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Since Sir Jim Ratcliffe has purchased 27.7% of Manchester United, he has made some massive changes both on and off the pitch.
A whole new series of football directors have been hired, with Jason Wilcox, Dan Ashworth, Omar Berrada and Christopher Vivell joining the club.
The coaching staff have also been overhauled with Rene Hake, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Jelle ten Rouwelaar and Andreas Georgson joining the team.
Now, United have announced a series of redundancies being made, hitting 250 people. This has included trimming down of staff and some members of staff being told they would no longer be going on the USA pre-season tour and are at risk.
United veteran Jonny Evans has now spoken out about the extent of the redundancies at the club, claiming they have been a big topic of conversation between everyone on the pre-season tour.
Jonny Evans comments on the redundancies
Speaking to The Sun, the United defender commented: “I think they’ve got an idea of how they want the structure, but as someone who’s been at the club a long time, you know, a lot of people have lost their jobs this last couple of weeks, it’s been hard and difficult to see.”
He continued: “The new owners feel that’s the direction that they want to go. But, you know, it’s not been easy for everyone at the same time.
“I mean, there’s people you’ve known for 20 years and I think the timing of it happened when we came away on tour pretty much.
“So we were all a bit in the dark and I’m sure everything will be sorted out, things will be a bit more clear when we get back. But it’s been a difficult thing to see, people, I’ve known for a long, long time.
“One thing about working in a club like Man United, you’re all in and everyone’s always been all in, it’s a massive staff.”
Evans has been employed by United with the club having a really key place in his family. The 32-year-old met his wife Helen at United, with he continuing to work for MUTV.
Evans’ immediate family also have links with the club, with his brother, Corry, also in the youth ranks and his father Jackie previously coaching in the club’s academy.
When discussing the family links he has with the club, Evans said: “You have family members working there. People are married and my wife has been working at the club, my brother has been at the club, my dad’s been at the club.”
He added: “So it’s always had that feeling of people, they give everything they have for the club and it’s such a huge credit to them. That’s just because they love the place so much.”
United’s well respected academy is also hit y the cuts
Despite the academy turning out so many impressive prospects such as Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho, it is also being hit by the cut backs.
Speaking about the academy which Evans came through, the defender said: “I think the fact that the club is built on the academy also has a big part in that because players have been there for such a long time, from a young age, and they’ve come in and the academy players have always sort of set the culture and the staff that have been there the whole way through.”
He added: “So I think that’s just been the nature of the culture, how it’s always been built and it’s a huge plus for the club. We want to maintain that as much as possible.”
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