Man United chief Sir Jim Ratcliffe addresses Ruben Amorim's future amid ongoing sack speculation at Old Trafford

Manchester United minority shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe has insisted that he will not make any "knee-jerk" decisions when it comes to Ruben Amorim's future at Old Trafford.

The team's struggles this season have led to suggestions that Amorim could be sacked, with the Portuguese struggling since arriving as head coach towards the end of last year.

Man United's Premier League clash with Sunderland last weekend was billed as a must-win contest for the Red Devils, with Amorim's job seemingly on the line, and the team managed to record a 2-0 success.

However, a defeat against Liverpool after the October international break would lead to more speculation surrounding Amorim's future, as it would be a fifth loss of the campaign in all competitions.

Ratcliffe has suggested that Amorim could be given as long as "three years" to get it right at Old Trafford.

Ratcliffe suggests Amorim is safe from Man United sack

"He has not had the best of seasons. Ruben needs to demonstrate he is a great coach over three years. That's where I would be," Ratcliffe told The Business podcast.

"The press, sometimes I don't understand. They want overnight success. They think it's a light switch. You know, you flick a switch and it's all going to be roses tomorrow. You can't run a club like Manchester United on knee-jerk reactions to some journalist who goes off on one every week."

When asked what would happen if the Glazers, who are the majority owners of the club, told him to sack Amorim, Ratcliffe said: "It's not going to happen.

"We're local and they're the other side of the pond. That's a long way away to try and manage a football club as big as complex as Manchester United. We're here with feet on the ground.

"They get a bad rap...but they are really nice people and they are really passionate about the club."

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Ratcliffe: 'Difficult decisions needed to be made at Man United'

Ratcliffe also reiterated that difficult decisions needed to be made, in terms of job losses, in order to ensure that Man United's finances were in order.

"The costs were just too high. There are some fantastic people at Manchester United, but there was also a level of mediocrity and it had become bloated," he said.

"I got a lot of flak for the free lunches, but no-one's ever given me a free lunch. The biggest correlation, like it or not, between results and any external factor - is profitability. The more cash you have got, the better squad you can build.

"So a lot of what we have done in the first year is spend an awful lot of time putting the club on a sustainable, healthy footing.

"We're not seeing all the benefits of the restructuring that we've done in this set of (financial) results and we were not in the Champions League.

"Those numbers will get better. Manchester United will become the most profitable football club in the world, in my view, and from that will stem, I hope, a long-term, sustainable, high-level of football."

Man United have already been knocked out of this season's EFL Cup, while they are 10th in the Premier League table, picking up 10 points from their first seven matches of the campaign.