Ratcliffe flies in to watch Man United draw at Aston Villa with pressure mounting on Ten Hag

BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — Manchester United minority owner Jim Ratcliffe flew in to personally watch the team draw 0-0 at Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday as the pressure mounts on manager Erik ten Hag.

Ratcliffe took his seat at Villa Park alongside United’s new leadership team of chief executive Omar Berrada, technical director Jason Wilcox, sporting director Dan Ashworth as well as Dave Brailsford, a key figure at Ratcliffe’s Ineos Sport.

Present in Barcelona on Friday for the win by INEOS Britannia that earned the yacht a spot in the America’s Cup final, Ratcliffe gave an interview there with the BBC in which he declined to say he had faith in Ten Hag.

Instead, the British billionaire, who bought a 27.7% stake in the 20-time English champion in February, said the decision over Ten Hag’s future rested in the hands of the executive he has put in place to run the club.

United started and ended the match against Villa in 14th place in the 20-team Premier League, having lost three of its opening seven games. The team is without a victory in five games in all competitions, but has had creditable away draws against Porto in the Europa League on Thursday and now Villa three days later.

“You could see everyone was running themselves into the ground. Pleased for him he got a half-decent result today,” veteran United center back Jonny Evans said of Ten Hag.

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The Associated Press