Above the daily fight to keep Michael Carrick in a job for one more weekend, a larger battle has broken out at Manchester United.

The Glazer family, majority owners at Old Trafford for more than two decades, now regard Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s football stewardship as a disaster, according to a source close to the American family.

“It’s a travesty and not what they expected or were promised,” the source told the Daily Mail.

The same report says the Glazers believe Ratcliffe is pursuing a wholly different strategy from the one he set out when he arrived, and that in two decades of ownership they have never run the club this way.

Read also: Chelsea ready to pay £90m for Alex Scott, with Bournemouth holding out for £100m

Directors’ box verdict after Bournemouth

A separate report carried the verdict of a source who watched United’s 3-0 home defeat to Bournemouth from the directors’ box.

“He couldn’t have masterminded a worse situation,” the source said of Ratcliffe, accusing his INEOS group of downgrading the club in every department.

That defeat left United two points above the relegation zone. One Premier League win in eight matches is the worst league start the club has made in close to 40 years, and the winless run across all competitions now stands at eight games.

Carrick, promoted to the top job earlier this season, was retained for Saturday’s trip to Chelsea despite the Bournemouth loss.

Read also: De Zerbi has Spurs running further, pressing harder, and finally winning again

The INEOS deal and what has soured

Ratcliffe bought his minority stake in United in 2024 in a package worth around £1.2 billion, with another £245 million committed to infrastructure. His holding has since risen to roughly 29 per cent, and INEOS was handed day-to-day control of football operations.

What has soured the relationship, according to the Mail’s reporting, is the direction of travel. Deep cost cuts have eliminated more than 500 jobs, and the summer transfer window closed without a new striker or defensive reinforcement.

The redundancies in particular unsettled Joel and Avram Glazer, who objected to how they were carried out and viewed the manner of the cuts as at odds with the way they have run the club.

What locks the Glazers in until February

The Glazers keep the final say on any full takeover and are, according to the same reporting, waiting for the right moment to cash in. Two scenarios are seen as potential catalysts: a new Old Trafford that would lift the valuation, and any resolution of the long-running Premier League case against Manchester City that would reshape the top of English football.

Read also: 12-year-old tells Luke Littler how he helped him through cancer – then comes the surprise

For Ratcliffe, the clock is already running. From February his contractual right to block share sales below his own purchase price falls away, loosening the lock he currently holds over the Glazers’ exit route.

Carrick’s team kick off at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, 31 October.

Read also: Champions League: Arsenal face Saka absence, Liverpool juggle Anfield double-header