Louis van Gaal lasted two years, Jose Mourinho two years and five months before he went at the end of 2018. He’d signed a new contract earlier that year too. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer managed two years and 10 months. He’d also signed another contract months before he lost his job. What now for Erik ten Hag, two years and a few months into his time as Manchester United manager?
Sunday was the low point under the Dutchman, worse than the 4-0 defeat away to Palace in May of last season. Then, his side was decimated by injury, not so now. Sunday’s 3-0 defeat means United have lost consecutive Premier League matches without scoring at home for the first time since November 2021. Those defeats were Solskjaer’s final two home games in charge of the club.
Ten Hag? After a summer review, his contract was extended by a year until 2026 after the post FA Cup final high of beating Manchester City, but this season has started appallingly. His concerns about injuries were legitimate last term when his defence especially was ruined, but now he’s putting out a side that comprises almost all his own acquisitions. As with the managers before him, it cost hundreds of millions of pounds to assemble.
And, as with all the managers before him, United look as far away from mounting a title challenge two years after he took up the reins. Forget the title, the current team look well off being capable of dominating a single Premier League game. And when United meet a team with quality, like Liverpool or Spurs, they can quickly fall apart. Opponents know that Manchester United can be got at from the opening seconds.
The manager takes the praise and criticism, but his players are also culpable. It’s hardly the manager’s fault they’re missing the chances they create, but the players have much power. It did for all the previous managers who didn’t have enough of them onside to continue. Side meetings were called among players, WhatsApp conversations expressing doubts or worse. And it reaches a point where it’s easier to sack one or two men than sort out an entire team.
For their part, the players are entitled to an opinion. They’re not all scheming to sack every boss. An hour after the FA Cup final win, I spoke to half a dozen of them outside the dressing room and asked them about the manager. The words weren’t being recorded. Not one said the manager should absolutely be sacked. And not one said he should absolutely stay. Yet there were clear issues between players and manager about his style.
“You cannot have teams in the relegation zone like Sheffield United and Burnley coming to Old Trafford and carving us open,” said one. To get to and win the cup final, United had changed their style following that humiliating defeat at Palace. Then Ten Hag listened to the coaches around him. Pragmatism triumphed and wins followed. But now we’re seeing individuals — Micky van de Ven of Spurs and his compatriot Bart van Rooij of Twente — carving United open.
At Wembley, I sensed that all the players respected Ten Hag as a person and a coach, but the mood was far from harmonious, even in that victory’s aftermath. It seldom is. Most of United’s players, even the biggest names, respected, adored and yet were also terrified of Sir Alex Ferguson. But because he’d built up so much credit and won so many trophies, what he said went. There was only going to be one winner if he was challenged.
I carried out a poll after the cup final: 60,000 voted and 85 per cent wanted the manager to stay. On the United We Stand feed this Monday, 73 per cent think the manager’s time is up. Fan sentiment can — and does — swing wildly with results. It’s only one month since fans were praising the summer transfers with their expectations of how each of the new players would improve the team. If only it was that easy — if only every transfer worked. United’s record in the transfer market is poor.
It’s also only a week since I stood outside the away end at Crystal Palace after a 0-0 draw and three different fans told me: ‘That’s the best we’ve played all season”. But it was still only a draw. There should have been plenty of goals against Twente in midweek, but another draw felt like a defeat. Sunday was a defeat, the third in six league games. There will be no end of stats about how this is the worst start since X — stats that have proliferated in the post-Ferguson hangover.
And the cycle goes on. You get a new boss, determined to change the culture and the players for hundreds of millions. Some fans back him to get rid of ‘the deadwood’ and cheer departures out the door. There are always dissenting players — or if not them then their agents and advisors. They do what is right for their client, not the football club. But can United’s problems be pinned on the back of one or two, or even three or four players and will a purge sort everything?
It’s a film we’ve all seen before; Groundhog Day every two years at Old Trafford. Managers and their staff are paid off costing the club a fortune and directly affecting the club’s ability to spend on players. Like a new best mate, managers come in loaded with hopes and expectations. In private, they say that serious change, root and branch, is needed. Literally every single manager since Ferguson has said this within months. They bring some highs, even amazing football, winning runs and trophies, and then it turns to s*** and they’re gone.
Manchester United is not united. Not the players, the fans. The media landscape is more extreme than ever, discontent can turn a profit. My phone rings far more when United lose than win — some outlets have even started apologising for doing so. And it fills the news cycle for a few days. You get former players who give advice to managers despite patchy managerial records themselves. They’d get eaten alive managing United, because that’s what happens. Everyone nods along and says it’s not good enough, but what’s the solution?
We don’t know how long Ten Hag will keep his job. Jason Wilcox, as technical director, and Dan Ashworth, as sporting director, are the ones watching his work every day. They were appointed as best in class at their job and they’re far closer to seeing the manager’s work than any fan. Maybe they see something fans are struggling to see and will stand by him. Either way, they’ll feed into the chief executive Omar Berrada and the Sirs, Dave Brailsford and Jim Ratcliffe. Maybe they’ll back him through these tough times and double down on their decision to keep him and be vindicated by that loyalty. After all, the season is still young. Maybe they’ll say enough is enough. They, too, will now be in the front line of decision-making with the pros and cons that come with that.
In any case, support from fans for the manager has evaporated. That support was down to an epic FA Cup final win, seen as one of the most important results in United’s history, a new ownership structure and well-received activity in the transfer window, both incomings and outgoings. Online responses are almost uniformly negative, but fans at games have been supportive, just as they were with every manager. Even they have their breaking point as the poor performances repeat. If Casemiro was the fault at home to Liverpool, what was the solution at home to Spurs when he didn’t play?
United are huge, the pressures intense, but they’re not the only football giant in the world under pressure to win every game. Hansi Flick has come into a troubled Barcelona and got them winning, albeit in La Liga. Other managers come in at rival clubs and make an impact — just as Ten Hag did in his first seven months when he genuinely seemed to be getting United back to a top side. The high point, two games against Barcelona in February 2023, seems a long way off now.
Ratcliffe has frequently asked for patience among fans. That’s a fair shout, but he’s been in the room for five minutes. For the rest living through these repeat cycles, you find more desperation than patience. And no easy answers.
(Photo: Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)
