Ten Hag sack imminent after 82-year-old Rangers fan ‘snubbed’ flight to Portugal in favour of Glasgow trip
Erik ten Hag was ‘vindicated’ in his substitution of Marcus Rashford but a stunning Sir Alex Ferguson ‘snub’ has finally sealed his Manchester United fate.
You’ve only got one match, so make it count
It does not require a massive leap to suggest Erik ten Hag might have ‘one game left to save his Manchester United job’. Jermaine Pennant and Jamie O’Hara did it while giving the Dutchman a truly hilarious nickname.
It is an inherently stupid concept – if a manager’s future depends on the outcome of a single fixture the club in question is not run competently whatsoever – but the timing of the upcoming international break, the gradual deterioration of Manchester United and the increasing ridiculousness of Ten Hag’s public interviews make it an impossible line to resist.
‘Erik ten Hag has just ONE match to save his Man Utd career after Europa League horror collapse to Porto’ – The Sun website.
‘Erik ten Hag has one game to save himself – but Premier League rival warned not to eye his job at Manchester United’ – talkSPORT.
‘Erik ten Hag’s date with destiny! Man Utd boss has one game to save his job in wake of wild 3-3 Porto draw’ – Goal.com.
See? Except none of these stories actually claim any sort of inside knowledge from Old Trafford. They are based on articles from earlier in the week which suggested he had ‘two games left to save his job’, when the reality was that he just obviously wasn’t going to be sacked before United faced Porto and Aston Villa in the space of a few days before the break.
These stories quote no sources as saying Ten Hag will go if they lose to Villa. It is pure guesswork. No-one actually knows. And that includes the people tasked with making such a decision at Manchester United.
Under pressure that brings a building down
‘ERIK ten Hag’s job is still on the line ahead of Sunday’s clash at Aston Villa despite the last-gasp 3-3 draw at Porto on Thursday night’ – Charlie Wyett, The Sun.
You mean the continuation of amateurish defending resulting in yet another surrender of a lead has not strengthened the position of a manager who has won seven of his last 22 games (one in ten in Europe)? That Ten Hag’s job is ‘still’ not safe ‘despite’ them needing a stoppage-time Harry Maguire equaliser to draw with a team who started their Europa League campaign with defeat to Bodo/Glimt? Madness.
Actually, on the subject of the former captain…
‘Maguire, who was left out of the England squad yesterday, responded to the snub by nodding home in the closing stages of the dramatic draw.’
He’s played 139 minutes of football for Manchester United since September began, 90 of those in a 7-0 win over League One side Barnsley. He was picked by Carsley when playing regularly but now he isn’t. It was no ‘snub’ and scoring from a corner in a substitute cameo is not the compelling ‘response’ you think it is from a centre-half.
READ NEXT: England form XI snubbed by Carsley includes Arsenal sale, Newcastle signing and Rogers
Snub quiz
That was not the only Manchester United-related ‘snub’ knocking around on Thursday evening, however.
‘Sir Alex Ferguson chooses not to watch Man Utd as Erik ten Hag fights to save his job’ is at least an entirely factual Daily Mirror website headline, which in itself is a rarity. Ferguson did choose not to watch Man Utd; he went to see Rangers, the club he supported as a boy.
But the Scot actually ‘snubbed Thursday’s trip to Porto’, which can be roughly translated as an 82-year-old deciding not to fly to Portugal to watch a match when the option was there to make the short trip to Glasgow instead.
Except ‘Ferguson’s decision to snub his former side comes just days after he had reportedly picked out a replacement for Erik ten Hag’. Even though all Gazzetta dello Sport – and where else would one go to get their exclusive Manchester United news? – said was that Ferguson is ‘an exceptional sponsor’ of Max Allegri.
There was nothing in that story about Ferguson picking him to replace Ten Hag, just the groundbreaking news that a five-time Serie A winner and two-time Champions League finalist coach has some admirers.
But no, this was a Ferguson ‘snub’ which pushed Ten Hag closer towards the sack. Or an 82-year-old boyhood Rangers fan deciding to watch Rangers play at home instead of flying in and out of Portugal on a Thursday night. You pick.
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Rash decision
The Daily Mirror website claims that ‘Man Utd boss Erik ten Hag has last laugh after unpopular Marcus Rashford decision’, which is a clever headline construction because it is deliberately designed to garner confused clicks from people who watched both the 3-3 draw with Porto and the last year or so of Manchester United, and will thus be stunned to learn Ten Hag has had any sort of ‘last laugh’.
It is especially brilliant because it implies the half-time substitution of goalscorer Marcus Rashford to rotate his squad was anything other than absolutely baffling.
But here is Ten Hag with ‘the last laugh’ and feeling ‘vindicated’ because…replacement Alejandro Garnacho ‘rattled out eight shots’ and ‘generated a number of corners’.
And if two on-target Garnacho shots in 45 minutes really does justify taking off your best player at half-time of a 3-3 draw which required a stoppage-time equaliser despite leading 2-0, then perhaps Ten Hag did have ‘the last laugh’. Although anyone watching Manchester United attempting to defend will undoubtedly have laughed harder.
Don’t call it a comeback
‘LEE CARSLEY has opened the door to a shock international comeback for Jadon Sancho’ – Dave Kidd, The Sun.
He has 23 England caps and is playing not only consistently, but consistently well for the first time in about three years. The ‘shock’ would be if Carsley randomly ruled out ever selecting him again.