Manchester United co-owners Joel Glazer and Jim Ratcliffe were at the club’s Old Trafford stadium on Monday at a time when manager Erik ten Hag’s position remained under intense scrutiny.
Ratcliffe watched the team’s 1-1 draw at Aston Villa on Sunday, which consigned the 20-time English champions to their worst start to a season in the Premier League era. For Glazer, it was a rare sighting of him in Manchester since his late father, Malcolm, bought the club in 2005.
A video of Ratcliffe and Glazer entering Old Trafford began to circulate on social media on Monday. United said their visit had long been planned for meetings in Manchester and London this week.
Glazer will also attend a quarterly Fans Advisory Board meeting.
British billionaire Ratcliffe bought a minority 27.7 per cent stake in United in February and has since overhauled its football operations. On Friday he declined to publicly support Ten Hag when questioned about the manager’s future.
Ten Hag has faced repeated questions about his future after three defeats in thefirst seven league games ofthe season.
United are 14th in the standings and their return of eight points is the lowest at this stage of a campaign since 1989-90, when they managed just seven. The Premier League was launched in 1992.
Ten Hag is the club’s fifth permanent manager since Ferguson retired in 2013. There was speculation about his position at the end of last season when he led United to their worst league campaign in 34 years.
