To be clear, United’s fans have – to a greater or lesser degree – protested against the owners since the Glazer family landed £600m-worth of debt on to a previously debt-free club with their leveraged buy-out in 2005.
In their most recent accounts to 31 March, United had an overall debt of £1.3bn, including outstanding transfer fees.
Since then they have refinanced $425m (£314m) worth of bonds at a higher interest rate than they had been previously. They also took an additional $125m (£92.4m) but are yet to explain what the additional funds will be used for.
The club’s current financial position will be revealed on 23 September when it publishes its full year accounts to 30 June 2026.
Ratcliffe’s involvement promised to change the situation. Yet many fans argue that, if anything, things have got worse.
Ill feeling has spilled over since United launched a ticket-touting investigation in the summer.
Although they have admitted to underestimating the number of fans who shared their account details and toned down some of the threats around season ticket confiscation if supporters failed to respond as requested, United officials defended the investigation.
Last week, they revealed 685 fan accounts had been banned, with a further 464 either sanctioned or warned.
However, United added that “468 cases were resolved after supporters responded with the relevant information. No further action was taken, as the information provided satisfactorily explained the activity identified”.
Many match-going fans felt the investigation was an attack on them and decided to use the City game to protest – inside and outside Old Trafford.
Huge numbers with flares gathered outside the ground, heeding a call from the 1958 Group, before making their way through the Munich tunnel under the stadium.
Inside, The Red Army group of fans opted not to bring in their usual banners – instead display a single banner above the players’ tunnel stating: “The way you treat us is a disgrace.”
It meant the only banners in the stadium were the ones the club had themselves put up.
“Unless our generational match-going support is given a real voice that is actually listened to, the little that remains of our fan culture will soon be gone forever,” said The Red Army group in a statement.
“TRA aren’t a protest group, we’re an ‘atmosphere’ group but we’ve never shied away from making our position clear when we believe not doing so would be to the detriment of the interests of match-going supporters.”
It was noticeable many songs were sung in direct protest against Ratcliffe, as well as the Glazers.
“We wanted the Glazers out and that will never change,” said Steve Compton of the the 1958 Group.
“Ratcliffe came in and gave us a glimmer, but his idea of putting Manchester back in Man Utd couldn’t be any further from the truth.
“The club have made many statements, but one thing they haven’t done is actually apologise to anyone. We’ve had hundreds of messages directly – this has affected people’s health.
“These are regular Joes, working-class people who are sent an email telling them their ticket’s been suspended with no actual evidence. How do you defend something you don’t know what you’re defending against?”
BBC Sport has approached Manchester United for comment.
