Cutting free meals but praising the Glazers is very tough to stomach

TO be fair to Sir Jim Ratcliffe, he is not one of those owners who tries to sweet talk the supporters.

- ANDY DUNN

SHOW ME THE MONEY Ratcliffe with Avram Glazer, majority owner of United

No currying favours with the fans or cuddling up to the common people for the billionaire who has binned subsidised staff meals at Manchester United.

"I got a lot of flak for the free lunches but no one has ever given me a free lunch," says generous Jim.

Perhaps not. But targeting office workers enjoying a crumb of a perk while owners have creamed off hundreds of millions of pounds in dividends over the past 10 years is a rotten look.

And it is a look made even more rotten by Ratcliffe rattling off a cheap eulogy about the owners who have creamed off those hundreds of millions.

"They (the Glazers) get a bad rap," claims Ratcliffe, "but they are really nice people and they are really passionate about the club."

Here is what they are passionate about, Jim. Making money. Tons of it.

According to BBC Verify, the Glazers did put in some of their own cash in their highly-leveraged buyout in the summer of 2005 - a buyout worth just shy of £800million.