AND SO ERIK Ten Hag’s zombie regime has made its final stagger, caving in on itself in a cloud of wheeze and dust.
The world has become inured now to United’s fallen status, but stepping back to gaze at the long arc of Ten Hag’s results is jolting nonetheless. Of the 61 league games United have played since winning the Carabao Cup in February 2023, they have lost 22 of them, registering a goal difference over that time of minus two.
They lost 7-0 at Anfield and 4-0 at Crystal Palace; have been beaten at home by Palace, Fulham, and Bournemouth; and have conceded at least three goals in a single league game against all of Man City (twice), Arsenal, Bournemouth, Wolves, Chelsea, Palace, Liverpool, and Spurs.
They won the Carabao and FA Cups but almost blew the latter by conceding three times against Coventry in the semi-final, and finished bottom of a soft Champions League group featuring Copenhagen and Galatasaray.
Beyond the games in which they counter-attacked in the style for which Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked, United had no discernible approach under Ten Hag. They were incapable of controlling games: hence why games often swung between drab, low-scoring draws and rollicking 4-3 thrillers.
Ten Hag kept stressing United had to “stick to the process” but there was no philosophy. Instead he asked everyone watching to become a philosopher themselves, tasked with developing and appreciation and understanding for a system not evident in the material world.
The €100 million signing of Antony is one of the worst transfer decisions in the history of the game, and it encapsulated Ten Hag’s great failing at United: the failure to realise that the Premier League is much more difficult than the Dutch league. His tactical theories quickly melted in the face of an opposition capable of disruption.
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The assumption that Antony’s narrow skill-set – slowly cutting inside on his left foot when he was not jerking about uselessly – would be enough to succeed in England was indicative of Ten Hag’s grandest failing. The Manchester United job is one of the toughest exams in management, and ten Hag rocked up having rote learned answers to a couple of questions that rarely came up.
Ten Hag often wore the outwardly-stolid-but-internally-crushed look of a guy who studied Eavan Boland for the Leaving Cert only to open the exam paper and find Elizabeth Bishop looking back at him instead.
The good news for Ten Hag is all of his predecessors bar Solskjaer have found a measure of redemption in their careers since. All have been able to point to the fact they were doomed from the start, walking into a club bleached by the Glazers of both structure and standards, and surrounded by an enormous and occasionally insane media industry. When Harry Maguire’s performances become fodder for the Ghanaian parliament, you realise that being the manager of this club may be beyond the power of any one man.
But Ten Hag is the first United to be appointed by the Glazers but sacked by someone else, namely Viceroy Jim and his offshore Camelot.
The Ineos brains trust, front row from left to right: Jim Ratcliffe; Dave Brailsford, head of sport for the INEOS group; CEO Omar Berrada; Sporting Director Dan Ashworth; Technical Director Jason Wilcox; Former ambassador Alex Ferguson. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
While the fact the Glazers are still making money out of the club is appalling to supporters, that they have ceded decision-making at the club to Ineos was supposed to be reassuring, and bring the hope that United were finally ready to break the doom-loop of heavily-backed-then-eventually-sacked managers.
More alarming for United fans than Ten Hag’s sacking is what it tells them about Ineos: they have made a hames of their first major decision. They flirted with sacking Ten Hag in the summer and bottled it, speaking to a host of other managers before telling Ten Hag they remained committed to their loveless union.
Last season’s league performances and results were ample evidence that Ten Hag should have been dismissed in the summer, when even the PR play was straightforward.
Thanks for the cup memories, Erik, but we are in charge now, and we want to go in our own direction.
Instead they fudged it by appointing staff around Ten Hag and then spent a fortune on more former Ajax players and waited until this season was written off before finally dismissing Ten Hag. United are 14th with almost a quarter of the season played, are gone from the title race and already seven points off fourth place, occupied by a super Aston Villa team and contested by a resurgent Chelsea.
Ineos have repeated the fudge of Fenway Sports Group, who did not sack Brendan Rodgers after a wretched season but instead delayed the inevitable by replacing his coaching staff. Liverpool ultimately sacked Rodgers eight games into the following season, where United have waited nine to dismiss Ten Hag.
Liverpool, of course, then made the best decision in their modern history by hiring Jurgen Klopp, who had the personality to grapple with the size of the job and the collegiality to work with their then-infamous “transfer committee.” As it transpired, Liverpool’s committee was stocked with brilliant minds, and Klopp’s willingness to work with them led to the success that followed.
(It is perhaps this collegiality which has ultimately done for Ten Hag: Manuel Ugarte was a club signing rather than Ten Hag’s, and he sat on the bench for all the defeat to West Ham.)
There is no Klopp equivalent on the market nowadays, so United appear to be turning to Rubin Amorim of Sporting, another young coach with a sparkling reputation from a league much inferior to England’s.
Amorim is wedded to a 3-4-3, for which United’s squad is only somewhat tailored. They do not want for centre-backs nor wide forwards, though are light at centre-forward and extremely short at left-wing back. There’s a question, too, as to how the maverick Bruno Fernandes fits into the Amorim collective. The squad will need work to mould it for Amorim’s desires, which again makes a mockery of the decision to retain Ten Hag during the summer.
Whether Amorim or anyone else will be a success at United is contingent on how they fit into Ineos’ structure but, more crucially, whether the people within Ineos’ structure are good enough at their jobs to be successful. These wasted months under Erik Ten Hag suggest they are not.
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Ten Hag sacking puts focus on United's new bosses - Ineos have made a hames of their first big call
AND SO ERIK Ten Hag’s zombie regime has made its final stagger, caving in on itself in a cloud of wheeze and dust.
The world has become inured now to United’s fallen status, but stepping back to gaze at the long arc of Ten Hag’s results is jolting nonetheless. Of the 61 league games United have played since winning the Carabao Cup in February 2023, they have lost 22 of them, registering a goal difference over that time of minus two.
They lost 7-0 at Anfield and 4-0 at Crystal Palace; have been beaten at home by Palace, Fulham, and Bournemouth; and have conceded at least three goals in a single league game against all of Man City (twice), Arsenal, Bournemouth, Wolves, Chelsea, Palace, Liverpool, and Spurs.
They won the Carabao and FA Cups but almost blew the latter by conceding three times against Coventry in the semi-final, and finished bottom of a soft Champions League group featuring Copenhagen and Galatasaray.
Beyond the games in which they counter-attacked in the style for which Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked, United had no discernible approach under Ten Hag. They were incapable of controlling games: hence why games often swung between drab, low-scoring draws and rollicking 4-3 thrillers.
Ten Hag kept stressing United had to “stick to the process” but there was no philosophy. Instead he asked everyone watching to become a philosopher themselves, tasked with developing and appreciation and understanding for a system not evident in the material world.
The €100 million signing of Antony is one of the worst transfer decisions in the history of the game, and it encapsulated Ten Hag’s great failing at United: the failure to realise that the Premier League is much more difficult than the Dutch league. His tactical theories quickly melted in the face of an opposition capable of disruption.
The assumption that Antony’s narrow skill-set – slowly cutting inside on his left foot when he was not jerking about uselessly – would be enough to succeed in England was indicative of Ten Hag’s grandest failing. The Manchester United job is one of the toughest exams in management, and ten Hag rocked up having rote learned answers to a couple of questions that rarely came up.
Ten Hag often wore the outwardly-stolid-but-internally-crushed look of a guy who studied Eavan Boland for the Leaving Cert only to open the exam paper and find Elizabeth Bishop looking back at him instead.
The good news for Ten Hag is all of his predecessors bar Solskjaer have found a measure of redemption in their careers since. All have been able to point to the fact they were doomed from the start, walking into a club bleached by the Glazers of both structure and standards, and surrounded by an enormous and occasionally insane media industry. When Harry Maguire’s performances become fodder for the Ghanaian parliament, you realise that being the manager of this club may be beyond the power of any one man.
But Ten Hag is the first United to be appointed by the Glazers but sacked by someone else, namely Viceroy Jim and his offshore Camelot.
While the fact the Glazers are still making money out of the club is appalling to supporters, that they have ceded decision-making at the club to Ineos was supposed to be reassuring, and bring the hope that United were finally ready to break the doom-loop of heavily-backed-then-eventually-sacked managers.
More alarming for United fans than Ten Hag’s sacking is what it tells them about Ineos: they have made a hames of their first major decision. They flirted with sacking Ten Hag in the summer and bottled it, speaking to a host of other managers before telling Ten Hag they remained committed to their loveless union.
Last season’s league performances and results were ample evidence that Ten Hag should have been dismissed in the summer, when even the PR play was straightforward.
Thanks for the cup memories, Erik, but we are in charge now, and we want to go in our own direction.
Instead they fudged it by appointing staff around Ten Hag and then spent a fortune on more former Ajax players and waited until this season was written off before finally dismissing Ten Hag. United are 14th with almost a quarter of the season played, are gone from the title race and already seven points off fourth place, occupied by a super Aston Villa team and contested by a resurgent Chelsea.
Ineos have repeated the fudge of Fenway Sports Group, who did not sack Brendan Rodgers after a wretched season but instead delayed the inevitable by replacing his coaching staff. Liverpool ultimately sacked Rodgers eight games into the following season, where United have waited nine to dismiss Ten Hag.
Liverpool, of course, then made the best decision in their modern history by hiring Jurgen Klopp, who had the personality to grapple with the size of the job and the collegiality to work with their then-infamous “transfer committee.” As it transpired, Liverpool’s committee was stocked with brilliant minds, and Klopp’s willingness to work with them led to the success that followed.
(It is perhaps this collegiality which has ultimately done for Ten Hag: Manuel Ugarte was a club signing rather than Ten Hag’s, and he sat on the bench for all the defeat to West Ham.)
There is no Klopp equivalent on the market nowadays, so United appear to be turning to Rubin Amorim of Sporting, another young coach with a sparkling reputation from a league much inferior to England’s.
Amorim is wedded to a 3-4-3, for which United’s squad is only somewhat tailored. They do not want for centre-backs nor wide forwards, though are light at centre-forward and extremely short at left-wing back. There’s a question, too, as to how the maverick Bruno Fernandes fits into the Amorim collective. The squad will need work to mould it for Amorim’s desires, which again makes a mockery of the decision to retain Ten Hag during the summer.
Whether Amorim or anyone else will be a success at United is contingent on how they fit into Ineos’ structure but, more crucially, whether the people within Ineos’ structure are good enough at their jobs to be successful. These wasted months under Erik Ten Hag suggest they are not.
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