Manchester United stalwart Jonny Evans has confessed that witnessing staff redundancies at the club as part of a drastic overhaul has been challenging.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is set to axe 250 jobs, nearly a quarter of United's workforce, in an effort to reduce costs and ensure the club's sustainability.
Several employees who were due to join United's pre-season tour of the US were abruptly removed from the trip, with defender Evans acknowledging the impact of the job losses on the players.
Evans, a long-serving member of United, stated: "I had a spell away, but I've been at the club a long time and a lot of people have lost their jobs this last couple of weeks.
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"Certain staff members, they're friends, people they've worked with and been colleagues for a long time. so I'm sure they'll be feeling that.
"It's been hard and difficult to see. The new owners feel that's the direction that they want to go in, but it's not been easy for everyone at the same time.
"There's so much upheaval at the club at the minute. I mean, there's people you've known for 20 years and I think the timing of it happened when we came away on tour, pretty much.
"So we were all a bit in the dark and I'm sure everything will be sorted out, things will be a bit clearer when we get back. But it's been a difficult thing to see - people I've known for a long, long time.
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"One thing about working in a club like United is you're all in and everyone's always been all-in. It's a big, massive staff. But I think that's just been the culture of the club."
Having been with United since he was nine years old, Evans, along with his younger brother Corry, rose through the ranks at the club, while their father Jackie served as an academy coach.
Evans also met his wife Helen, a 14-year veteran of MUTV, at United and maintains a strong connection with the club, despite stints at West Brom and Leicester.
"You have family members working there, people are married - my wife has been working at the club, my brother has been at the club and my dad's been at the club," said Evans.
"So it's always had that feeling of people who give everything they have for the club and it's such a huge credit to them. That's just because they love the place so much.
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"I think that's always been the beauty of the club. We've always had that connection with our staff.
"I think the fact that the club is built on the academy also has a big part to play in that, because players have been there for such a long time, from a young age.
"The academy players have always sort of set the culture and there are staff who have been there the whole way through.
"People have been promoted through the club and there are people who worked with the ticket office who have moved through departments.
"That's just been the nature of the culture, how it's always been built and it's huge plus for the club. We want to maintain that as much as possible."
