The Danish coach is admired by Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Sir Dave Brailsford. But does he have what it takes to succeed at Old Trafford?
This week, Manchester United finally took a long-awaited decision on their manager. But it wasn’t the one most people were expecting. While Sir Jim Ratcliffe has told Sir Alex Ferguson his 11-year role as club ambassador will be coming to an end next June, the minority shareholder has left Erik ten Hag in place.
Although many fans were calling for United to sack the Dutchman after the team made their worst ever start to a Premier League season, he has survived the October international break and will be in charge to face Brentford on Saturday. And with United’s fixtures coming thick and fast, there is limited opportunity to make a change before the next international break in November.
Ratcliffe and his fellow United executives are clearly reluctant to sack Ten Hag just four months after concluding that he was the best man for the job despite speaking to numerous managers about replacing him in the summer. Pulling the trigger now would be an admission that they had made the wrong call then and would also cost the club in the region of £17m ($22m) – and that’s before they had named a replacement – when it would have cost around £10m ($13m) in June.
But with United in the state they are, looking as weak if not weaker than last season, not making a change could prove even more costly if it means failing to finish in the top four and missing out on Champions League football for the second consecutive season.
