Sir Jim Ratcliffe has encountered many 'bad surprises' at Manchester United but he has turned them into positive ones

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is nothing if not an optimist.

He manchester united The co-owner and chief executive has had his hands full since purchasing a 24 per cent stake in the club in December.

Since that date he has seen his club be beaten 4-0 against the Crystal Palace on the way to their worst result in the Premier League: eighth.

He has also had to deal, among other things, with the shame of a Old Trafford roof leakingbut ultimately the season ended on a high with a victory in the FA Cup, beating Manchester City in the final.

The INEOS chief executive, 71, now heads into his first summer transfer window with the club and sat down for a frank assessment of the work so far.

Speaking at the Times CEO Summit, Ratcliffe was asked if there had been any surprises in moving into football ownership, and everyone laughed at his initial response.

“Many unpleasant surprises,” he said before continuing. “The way I see it, you are either a half glass full person or a half glass empty person.

“The world is split in two and I am a glass half full person. “I see every problem as an opportunity because there are so many opportunities to improve a lot at Manchester United, wherever we look.”

One of Ratcliffe's most public challenges in recent months has been deciding who will be his coach for the 2024/25 season.

In the end, the club was left with the winner of the FA Cup. Erik ten Hagbut that decision didn't come without media reports that he met with potential replacements, including Thomas Tuchel.

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Speaking about the decision to retain the Dutchman, he said: “He is a good coach. He is a very good coach, very good at Ajax.

“The man in the street likes to think that the coach is everything, that's why the world revolves around the coach, and maybe that was the case in Sir Alex Ferguson's time because he was more of a general manager than a simple coach, he was a lot more than that.

“If you look at the 11 seasons at Manchester United, we have had a whole series of managers and some of them were very good. We probably had seven coaches and none of them were successful.

“You can't prescribe the root of the problem to the coach, it's the environment in which he works, and that's where we're really putting all our effort: the management, the practices, the quality of the people, all those things that we have to address ”.