Four Man Utd chiefs brutally axed by Sir Jim Ratcliffe link up with Premier League rival

Tottenham have hired a number of former Manchester United executives who were axed earlier this year as part of Sir Jim Ratcliffe's major cost-cutting efforts. Ratcliffe has gone to extreme lengths to save money since taking full control of football operations after buying a share in the club.

That includes scrapping staff lunchboxes, cancelling a staff Christmas party and axing Sir Alex Ferguson's ambassadorial deal. United have also had several rounds of redundancies and some of the staff who were cut have now joined Tottenham.

According to the Telegraph, Spurs have agreed a deal with agency Altius8, which was set up by former United commercial executives Ali Edge, Thomas Liston-Jones and Victoria Timpson in February.

Edge spent 29 years at United and was largely tasked with retaining commercial deals, while Liston-Jones was the club's head of data and strategy. Timpson spent 16 years at Old Trafford and was chief executive of global alliances and partnerships before her departure earlier this year.

The report states that Florence Lafaye, who briefly succeeded Timpson after she left the club, is also involved with Altius8. And Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is said to be hopeful that they can 'have the same transformative effect on the club's revenues as the team did at United.'

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The report also claims that those within the industry believe Altius8's involvement at Tottenham could cause embarrassment for Ratcliffe after 'dismantling what was one of the few unqualified successes of the Glazer era'.

However, Ratcliffe has repeatedly defended the cost-cutting and claimed that United would have gone bust by the end of the year if they had not made cuts. "I don't enjoy reading the newspaper very much these days I have to say," Ratcliffe told BBC Sport in March.

"I know it's unpopular, and this period of change is uncomfortable for people, and some of the decisions we have to make are unpleasant. But they are necessary to put Manchester United back on to a stable footing.

"If people want to see Manchester United winning trophies again then we have do all this stuff. Manchester United would have run out of cash by the end of this year - by the end of 2025 - after having me put $300m (£232.72m) in and if we buy no new players in the summer.

"We are in the process of change and it's an uncomfortable period and disruptive and I do feel sympathy with the fans. The simple answer is the club runs out of money at Christmas if we don't do those things."

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