The Frenchman departed last summer following the expiry of his contract, bringing an end to his three-year spell with the Red Devils after joining from Real Madrid in 2021. He announced his retirement in September after suffering a knee injury shortly after joining Como.
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Having gone from winning the Champions League with Madrid to a club that hadn't won a domestic title since 2013 at United, Varane witnessed the stark differences between the two institutions and pointed to United's concerning disorganisation.
In a damning indictment of Ratcliffe's leadership since taking charge of football operations, Varane, 31, suggested the players had no idea about which member of the hierarchy was making decisions internally.
“Even from the inside as a player, there wasn’t a clear structure on how things were going to work," Varane told The Athletic. "There hasn’t been a fixed methodology for years.
"At Madrid, they have a defined way of doing things at every level of the club. At Manchester [United], it was not clear or defined enough to know how to recruit, how to play, how to communicate. There weren’t the same procedures, processes, structure.
“It’s not one person’s responsibility. That’s the problem – we don’t even know whose fault it is. It has to be in the overall structure of the organisation.
"There were too many people involved in the decision-making process, so we didn’t know who was really making the decisions. I can’t say who was responsible, I don’t know. It was a bit of everyone and a bit of no one.”
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has come under fire for his management since taking charge of Man Utd (Image: Getty)
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Ratcliffe has overseen a major restructure in the United hierarchy after the INEOS chief acquired a 27.7 per cent stake in the club in May 2024. The British billionaire appointed Dan Ashworth as sporting director, before poaching Omar Berrada from Manchester City as their new chief executive and recruiting Jason Wilcox as technical director.
He also brought in his right-hand man at INEOS, Sir Dave Brailsford, to help with the day-to-day running of the Red Devils. But less than an year under his stewardship, United appear to be in a more vulnerable position than ever.
Ashworth was brutally ousted just six months after taking up role, while Erik ten Hag was sacked following the club's worst-ever start to a Premier League season. And Varane admitted he didn't expect the Dutchman to last as long as he did, suggesting he had lost the dressing room at Old Trafford.
“I was surprised he [Ten Hag] stayed,” Varane added. “The connection with the group no longer existed.”
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Man Utd's head of football operations Sir Jim Ratcliffe appointed chief executive Omar Berrada (Image: Getty)
Ruben Amorim's side have lost 12 of their 25 league games this season and made only one signing in the January transfer window - capturing left-back Patrick Dorgu from Lecce - to strengthen the squad.
Ratcliffe, meanwhile, has attracted criticism for his handling of redundancies within the club, with 200 staff members cut last year and club ambassadors such as Sir Alex Ferguson taken off the payroll.
