Regrets? Ruben Amorim and Jim Ratcliffe will be having a few.

Since assuming control at Manchester United, both manager and co-owner have realised their tasks are way beyond what it said in the brochure.

Dream jobs? More like nightmares from which there is no quick fix.

Already each man must be asking himself: What have I done?

Shock tactics seem to be their modus operandi on and off the field. Plenty of shock but, so far, very little awe.

Amorim has dubbed his team “the worst in history” and joked that his 63-year-old goalkeeping coach might be better than Marcus Rashford.

Ratcliffe’s approach is similarly eye-popping and has unleashed a lot more anger.

Sacking 250 staff, relieving Alex Ferguson of his ambassadorial role, denying privileges to former legends, removing concessions to the disabled and kids.

Early own goals in a longer game which, along with their shameless corporate approach, reveals an alarming ignorance of how to play it.

A previous column highlighted many of Ratcliffe’s failures that have earned him the monicker “Sadim” – Midas spelt backwards.

Even the way he hired Amorim smacked of desperation.

The Portuguese was almost forced into taking the job when he was told it was “now or never” at the end of October.

The Sporting Lisbon boss wanted to join in the summer after what he hoped could be an orderly exit from the Portuguese champions.

But the Ratcliffe regime wouldn’t wait so gave him an ultimatum.

He can hardly be blamed for accepting a once-in-a-lifetime shot at a career pinnacle at the age of 39.

Before we even get to United, his fears about what might happen to Sporting were not unfounded.

From being the dominant club with two league titles in four years, several cups and winning every game this season, they collapsed and his successor was sacked after eight games.

But any sense of guilt is not the only reason he quipped that in two months he’d aged 10 years!

He’s certainly very quotable and his personality has lit up the dressing room after the dour Dutchman, Erik ten Hag.

And that despite finding United to be in worse shape than he expected.

With little cash to spend, no fit left-back and no room to manoeuvre, he decided a shake-up was his best tactic.

That was certainly the case with Rashford, now out of the club and most of his astronomical wages too, but Gary Neville has warned that the Portuguese risks losing the dressing room if he can’t halt the slide.

After last Sunday’s 2-0 home loss to Crystal Palace, the former full-back-turned-pundit told viewers: “I think they’ve got worse under Amorim and it can’t keep going on like this.”

It was the manager’s fifth league defeat in seven matches at Old Trafford – the fastest any United boss has reached that figure since the Premier League began.

Neville added: “There’s going to be a lot more pain towards the end of the season and it’s going to be damaging – because the club are obviously going to stick with Amorim.”

And without those two spectacular late interventions by Amad Diallo, it would be a lot worse.

But the £25m arrival of left wing-back Patrick Dorgu as the missing piece of the manager’s jig-saw shows that the ownership is still behind him. For now.

Ratcliffe has also found the club far removed from the vehicle of “fun” he thought he would have in his dotage.

For the 72-year-old, it was also a unique opportunity to get his hands on one of the world’s biggest clubs – at a knockdown price.

But since outfoxing the Qataris to end up running “football matters” for just £1.2 billion, he has barely put a foot right.

He knew the Glazers, who are still the majority owners, were very hands-off, content to milk the coffers from their Florida bolthole.

But he has been deeply and visibly shocked by the scale of their neglect off the pitch.

“The UK’s highest waterfall” – as the leaking roof at Old Trafford’s Stretford End has been dubbed – is its symbol.

His response to that was to propose building a 100,000-capacity “Wembley of the North” – with taxpayers’ money. Typically grandiose, but one fraught with difficulties.

His ‘Task Force’ is looking at it and the UK government is supportive but not the taxpayers, he being a tax exile.

But it could cost a couple of billion and take forever.

The real Wembley was long delayed and came in way over budget so such a huge structure would be a massive risk.

But Ratcliffe and his right-hand man David Brailsford continue to cook up ways to save pennies while losing millions on wages to duffers signed by predecessors.

The petrochemical man is not one to pour oil on troubled waters and believes it’s best to get the pain over early.

His ticket price hikes have already sparked fan protests and job cuts have made him more unpopular with some than the Glazers were at this stage of their tenure.

A micro-manager to his bootstraps, he continues to ride roughshod over United lores as well as legend and fan sensibilities.

Every sport his company INEOS touches seems to turn to dust but, undaunted, he’s also come up with a Project 150 and now Mission 21.

You might wonder what they have to do with football.

“Project 150” is a very corporate way of saying they want to be champions in 2028, the club’s 150th anniversary.

Mission 21 is to do it in three years, when they hope to win their 21st. If recent form is anything to go by, he should stick to 2028.

As for the new stadium, it still needs approval from a myriad of authorities and work may not begin until 2028.

Completion will not be until the early 2030s if it goes ahead.

It’s a rough road ahead for Amorim too with injuries blighting his efforts. The perennially injured Luke Shaw is out again and Lisandro Martinez has an ACL.

He could have been back in the Lisbon sunshine lauded as a legend but for Ratcliffe’s call.

Their futures seem interdependent and United’s too. Time to fasten those seatbelts.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.