024. As befits someone from the billionaire class who believes money makes them experts in every industry, Ratcliffe knew why things had gone wrong and what it would take to fix them.

Just take the managers. At the time, Erik ten Hag was clinging on, although it felt inevitable he would be the next out the revolving door as United struggled to alight on the right man in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era.

But for Ratcliffe, this wasn't about the individuals. This was about the environment and the culture around the football club, and that's what needed to change. After making his fortune in petrochemicals, he was just the man to sort out one of the world's biggest sporting institutions as well, despite repeated failures at other football clubs and in cycling and sailing.

Speaking a day after his investment had been fully ratified, Ratcliffe said: "What I think is relevant to the question or the answer is if you look at the 11 years since David Gill and Sir Alex stepped down, there have been a whole series of coaches, some of whom were very good, and none of them have been successful or survived for very long.

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"And you can't blame all the coaches. The only conclusion you can draw is the environment in which they were working in didn't work. And Erik has been in that environment. I'm talking about the organisation, the people in the structure, the atmosphere and all that sort of thing in the club, we have to do that bit.

"I'm not really focused on the coach, I'm focused on getting that bit right. It's not for me to judge that anyway. I'm not a football professional."

To put that into context, United had five permanent managers in the 11 years that Ratcliffe is talking about. This week, they will be looking for a fourth in less than three years since he took control of football operations at Old Trafford.

What does that say about the environment at the club now? That Ratcliffe is making United worse, not better. Rather than the local lad riding to the rescue, he has become the problem. He doesn't have the faintest idea how to fix United but is too stubborn to admit it, and instead sees a new 100,000-seater stadium as his legacy.

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Part of the issue is that Ratcliffe's desire to surround himself with "best in class" has never materialised. What he has actually done is create a football executive team of yes-men who will tell him what he wants to hear. There is no friction or disagreement here, the kind of dialogue that can drive a club forward.

Dan Ashworth tried to provide that, but Ratcliffe didn't want to know. He was sacked four months after starting in the role of director of football. Ratcliffe called him "one of the top sporting directors in the world" in February 2024, then publicly sacked him straight after a game at Old Trafford in December 2024.

Ratcliffe has since admitted the appointment of Ashworth was an "error" and said the "chemistry" wasn't right. There was some disgruntlement as Ashworth's views when appointing Ruben Amorim as Ten Hag's successor and his approach at the time was seen as cautious, although it is arguable that he was proven right around Amorim.

That is what disagreeing with Ratcliffe gets you, so why would Wilcox or Berrada take the risk? They are evidently part of the problem at United, but the man making the decisions likes them because they're easy to work with, so they're never going to rock the boat.

Since Ratcliffe took over the running of this club, Ten Hag has lasted 31 games, Amorim survived 63 games, and now Michael Carrick looks set to leave after 32 games. That is a staggering failure of leadership and decision-making.

It also tells you everything you need to know about the environment. A succession of head coaches are being let down by those people above them. It should be the end for Wilcox and Berrada, but with Ratcliffe making the decisions, that feels pretty unlikely.

It turns out he doesn't have the answers after all.