IT will take years to unpick this mess, years. Try maybe five at best.
If anyone thinks Ruben Amorim or any other new manager at Old Trafford is going to turn water into wine, or rather champagne, then forget it.
It is a mess of Manchester United’s own making. Or that of part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Mind you, he has washed his hands of such problems, claiming it is in fact the new ‘management team’ or whatever they are called, who take these decisions.
The Glazers have washed their hands of it, too, despite still counting the dollars.
Omar Berrada, Jason Wilcox and Dan Ashworth all claim to have arrived too late to be involved in the decisions at the end of last season. See how the buck is getting passed.
To recap, that was when Ratcliffe thought Dutch boss Ten Hag should go but a shock 2-1 win over Manchester City in the FA Cup final suddenly turned the tide of popular opinion.
Still, he and his right-hand man Sir Dave Brailsford — how do you get these knighthoods? — tried to sound out other candidates.
Nobody wanted it. Who can blame them. What player or manager has come to Old Trafford in the last 11 years and enhanced their reputation?
So, they went back to the man they had in the first place, knocking on his holiday home door in Ibiza to ask if he still wanted to be the boss after all.
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You can’t make it up. Except with United you can and it comes true. Yes, Erik, even “fairytales”.
The problem was this past summer immediately set in motion the problems that have now resulted in 54-year-old Ten Hag being sacked.
Players, fans and everyone around the club knew he was a dead man walking. A new contract was in fact an extension of the old one.
There was almost a feeling of sympathy for him as the club embarked on their pre-season tour in the US.
ETH kept telling us that the “leadership team” — is that another title they have? — were behind him, everyone was on the same page and the future was bright.
And yet and yet… In a briefing with Ashworth and Berrada at the start of the season, they made it clear they were behind the manager.
But it was far from convincing. Indeed, Ten Hag had reservations about the Ineos group from the start.
He was unhappy they had not given him public backing when Sir Jim first took his stake in the club back in February and ended up running the football side of it.
Ten Hag was wary of media who he felt backed Ineos and not him.
He always felt he was fighting a battle with the very people who held his future in their hands.
Behind the scenes he was desperately trying to get a team plan, spirit and style of play to work.
He had been criticised for his handling of Cristiano Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho and Harry Maguire, with the England defender being stripped of the captaincy.
Let us not forget Sir Alex Ferguson ditched David Beckham, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Jaap Stam when they were all at their best.
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That trio under Ten Hag’s management were far from that. The problem now is he has spent £545.9MILLION on a bunch of bang average players.
He has been backed with a new coaching team. Everyone seems to be either Dutch or been involved in Dutch football.
It is a bit of a myth that everything on the pitch that comes from the Netherlands is going to be beautiful and successful.
The last Dutch team to win the European Cup? Ajax in 1995. Before that, PSV Eindhoven in 1988.
A new manager, Sporting’s Amorim for instance, would arrive at Old Trafford, see this bunch of players and wonder how on earth he is going to turn them into title challengers.
The current most expensive player in the ranks is £85.5m Antony, who was last seen running down the right, cutting in on his left and firing wide of the far post. That is all he does.
Who thought Joshua Zirkzee or Rasmus Hojlund were going to become United goalscoring legends?
If Bayern Munich are happy to let two players go as they did with Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui, then you have to wonder why?
Still it went on. Ten Hag said he needed time to stitch all this together.
Indeed, it was only just over a week ago that he was calling for patience at a Manchester Football Writers’ Dinner.
He was in great form, happy and buoyant after a victory over Brentford and very positive about the future.
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All the time the plots were going on behind his back to replace him.
He kept backing up his worth with those two trophies — the Carabao Cup in 2023 and last season’s FA Cup.
And yes, that was good. Still, as United pointed out yesterday “neither the results or performances have been good enough across last season and this one”.
There have been some shockers too, not least in Europe where they have won ONE of their last 11 games.
Domestically, just this season there have been 3-0 defeats at home to Liverpool and Tottenham.
Last season they lost consecutive home games by the same scoreline to City and Newcastle and were humbled 4-0 at Crystal Palace in May.
In 2022-23, Ten Hag’s first year, there was a 6-3 defeat at City and 7-0 at Liverpool. Shocking.
The hierarchy wanted to give him the chance to improve things under a new structure and it did not work.
They were not seeing the “momentum and progress” to believe they were on the right path.
They said there were “no excuses” for the current level of performance, even though ETH constantly pointed to injury problems and the time needed to integrate new players.
The boss did not see this coming, which is why he held a press conference ahead of tomorrow’s Carabao Cup last-16 tie against Leicester following Sunday’s defeat at West Ham.
He will feel betrayed having believed everyone was on the same page and it was a long-term strategy. Berrada even told us a dip in results would not lead to his exit.
Ten Hag is a good man. Just another chewed up and spat out by a club walking on sand as they try to rediscover that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Why NOBODY is the right man to replace Erik ten Hag at Man Utd
SunSport’s DAVE KIDD explains what’s wrong with all the potential candidates to replace Erik ten Hag at Manchester United.
THIS is a mid-table squad at an underachieving club, with a lot of unwanted players on big money.
And Ratcliffe is an instinctive cost-cutter who may not pay top dollar to the next manager.
If this club wasn’t called ‘Manchester United’, it wouldn’t be an especially desirable job.
The good news for United is that their new sporting director, Dan Ashworth, is a very decent judge of a manager.
He has been instrumental in three previous managerial appointments — Gareth Southgate for England, Graham Potter for Brighton and Eddie Howe for Newcastle.
None were wildly popular at the time, all were conspicuous successes.
Interestingly, Ashworth’s No 1 choice for the Newcastle job was Unai Emery, who turned him down to stay at Villarreal but has since proved that judgment right by excelling at Aston Villa.
And the Spaniard would be an excellent fit for United — yet there is next to no chance that he would abandon Villa’s Champions League campaign to take the Old Trafford job, not least because he isn’t a stark raving madman.
Howe would be another good candidate to succeed Ten Hag but, although he has become frustrated on Tyneside, the Saudis would surely not allow Ratcliffe to poach Howe, as they reluctantly did with Ashworth.
Potter is available but his Chelsea experience and lack of charisma would make him a tough sell.
Which brings us to Southgate, who remains close with Ashworth and is an excellent man-manager who was seriously considered by United last spring.
Yet, despite having led England to two of their three major finals, Southgate’s reputation for over-caution was only enhanced during the Euros.
Mauricio Pochettino, passed over twice by United, is out of the equation having taken the United States job.
Thomas Tuchel would also have been a popular and gettable option – but England got in there first.
Likewise, Roberto De Zerbi, now at Marseille after his brief Brighton stint sparkled then fizzled out.
Kieran McKenna — a gifted former United coach who has won back-to-back promotions with Ipswich Town — is an intriguing candidate but the imminent vacancy may come a year or so too soon.
Marco Silva, the extremely under-rated Fulham boss, has been on United’s radar and should not be discounted.
Sporting Lisbon’s Ruben Amorim, last season’s ‘next big thing’, was passed over by West Ham as well as Liverpool this summer and is not an easy man to pin down.
Zinedine Zidane, who has taken over from Alan Curbishley as a 20-1 shot for every Premier League job, is a ‘figurehead’ manager and not an Ashworth type.
Ruud van Nistelrooy, the former United goal machine who joined Ten Hag’s coaching team in the summer is the bookies’ favourite. Simply because he’s in the building and he’s Dutch.
So, yes, getting rid of Ten Hag is the easy part.
