Manchester United have announced plans to build a new 100,000 seater stadium, close to Old Trafford.

More to follow...

Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville spoke to BBC Breakfast this morning about his own ambitions for the club, highlighting plans for a new stadium as a major cause for optimism:

"You know on the pitch it's not great at the moment. But that can happen, cycles in football, there is no right to be at the very top all the time. Hopefully the football improves soon. But what is non-negotiable for me is that United have the best stadium in this country and in the world, if possible, and they have the best training ground because they are things you are in control off.

"It [plans for the new stadium] looks spectacular and if it is delivered, it will be a game changer for United in this next 10 years in terms of what they can do off the pitch, but they have still got to fix on the pitch."

Well Gary, there is some news on that front...

As Nathan says, Manchester United play the home leg of their Europa League last-16 tie against Real Sociedad on Thursday. It is 1-1 on aggregate. Winning the Europa League would secure Champions League football for next season. It is fair to say there is a lot on the line...

More from Sir Jim Ratcliffe on his 2028 Premier League title ambitions:

"I think if you look at Arsenal, if you look at Liverpool, if you look at the period of time it took them to get the house in order and get back to winning ways, that's probably slightly on the short end of the spectrum. But it's not impossible.

"I look at Liverpool when [Jurgen] Klopp arrived in 2015 with Michael Edwards and Ian Graham on the data side, they rebuilt the squad over 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 and then they won everything in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

"Mikel Arteta has been at Arsenal for four or five years now, and you can see Arsenal is in a very different place than where it was five years ago. So I think we are talking about three years. Maybe that's slightly ambitious but I think it is the 150th year anniversary so it's a good target for us.

"We are here. We have to measure ourselves. Whether we are doing the things we said we would do which is to get United back to where it should be."

Image source, Getty Images

Sir Jim Ratcliffe was asked whether he believes his aim of winning the Premier League title by 2028 seems like mission impossible:

"No, I don't think it's mission impossible. I think it's good to have goals and objectives. It's good to put a time rather than just a bland statement that at some stage we want to win the Premier League again.

"Putting a timetable is fine. Obviously it's the 150th anniversary of what I think is the world's greatest football club in 2028 so I think it's a very fine target. Whether that's feasible…I'm not Mystic Meg. I don't have a magic wand. I can't see into the future, obviously."

We know this is a lot to take in, so here is a recap on what we have discussed so far this morning.

In an interview with BBC sports editor Dan Roan, Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe spoke about a number of topics, including the club's recent struggles on the pitch, their financial difficulties and his 'unpopular' decisions.

Here's a summary of everything the club's co-owner spoke about:

• Namechecked Casemiro, Rasmus Hojlund, Andre Onana, Antony and Jadon Sancho while saying some players were "not good enough" and "overpaid"
• Predicted that United will be the most profitable club in the world in three years' time
• On his plans to build a new stadium for the club in five years

• Admitted that extending Erik ten Hag's contract and then firing him as well as the sacking of technical director Dan Ashworth were errors
• Said that the club could've gone bust by Christmas, had he not introduced a range of cost-cutting measures and also explained why he had to stop 'free lunches' for the staff

Let us know what you think about Ratcliffe's comments through the usual channels.

More from Sir Jim Ratcliffe on how much Ruben Amorim will get to spend in the summer and whether that depends on selling players:

"It's a combination. There will be a budget for him, and I'm not going to reveal that. Obviously that budget changes based upon who we may choose to sell because that would supplement the budget. We are not at a place where we could reveal that at the moment."

Image source, Getty Images

Sir Jim Ratcliffe's main focus in his interview with BBC Sport was on the future, and how he can support manager Ruben Amorim to bring silverware back to Old Trafford:

"I think Ruben is an outstanding young manager. I really do. He's an excellent manager and I think he will be there for a long time.

"I think you look at the squad he has got at his disposal, with the injury list, and he comes in mid-season when he's had no time to train the players with his style of play, I think he's done really well. And I think you are beginning to see a glimpse of what Ruben can produce.

"I think you saw a glimpse of it against Arsenal [in Sunday's 1-1 draw at Old Trafford]. How many players against Arsenal on the bench did you recognise? How many have ever worn a Manchester United shirt for [the first team]… as there's no squad left. We are down to the last 10 or 11 men in the squad really, of proper first-team players. Ruben is doing a super job."

Jim: Run out of money? What a lot of absolute tosh.

Paul: The only question you needed to ask Sir Jim was: "What makes you think you are the man to turn Manchester United back into winners?" Going on a tour to tell everyone all the mistakes you've made isn't exactly going to inspire confidence.

Image source, Getty Images

Of course, grand plans cost money.

One option of raising funds is to increase ticket prices. This is Sir Jim Ratcliffe's take on that issue and the negative reaction to matchday tickets being put on sale for £66:

"Well, I don't get involved in the detail of ticket pricing. That's for the management of the club, not for me really. My sort of general principles on ticket pricing are that it should be fair, affordable for the people in Manchester.

"We do need to look after under 16s and older people who do not have as much money, but at the same time ticket income is part of the overall income of the club.

"The club receives income from ticketing, from merchandising and from TV. They are all major components of how much money we have to spend on new players and the squad.

"I know we got a lot of criticism, and I think it was somewhat inadvertent a few months ago on ticket pricing, but the reality of that was that 500 tickets out of 75,000 were returned to the club by people who had bought those tickets but they didn't want to go the game and wanted their money back. And they had been discounted, either because they were younger people or older people.

"So we gave those 500 people their money back and then the club sold the tickets at face value, which was £66. But it was only 500 tickets. I know that caused quite a lot of excitement. It wasn't an enormous thing in the great scheme of things. We have 49,000 season tickets and most of them are reasonably priced."

As Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe told Dan Roan, he expects the club to end up with the "most iconic football stadium in the world", confirming plans to replace Old Trafford.

We're expecting to hear more details on those plans this morning.

Last year, BBC Sport spoke to fans and journalists about Old Trafford and the possibility of a new ground.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe doubled down in his interview with BBC Sport's Dan Roan on his admission that errors had been made since he took control of Manchester United's football operations.

But he did also make a bold promise that the club's finances would be transformed in the next three years:

"We are not perfect, and we are on a journey, and there have been a couple of errors along the way, but I think in the main all the things we are doing are the right things for the club. And the club's going to finish up in a very, very different place in three years' time to where its been in the past, in my view.

"I think it will become the most profitable club in the world. In three years' time Manchester United will be. That will be my prediction for Manchester United - it will be the most profitable club in the world. I think we may well finish up with the most iconic football stadium in the world, and I think we will finish up winning silverware again."

Just joining us?

We're analysing Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe's wide-ranging interview with BBC Sport's Dan Roan, and will be analysing other interviews he has done with the Times, the Telegraph and The Overlap.

Here's why we're talking about this:

• In his interview with BBC Sport editor Dan Roan, Ratcliffe said that some Manchester United players were not good enough and overpaid.
• He also described backing and then sacking Erik ten Hag and hiring Dan Ashworth as "errors" and said that the club could've gone bust if not for the cost-cutting measures put in place
• Ratcliffe told the Times about his conversation with Sir Alex Ferguson when cutting his ambassador role with the club
• We're asking for your views - click on the links to see what Tom Mortimer from the ‘No Question About That’ podcast and United season ticket holders John and Christine have had to say.

Keep your comments coming in.

A key part of that change was the contract extension and then sacking of manager Erik ten Hag and appointment and then sacking of technical director Dan Ashworth.

In Dan Roan's interview for BBC Sport, Sir Jim Ratcliffe was asked about the money spent in backing Ten Hag to the tune of £200m in the summer before sacking him, and then paying millions to secure Ashworth before then letting him go a few months after he started:

"But also remember I put $300m into the club in January - that's all gone. That's $300m. So yes, I agree the Erik ten Tag and Dan Ashworth decisions were errors. I think there were some mitigating circumstances, but ultimately they were errors. I accept that and I apologise for that. But at the end of the day we have to get the fundamentals right in the club - they are tens of millions. The numbers we are talking about are much bigger than that.

"The cost that we would have taken out of the club over the course of the 15 months we have been there will be about £125m. And that put Manchester United… it will finish up being an organisation of about 700 people rather than 1,100 people. It will be lean, it will be efficient. It will be an elite sports organisation and it will be hopefully primed to take Manchester United back to where it should be, which is winning trophies."

On what went wrong with Ashworth?:

"It was an error on our part. All I will say is chemistry, really. I don't really want to go into the details. I think we are where we are. We have moved on. A chemistry issue."

Image source, Getty Images

More from Sir Jim Ratcliffe on dealing with the club's financial issues:

"I just think when you are in a period of change, it is disruptive. It does, if you will excuse the pun, take people's eye off the ball a bit. We have got a club which was in a level of financial difficulty. 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, if we hadn't have implemented the cost programmes and restructuring that we have done over the last 12 months.

"So we have to deal with all those things, and there's only so many things you can deal with at once. We have a new management team, we have to deal with the financial restructure, then we have to move on to the squad, data analysis and moving forward.

"But we are in the process of change and it's an uncomfortable period and disruptive and I do feel sympathy with the fans. But I am not actually surprised where we are in the league because [manager] Ruben's [Amorim] only got a certain size of squad he can deal with, and quite a number of those players are injured or not available to him."

One of the most alarming issues raised by Sir Jim Ratcliffe in his interview with BBC Sport's Dan Roan was the fact Manchester United would have run out of money by Christmas, had the club not introduced a range of cost-cutting measures.

Here is what he said:

"It's a simple equation. If you spend more than you earn eventually that's the road to ruin. So for the last seven seasons, if you include this season, the club would have lost money. Seven consecutive seasons.

"I think that totals about £330m, so about a third of a billion of cash that's gone out of the club in the last four or five seasons. The costs of running the club in the last seven years have increased by £100m. The cost of the player wage bill in the last seven years or so is £100m. The increase in the revenue during that period is £100m. And that sum doesn't work.

"If you are losing money every year, and at the same time you are increasing your costs of running the club, it doesn't work and it ends in trouble. And that's where this club would have finished up at the end of this year.

"All of the things that we are doing are essential, are necessary to the club. They are not easy things to do, but we'll get through that process and we will come out of the other side in the summer. Some of that is all finished and done with now."

It is clear from those views expressed by Tom Mortimer and Alex Turk, as well as the wider thoughts of Manchester United fans who are for and against the current regime at Old Trafford, that there is a lot of work to be done to turn around the club's fortunes.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe spoke at length to BBC Sport's Dan Roan on Monday about his vision for the club and his planned regeneration of Old Trafford.

We introduced some of the points he discussed earlier this morning, including his concerns about the current squad.

Let's have a look next at what Ratcliffe said in more detail and analyse what his comments mean for the club, going forward...

More from Alex Turk, of Stretford Paddock, on why he trusts Sir Jim Ratcliffe to help "return Manchester United back to greatness":

"Ratcliffe's regime has not had a perfect first year by any stretch. He admitted to mistakes - notably regarding Dan Ashworth and Erik ten Hag - and apologised for them.

"Sentiment towards the Ineos kingpin and his new-look United hierarchy is based on trust, because the future of the club is in their hands.

"While respecting why others would not, and stressing my sympathy for those who have been directly affected by the Glazers' mismanagement, I do trust Ratcliffe and his ultimate ambition.

"My only interest here is returning Manchester United back to greatness again."

"Those are words any United supporter starved of success and tired of mediocrity should be able to get behind."

Read Alex's full article on BBC Sport's dedicated Manchester United page.