Carragher slams ‘terrible’ Ten Hag ‘panic’ buy; rues Man Utd giving manager ‘too much power’
Jamie Carragher has hit out at Manchester United as the Liverpool legend thinks Erik ten Hag has been given “too much power”.
Ten Hag is under fire at the moment and their 3-3 draw against Galatasaray on Wednesday night has worsened his situation.
This result leaves Man Utd on the brink of being eliminated from the Champions League. Their form in the Premier League has picked up of late but they have also exited the Carabao Cup prematurely.
The Red Devils are fourth in the 2023 Premier League net spend table and up to now, most of their signings under Ten Hag have not paid off.
Around £70m was invested to sign Casemiro from Real Madrid before last season after they missed out on FC Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong.
Man Utd were mocked at the time for time for spending such a significant fee to sign the 31-year-old. While he enjoyed a strong debut season, their naysayers are now being proven right as the midfielder’s form has declined significantly.
During CBS Sports’ coverage of Galatasaray vs Man Utd, Carragher said Casemiro was a “panic” buy.
“When you look at Man United buying Casemiro – I don’t care how well he did last season – that’s a terrible buy, from a business and club point of view. That’s just a panic,” Carragher said via CBS Sports.
“£70million on a guy who’s 30, 31 on a five-year deal, on massive money. I think he’s on the way down now… who’s going to sign him?”
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Carragher has also explained why he thinks Ten Hag and his Man Utd predecessors have been given “too much power”.
“I think the managers just have too much power,” Carragher said, who called Sir Alex Ferguson a “legend” who was also a “one-off”.
“I just think since then, top football clubs have top directors of football, people who run the club. And I just think they let the manager get on with it. He buys who he wants.
“You look at Ten Hag now, basically 60-70 per cent of the players he’s bought – they’re either from the Dutch League, or he’s worked with them before. So you know he’s got an unbelievable amount of power at the club. It hasn’t worked, I think it’s the same with Jose (Mourinho), (Louis) van Gaal, other people.
He continued: “And a manager should have an input into signings. I’m not saying a manager should not know who they’re signing. But a manager shouldn’t be allowed to just go buy who he wants.”
