When Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag met the media yesterday, ahead of tomorrow’s FA Cup final against Manchester City, he sounded like somebody who was fairly confident that he would be keeping his job next season. So much for that, as there has been a leak to The Guardian, indicating that Ten Hag will be let go, regardless of the FA Cup result on Saturday. It is all very reminiscent of 2016, when United sacked Louis van Gaal, amid widespread reports that Jose Mourinho was set to replace him.
Van Gaal went on to beat Crystal Palace and hoist the trophy at Wembley Stadium that Sunday.
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The Guardian labels the Ten Hag firing a “ruthless decision to change manager will be the most significant move made by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his allies since Ineos agreed to take a minority stake in the club last December and assumed control of football operations.”
Indeed the timing here is totally classless, and utterly shameful. This was not handled well at all. And Ten Hag definitely had a ton of awful off-the-pitch player distractions to deal with, in the forms of Cristiano Ronaldo, Mason Greenwood, Jadon Sancho and Antony.
All but the last name mentioned on that list were players brought in by his predecessors.
Not to mention all of the injuries! This was no doubt the worst injury crisis of a season that United have ever endured.
However, it is a business, and a very results-oriented business at that. After leading the side to an EFL Cup triumph and a third place finish in the table last season, United finished eighth in the table (their worst in the Premier League Era/lowest since 1990) and with a negative goal differential. They set club records for losses by Christmas and total defeats in a Premier League campaign.
Plus their UCL campaign was a disgraceful group stage crash out.
We’ll take a look at the top United manager candidates list, led by front-runner Mauricio Pochettino, in the next post. Vaya con dios Ten Hag
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to Ravens Wire, part of the USA Today SMG’s NFL Wire Network and the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and the Washington Times. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.