Scholes accuses Ratcliffe of 'begging' and warns fans not to be 'gullible' amid price hikes

Man Utd legend Paul Scholes insists “words are cheap” after Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS announced plans for a new £2billion stadium.

The British billionaire and INEOS completed a deal to buy 27.7 per cent of the Premier League club in February last year.

Ratcliffe and his team assumed control of the football operation at Man Utd with the INEOS owner already making a number of difficult and controversial decisions.

Man Utd chose to keep Erik ten Hag on over the summer before sacking him early into the new season and hiring Ruben Amorim, who has had a poor start to his time at Old Trafford.

The Red Devils are currently 13th in the Premier League and Ratcliffe has made the mood around the club even bleaker by implementing a number of cost-cutting measures.

After several recent wide-ranging interviews with Ratcliffe, Man Utd announced some positive news with plans for a £2billion stadium that they hope will be the envy of the world.

However, there are already questions as to how Man Utd can afford the cost of the development with Ratcliffe cutting staff lunches to save money and the Red Devils potentially having to sell to buy players.

Scholes clearly has doubts that what has been promised will be delivered by Ratcliffe, the Man Utd legend said on The Overlap: “You can be gullible at times, and believe what he [Sir Jim Ratcliffe] says, just because you’ve never heard anyone say anything before.

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“You don’t know how realistic it is, it’s all up in the air. Words are cheap, and we could say anything about anyone, you can say in 10 years we’ll have the biggest and best stadium in the world, you can say anything!

“For a long time, we’ve been called the richest club in the world, but I feel like we’re begging a little but, coming out and asking for the stadium and that we need £2billion, and selling players to buy players.”

Man Utd have announced that season ticket prices will go up ahead of next season with a five per cent price rise for adult season ticket holders, while they have frozen tickets for under-16s at the current amount.

Reacting to the news, Man Utd CEO Omar Berrada said: “We appreciate the loyal and patient support of our fans, and particularly our season-ticket holders who represent the core of our match-going support base.

“We understand the importance of their backing for the team and have worked hard to come up with a pricing package that is fair and reasonable.

“After 11 consecutive years of price freezes, we increased prices by five per cent for the past two seasons and intend to do the same for next season to offset continued rises in operating costs.

“We understand that any price rise is unwelcome, especially during a period of underperformance on the pitch, and we listened carefully to the strong arguments put forward by the FAB (fans’ advisory board) in favour of a freeze.

“However, the club has decided that it would not be right to keep prices unchanged while costs rise and the club continues to face financial issues.”

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