Sir Jim Ratcliffe has long drawn a line on the moment he believes will be time to call it quits at Manchester United

Manchester United fans were not afraid to aim their furore at Sir Jim Ratcliffe during their 2-0 defeat at Chelsea. The Red Devils now sit 17th in the Premier League table and have gone without a victory in their last nine games in all competitions, their longest winless run since 1988.

The away fans at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon directed their customary derogatory chants towards the Glazer family over the state of the once-dominant power in English football. The Tampa-based owners have long been detested at Old Trafford and the bad blood bubbling in Manchester has reached the British billionaire.

The 74-year-old has largely been an unpopular figure since purchasing a 25% stake in United in December 2023, before increasing his ownership share to 28.94% in February 2024. Several rounds of redundancies of club staff at United and the increase in ticket prices has led to immense fury among the fanbase.

Ratcliffe - who is said to like his American co-owners - is determined to make a success of his boyhood club, but admitted in a Times interview last year that he won't tolerate the abuse the Glazer family has endured over the years.

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United fans banded together in west London to tell the Ineos boss, "You can stick your new stadium up your a***", "Sell United and f*** off home", and "Just like the Glazers, Jim Ratcliffe’s a c***". While it remains to be seen whether the increasing scrutiny would be enough to see off Ratcliffe, he's drawn a line over the seriousness of the treatment he gets.

"I mean, I can put up with it for a while," he said. "I don't mind being unpopular because I get that nobody likes seeing Manchester United down where they are, and nobody likes the decisions we're having to make at the moment.

"If I draw a bit of the ire, I can put up with that. But I'm no different to the average person. It's not nice, particularly for friends and family.

"So, eventually, if it reached the extent that the Glazer family have been abused, then I'd have to say, 'Look, enough's enough guys, let somebody else do this.'

"They can't really come to a match, the Glazers. They've retreated into the shadows a bit now, so I'm getting all the stick. We bought in and I haven't seen them since. It's, 'Thank you, Jim, you're doing a really good job.'

"At the moment, I don't have security, I don't have to walk around like that. But it would defeat the object, wouldn't it? You couldn't tolerate it at that level, it just wouldn't be fun."

United continue to sink deeper and deeper into the abyss, but have the opportunity to get back on track on Tuesday in the Champions League against Roma at the Theatre of Dreams.