'Sir Alex Ferguson axe shows no-one is safe from Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Man Utd revolution'

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has taken a number of controversial decisions since assuming control at Manchester United earlier this year.

United's co-owner has overseen 250 job cuts, axed free staff travel to the FA Cup final and cancelled the club's planned Christmas party, leaving morale at an all-time low, according to employees.

But perhaps Ratcliffe's most unpopular course of action is – Sir Alex Ferguson.

Since retiring in 2013 with the last of his 13 Premier League titles, Ferguson has been a global ambassador for United, a role which is understood to have earned him £2.16million a year.

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But as part of Ratcliffe's radical cost-cutting measures, he and his advisors have decided to end Ferguson's paid role as an ambassador, despite the 82-year-old's legendary status at the club.

In 26-and-a-half years at United, Ferguson hauled the fallen giants back to the summit of world football at home and abroad, leading to a period of unprecedented dominance for the Red Devils.

Ferguson won 38 titles in total during his glittering United reign, making him the most successful manager in the club's history, surpassing the achievements of his great predecessor, Sir Matt Busby.

As well as his record haul of league titles, Ferguson won two European Cups, five FA Cups, four League Cups, the Cup-Winners' Cup, Super Cup, Intercontinental Cup and Club World Cup.

Despite that remarkable trophy haul and overhauling Liverpool as the most successful club in England, with 20 league titles, Ferguson's ambassadorial role will cease to exist at the end of this season.

The Scot is said to have accepted the decision, in a recent face-to-face meeting with Ratcliffe, without rancour and has been told he will continue to be welcome to attend United games, home and away.

For the last 11 years, Ferguson has been a paid ambassador, in recognition of his tireless service to the club and the success that yielded over three decades, with majority shareholders the Glazers feeling the revered former manager had earned the right to such a lucrative agreement.

But Ratcliffe's war on perceived largesse at the world's biggest club spares no-one, with Ferguson now among the hundreds of rank and file United employees affected by the drive to cut costs and make the organisation more sustainable and, ultimately, successful again.

Despite losing his ambassadorial role, Ferguson will remain a non-executive director on United's football board, although he is not a member of the official board, which is responsible for taking major decisions that affect the club.

It is likely many United fans, despite the esteem in which Ferguson is held and the enduring reverence towards him for what he achieved for the club, will agree with the decision to no longer pay him such a hefty figure for what was, essentially, a ceremonial role.

United fans have watched their club spend more than £1billion on players, waste money on exorbitant wages and in other areas in the years since Ferguson led the club to its last league title, with little in return for that exorbitant financial outlay.

The stripping of Ferguson's cushy financial remuneration in retirement may seem like a kick in the teeth to the man who resurrected United and made the club great again after more than two decades of mediocrity.

But Ratcliffe has shown he will stop at nothing in his drive to take United back to the top, as his ruthless treatment of Ferguson – who has an enduring God-like status at Old Trafford – has underlined.

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