Man United manager, Erik ten Hag, has been walking a very fine line for much of this season, as the Red Devils meander from one disaster to another.
The manner of the 4-0 defeat against Crystal Palace was surely the nadir for many supporters, particularly those that had spent their hard-earned travelling down to London on a Monday night, only to be rewarded by another awful performance.
The smart money appears to have long been on ten Hag being given the old heave-ho by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, however, former super agent and co-creator of the Premier League, Jon Smith, believes that there are good enough reasons why the club may stick with the current set-up – at least for now.
Ten Hag could stay at Man United
“If I’m Sir Jim Ratcliffe, I’m looking at the managerial situation with the first-team and thinking ‘okay, where do we go with this appointment? It has to be superb and I’m looking around looking for Mr. Superb and I’m struggling to find him,’” Smith said to CaughtOffside for his exclusive column.
“Then, given that it’s going to cost a lot of money to get rid of Erik ten Hag and reinvest in the squad anyway, it’s tempting to believe that Sir Jim could quite possibly decide to work with the Dutchman because he knows the team and he knows the squad.
“If, in a few months time, he still can’t do it, then United will regroup again. After all, the development of the squad is going to take 4-5 years regardless.
“[…] There is, evidently in my head, a school of thought where ten Hag stays and United start rebuilding under him.”
The salient issue here is that United aren’t going to be rebuilt quickly, both in an actual as well as financial sense.
Everything will take time and money, so if there’s an initial cost saving to be made, however incidental that might seem to supporters or outsiders, it might be the route that Sir Jim and his staff decide to go down.
Ten Hag has always maintained that he can’t be judged on this season because of the succession of injuries that have befallen the first-team squad.
Certainly, in his first season at the helm, United were a completely different proposition, and with fans being as fickle as they are, if ten Hag were to recapture some of the form from 2022/23, there’s likely to be much less of a hoo-hah at his continued employment.
Of course, United may ultimately decide to dispense with his services, but in so doing, they need to bring in a top-level coach that can hit the ground running at Old Trafford.
