Given the toxicity around Old Trafford, promoting players prospering in the youth ranks could be the answer

Manchester United are languishing in 14th place in the Premier League table, 15 points off the top four after Saturday’s games and 12 above the relegation zone with 14 games to play. It has been a miserable season for United fans, whose side are in ­desperate need of a spark.

The perennial source of hope and pride at United has always been its academy. Ruben Amorim has been understandably cautious to promote untested youngsters of late given the red-hot toxicity around Old Trafford in recent weeks, but there is a shifting sense that United’s thriving youth ranks could give them a significant boost this season.

Three months after club predicted an annual profit of up to £160m, more job losses are pending to tackle financial crisis

When Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s minority investment in Manchester United was announced on 24 December 2023, many fans thought it an early Christmas present. Presented as a locally born lad and lifelong fan, he was a multibillionaire and was putting some of his hard-earned (but not hard-taxed) money into the club.

Ratcliffe’s investment gave him control of the football operation and in the mind of many fans the post-Ferguson slump in major trophies was coming to an end. Enterprising Mancunians started selling Muga (Make United Great Again) baseball caps, the club defeated Manchester City in the FA Cup final and the good times were about to roll again … until they didn’t.

Billionaire’s sprawling business empire faces financial woes as easy earnings from petrochemicals have receded

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire chemicals magnate behind Manchester United, is a man who likes a beer. He considers this important enough to include in the eccentric mission statement pictogram he devised to “capture how Ineos works, and why”.

The Ineos Compass, which he devised in 2022, includes a dizzying array of words and phrases, divided between those that Ratcliffe likes (“a beer”, “out of the box thinking”, “doggedness”) and those that he doesn’t (“politics”, “losing money”, “people who get on the bus”). If there are clues to Ratcliffe’s vertiginous rise and recent troubles they might be here.

• ‘Team briefing’ set for Monday 24 February
• Statement says ‘club must explore every option’

Manchester United will hold a meeting on 24 February with staff to discuss “media reports”, with Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s new round of up to 200 redundancies expected to be on the agenda.

On Friday evening, all employees received notice, via email, of the “team briefing”, which will take place at 2.30pm on Monday 24 February. On Tuesday it emerged that Ratcliffe is to cut as many as 200 employees, having previously made 250 redundancies in the summer and autumn.

The dream of sharing expertise across six sports, hoping to be supreme in all, was always likely to be a high-wire act

Five and a half years ago, Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos swept into OGC Nice with a mission statement. “We have a plan in place and we will follow it,” read one of the billionaire’s quotes amid a press release that outlined how the Ligue 1 club would become a regular player on the European scene. “I am adamant we will not be the dumb money.”

It is one of the earliest usages, in the context of sports investment at least, of a phrase dear to Ratcliffe. “Dumb money” is exactly what it says: injecting funds without genuine insight or expertise into the relevant industry. A few months later Ratcliffe deployed the same term speaking about Manchester United, who were at that point a twinkle in his eye, with specific reference to a £47m transfer fee spent on Fred by the previous regime.

Welington can beef up Saints, Ola Aina returns to SW6 and Raheem Sterling has the chance to roll back the years

• Premier League top scorers: Golden Boot race standings

It may have taken Brighton’s record signing a few months to settle in but the performance of Georginio Rutter in their thrilling FA Cup victory over Chelsea showed that the Frenchman was worth the £40m they paid Leeds in the summer. A brilliant header to equalise before setting up Kaoru Mitoma’s winner gave Fabian Hürzeler’s side the confidence boost they needed after their 7-0 mauling at Nottingham Forest, with Rutter justifying his manager’s decision to leave João Pedro on the bench. Rutter – who has seven goals in all competitions – did not start a Premier League game in January after struggling with a hamstring problem and Hürzeler has been mindful of protecting the 22-year-old, although he will be itching to face Enzo Maresca’s side for the second time in six days. “There were a lot of personal duels and he proved that he can win the majority of them, and that’s why I’m happy with him,” said Hürzeler. Ed Aarons

Southampton v Bournemouth, Saturday 3pm

Time will tell if the Ineos chief’s severe cost-cutting pays off, but this is a club that has been mismanaged for years

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is making drastic cuts to Manchester United’s operation for fear that the club are on a fast-track to bankruptcy. Whether such seismic concerns are legitimate or unfounded, it reflects a tale of off‑field financial woe that matches the club’s 12 years in the title‑contending wilderness.

The failure to reel in a 21st championship or make a genuine challenge for one is a direct corollary of slow decline and mismanagement under Malcolm Glazer, and then his six children after his death in 2014.

• Co-owner feels finances left him with little choice
• Action designed to make United profitable in two years

Sir Jim Ratcliffe believes his ­decision to cut about 200 more jobs at ­Manchester United is necessary to help the club avoid going bust, the Guardian understands.

The minority owner is said to feel he has little choice other than to take tough measures after United lost £300m over the past three years, but he is confident that acting now can lead to the club being profitable and highly competitive in two years’ time.

Ratings agencies downgraded outlook for Ineos Group to ‘negative’ as tycoon’s sporting interests also hit crisis point

Sir Jim Ratcliffe faces growing concerns over the financial health of his chemicals empire as its debt pile is forecast to reach almost €12bn (£10bn) this year and his sporting interests including Manchester United and New Zealand rugby hit crisis point.

Two leading credit ratings agencies raised red flags over the Ineos Group weeks before it emerged that the billionaire industrialist would make another 200 redundancies at Manchester United and allegedly cut sponsorship payments to the All Blacks rugby team, blaming “the deindustrialisation of Europe”.

• Club has posted losses of more than £300m in three years
• Patrick Dorgu the sole arrival in January transfer window

Sir Jim Ratcliffe will make another round of about 200 redundancies at Manchester United, part of a bid to counteract the club’s £300m loss over the past three years.

While Ratcliffe cut around 250 staff in the autumn, he has made the decision due to the club’s stricken finances. United employees are yet to be contacted formally by management regarding their jobs potentially being in danger, but it is believed they are braced for this to occur.

• Sir Alex Ferguson led tributes to Law at funeral
• Former United forward died aged 84 last month

Sir Alex Ferguson led the tributes to Denis Law as football greats paid their final respects to ‘the King’ in Manchester on Tuesday.

An exquisite footballer and a brilliant man, the much-loved former Manchester United and Scotland forward died aged 84 last month. Law remains the only Scottish player to have won the Ballon d’Or and no man has scored more goals for the national team. Sir Kenny Dalglish is joint top with him on 30 goals and was among the mourners as Law was remembered in the heart of the city on which he left an indelible mark.

• Ineos accused of ‘breaching agreement’ on six-year deal
• Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s company has sponsored NZR since 2022

New Zealand Rugby (NZR) has launched legal action against Ineos after the company, which is founded and run by the British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, allegedly dropped a sponsorship agreement with three years remaining.

Ineos branding appears on jerseys and other clothing worn by the men’s and women’s senior sides – the All Blacks and Black Ferns – as well as the New Zealand Māori team and New Zealand sevens teams after a deal signed in 2022, which was due to continue until 2028.

• Manchester United progress in FA Cup after controversy
• ‘It is half a metre, it is clear. The team don’t deserve this’

A furious Ruud van Nistelrooy said Leicester were not defeated “in ­Fergie time” but “in offside time” after Harry Maguire’s 93rd-minute winner for Manchester United was ruled legal and eliminated his side from the FA Cup. With no video assistant referee in the competition until the next round, Maguire’s winner was not chalked off despite the assistant referee being perfectly in line to see he had infringed.

“We are not defeated in Fergie time, we are defeated in offside time,” said Van Nistelrooy, referring to the extra minutes opponents claimed were allocated to United when needed under Sir Alex ­Ferguson, the Dutchman’s manager at Old ­Trafford. “It is a hard one to take because the game was decided on a mistake, that is clear. It is not a matter of VAR, where you have to look at ­millimetres. It is half a metre, it is clear. The team didn’t deserve to lose the game in this way. They fought, played well, and dominated the game for a long bit.”

Harry Maguire: from up for sale two summers ago to redemption completed via a 93rd-minute nodded winner. If the defender was clearly offside when meeting Bruno Fernandes’s spiralling free-kick from the left he certainly did not care as here was his own tale of FA Cup romance.

Before the rush of Maguire’s intervention, Joshua Zirkzee’s 67th-minute equaliser appeared the lifeline United needed to keep a shaky FA Cup defence alive.

• FA Cup fourth round, 8pm GMT kick-off at Old Trafford
• Live scores | Weekend FA Cup preview | And email Tim

Ruud also talked about Jeremy Monga, the 15-year-old he has on the bench. “He went up to the Under-18s, did well, went up to the Under-21s and did well there too.” They grow up so fast.

The game is on ITV in Britain and Ruud van Nistelrooy is chatting to the pundits. Asked if it feels odd to be at Old Trafford as the visiting manager, he reveals that he went into the home dressing-room by mistake. When he reached the away one, he didn’t much like it. “It’s tiny! And not comfortable. So they got that right.”

Former Old Trafford hero could inflict more pain on Ruben Amorim in FA Cup but both managers are struggling

Ruud van Nistelrooy has always had a grand old time at Old Trafford, something that will no doubt be on the Leicester manager’s mind as his side travel to Manchester United for their FA Cup fourth-round tie on Friday.

As a player, the Dutchman scored 150 goals in fewer than 200 starts during an astonishing five‑year period at United. After his return as Erik ten Hag’s assistant coach last year, he briefly replaced his compatriot in October for a successful four-game interim spell in which United won three matches (scoring 11 and conceding three) and drew at home to Chelsea.

Marcus Rashford could make his Aston Villa debut as Birmingham aim to bring Newcastle back to earth

For spice, consider how this tie is the sides’ third meeting this term. Manchester United won the first two with an aggregate of 8-2, Ruud van Nistelrooy was interim manager for each, then Ruben Amorim made the Dutchman unemployed when taking over as the head coach in mid-autumn. Now returning to Old Trafford as Leicester’s manager, Van Nistelrooy can expect a warm welcome due to his former status as a star United striker. But if he engineers a knockout of the holders, Van Nistelrooy will be recast, temporarily, as the villain of the faithful. Jamie Jackson

Manchester United v Leicester, Friday 8pm (all times GMT)

Leyton Orient v Manchester City, Saturday 12.15pm

Coventry v Ipswich, Saturday 3pm

Everton v Bournemouth, Saturday 3pm

• Head coach has lost seven league games since his arrival
• Amorim: ‘I couldn’t get Rashford to see football how I do’

Ruben Amorim does not fear the sack even if Manchester United’s slump worsens under his watch, with the head coach sure of co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s support.

United’s 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace on Sunday was a seventh loss in 13 Premier League games under Amorim with the result leaving them in 13th place with a -6 goal difference.

• Central defender will not play again this season
• Amorim clear he will be blamed if results do not pick up

Manchester United have confirmed that Lisandro Martínez sustained a cruciate ligament injury in Sunday’s 2-0 loss to Crystal Palace, ruling out the defender until next season.

Martínez was hurt after 82 minutes and had to be taken off on a stretcher after treatment.

• Profit from player sales will again be key to signings
• United remain open to selling Garnacho and Mainoo

Manchester United face another difficult transfer window in the summer due to limited finances, with the ability to considerably strengthen Ruben Amorim’s squad dependent on accruing a profit from player sales.

United could afford only the £25.1m outlay to buy Patrick Dorgu from Lecce and Ayden Heaven from Arsenal for a fee in the region of £1.5m during the most recent transfer window. After loaning Marcus Rashford to Aston Villa and Antony to Real Betis, there were no funds to replace the forwards in Amorim’s squad. This was despite a minimum 75% of Rashford’s £365,000-a-week wage being paid by Villa, and Betis sourcing 84% of Antony’s £150,000 a-week salary.