Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his fellow INEOS chiefs are under increasing fire after Manchester United's woeful start to the season and the club's decision to give Michael Carrick another chance

It was supposed to be the start of a brave new world. Instead, Manchester United fans have endured more of the same.

More of the same failures, more of the same disappointment, more of the same drama. Two-and-a-half years since Sir Jim Ratcliffe purchased - through his petrochemicals company, INEOS - a 27.7 per cent stake in the club for £1.25billion and took control of their football operations, United are languishing one point above the relegation zone in the Premier League.

With two wins from 12 games this season, it's more of a surprise that Michael Carrick is still in a job rather than a new manager at the helm. But that's the decision which Ratcliffe and Co. have made following Sunday's dismal 3-0 loss at home to Bournemouth.

Will it prove to be the right one? You'd be hard-pressed to find a United supporter with faith in any decision made by the current hierarchy given their terrible track record.

Mirror Football looks at United's six biggest mistakes under INEOS.

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The Ten Hag-Tuchel debacle

The summer of 2024 was INEOS' chance to make a statement and start as they mean to go on. Convinced to sack Erik ten Hag by a dire 4-0 defeat to Crystal Palace, they infamously U-turned after beating Manchester City in the FA Cup final just weeks later.

But it wasn't as straightforward as one result. United chiefs had already started their search to replace Ten Hag and reportedly met then-Brentford manager Thomas Frank on the morning of the final.

Roberto De Zerbi was another in the frame, but it was most notably Thomas Tuchel who sat down with Ratcliffe in Monaco and made his pitch for the job. After detailed talks, Tuchel decided that it wasn't the right match and ruled himself out.

His stance left United needing to make a call on who'd be in charge for the 2024-25 season. After a summit in Ibiza, it was decided that Ten Hag would stay and be given a new contract.

A show of faith, yes, but it never felt convincing. By October, Ten Hag had been sacked following a poor start to the season and United paid the price for their flip flopping - £21million all told to sack him and hire his replacement.

Hiring Amorim mid-season

At the time of his appointment, Ruben Amorim was arguably Europe's most coveted young manager. Previously linked with City, Liverpool and West Ham, United looked to have pulled off a coup by prising him away from Sporting Lisbon.

It was quite the bit of business considering that Amorim initially didn't want to join mid-season. It soon became clear why the Portuguese was so reluctant, with his three-at-the-back formation taking months to gel and leading to a 15th-place Premier League finish.

After Amorim had time to work in detail during the following pre-season, performances slightly improved. But a January 2026 fallout with unpopular director of football Jason Wilcox - hired by Ratcliffe - led to Amorim's overdue yet abrupt sacking.

Sacking Ashworth

Perhaps no case sums up United's recent failings better than that of Dan Ashworth. Brought in from Newcastle after months of fraught negotiations, the acclaimed sporting director looked like the kind of 'best in class' appointment that Ratcliffe had pledged to make in every department.

Yet after 159 days at Old Trafford, he was gone. The former FA chief was against Amorim's appointment, instead preferring the likes of Frank, Eddie Howe and Gareth Southgate to replace Ten Hag.

There was a clear split in United's hierarchy and Ashworth left his role just 37 days after Amorim began his. Ashworth's hiring and firing cost the Red Devils £4.1m, and he's now back with the FA in a senior role.

Failing the women's team

United's ongoing woes extend beyond the men's first-team. Since Ratcliffe rocked up, he's been criticised for disrespecting the women's side.

From allegedly asking captain Katie Zelem what she did at the club when he first met her, to missing both of United's Women's FA Cup final appearances, Ratcliffe evidently has a lesser regard for the female game. Marc Skinner was the incumbent boss at the time of Ratcliffe's arrival and he often defended INEOS' commitment to the women's team.

But in August, Skinner quit. It came four months after the 43-year-old publicly questioned United's ambitions, having worked on a significantly lower budget than their Women's Super League rivals.

After United were knocked out by Bayern Munich in the Women's Champions League quarter-finals, 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

Eva Olid was, of course, not the only manager who United appointed this summer. Carrick's successful interim period made him the red-hot favourite to become Amorim's replacement.

But only a quarter of the way into the 2026-27 season, the ex-midfielder looks doomed. Ever since the opening day at Hull, United's performances have reflected poorly on Carrick both tactically and as a man manager.

His players' lack of effort has been stark and it's natural to assume that he's lost the dressing room. While Carrick is far from United's biggest problem, not using the first half of the calendar year to recruit a world-class manager is already coming back to bite them.

Should Manchester United have kept Michael Carrick?

Not signing a defender

Recruitment has been a serious problem at Old Trafford for much longer than two-and-a-half years. But it's no excuse for glaring mistakes.

United have long had an injury-prone defensive department and that brittleness has resurfaced this term with fixtures every few days. Carrick is being forced to put square pegs in round holes, a reason why they've conceded 22 goals this term.

The chopping and changing is making it harder for United's new-look midfield to bed in, as they spend more time worrying about what's behind them than taking the the game to the opposition.

It could've been a left-back or a centre-back - any addition would've surely helped Carrick in the absences of Luke Shaw, Leny Yoro, Lisandro Martinez and Matthijs de Ligt. Instead, United tightened the purse strings only to leak goals.