Ten Hag ‘sack’ timeline emerges with Ratcliffe’s Man Utd ‘decision’ dependent on ‘key determiner’
According to reports, Sir Jim Ratcliffe will ‘decide’ whether to sack Manchester United head coach Erik ten Hag before the end of this season.
Ten Hag enjoyed a strong debut season at Man Utd as he helped the Premier League giants win the Carabao Cup and qualify for this season’s Champions League. This campaign has gone poorly, though.
INEOS may replace Ten Hag
Man Utd finished bottom of their Champions League group to exit Europe completely and they were also dumped out of the Carabao Cup prematurely.
In the Premier League, the Red Devils have lost 11 of their 27 games this season and they sit sixth in the table. They are 11 points adrift of fourth-placed Aston Villa following back-to-back defeats to Fulham and Man City.
It has been presumed that Ten Hag is on trial until the summer as new co-owner Ratcliffe may opt to appoint a new manager ahead of his first full season with the Premier League side.
Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern Munich are also searching for a new manager so Man Utd are likely to face competition for their preferred manager targets if they decide to part ways with Ten Hag.
To boost their chances of landing their preferred target, Man Utd – according to GiveMeSport – will make a ‘decision over Ten Hag’s future before the end of this campaign rather than in the summer’ and ‘insiders insist his job is not safe’.
It is noted that United are doing this because they ‘would need to move fast if they are to change boss’. The report adds.
‘If Ten Hag is to remain in the job, he will have to show outstanding traits that would determine him as an outstanding candidate to lead the club into a new era.
‘Those have not shone through too brightly so far, although his work with young players Alejandro Garnacho, Rasmus Hojlund and Kobbie Mainoo has impressed.
‘GMS sources believe the FA Cup clash with Liverpool will be a key determiner in whether he has a chance of staying on and that a comfortable defeat would leave him one step closer to losing his job.
‘If Ten Hag can produce a shock win in that encounter, it is the sort of moment that might help convince INEOS he is the man for Manchester United. But, with so much evidence being looked at so far in his time at Old Trafford, this feels like a battle he will find hard to win.’
