David Beckham believes Manchester United‘s malaise has dragged on for ‘too long’ and that change is needed ‘pretty quickly’ under Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Beckham won six Premier League titles with United and was instrumental in their 1998-99 Treble-winning season.
Sir Alex Ferguson had Old Trafford under his grip for 27 years and produced a succession of great teams, but they have struggled to cope with his departure.
He left back in 2013 and they are yet to reclaim the Premier League title, having cycled through six managers and countless expensive failures.
‘I think it has been a difficult time over the last five or 10 years, but it was always going to be when the boss left the club,’ Beckham told The Athletic.
David Beckham believes Manchester United’s problems have gone on for ‘too long’
He understands ‘it was always going to be a difficult time’ following on from Sir Alex Ferguson
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‘It wasn’t just that, we lost players like Ryan Giggs, Roy Keane and Gary Neville, all of these players that had been at United for so long; you lose part of that and you lose part of the club.
‘So it was always going to be a difficult time. But we’d like it to change pretty quickly because I think it’s gone on for too long now.’
Following after such a legendary manager was always going to be a tall order.
Ferguson won 13 Premier League titles and their generation of relentless winners had moved on or retired by the time David Moyes, his chosen won, succeeded him.
That said, it is possible to build on great legacies and not be weighed down by them – when the legendary Bill Shankly unexpectedly left Liverpool, Bob Paisley came in and took his achievements a step further.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s ambition as part-owner of United is to rework their structure and achieve the marginal gains that he is so vaunted for at INEOS.
Jason Wilcox has been appointed as technical director while Omar Berrada joins as chief executive from Manchester City.
Manchester United are eighth in the Premier League table and on course for their worst-ever finish since the league rebranded.
Like Sir Jim Ratcliffe, he knows that change needs to come ‘pretty quickly’ at Old Trafford
They have only won one of their last eight games and endured a miserable last week, losing 4-0 to Crystal Palace and 1-0 to Arsenal.
Beckham was speaking at the premiere of 99, an Amazon Prime documentary covering United’s iconic treble-winning season of 25 years ago.
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