October 29 – After months of speculation, Manchester United have finally run out of patience and fired manager Erik Ten Hag after a wretched start to the season which has left the club languishing in 14th place in the Premier League with just three wins from nine games.
The Dutchman won two domestic cups in his 2 1/2 years in charge – a record most fans would yearn for – but paid the price for their league form after an eye-watering spending spree of about £615 million. In the Premier League, only Chelsea has spent more during Ten Hag’s time.
“Erik ten Hag has left his role as Manchester United men’s first-team manager,” United said, adding that Ruud van Nistelrooy, who joined the club as Ten Hag’s assistant and a former much-admired striker at the club, would be taking over as interim head coach while a permanent head coach is recruited.
“We are grateful to Erik for everything he has done during his time with us and wish him well for the future.”
With the search for a replacement already under way, Ruben Amorim, Sporting Lisbon’s highly coveted coach who won the Portuguese league in 2021 and 2024, was said to be the leading candidate with local newspaper the Manchester Evening News reporting that he has already agreed in principle to take the job.
Ten Hag joined United from Dutch giants Ajax in 2022 and was tasked with the responsibility of bringing the good times back to a club that has been in decline even since Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.
A hatful of managers came and went but despite winning the League Cup in 2023 and the FA Cup this year, Ten Hag has now joined that list, last season’s eighth place finish representing United’s worst league campaign in 34 years.
Reports suggest Ten Hag only held on to his job in the summer following an unexpected victory over Manchester City in the FA Cup final in May and after an extensive end-of-year review by the club’s new regime which handed him a one-year extension to his contract.
But when things didn’t improve, United’s new leadership, fronted by minority owner Jim Ratcliffe, showed the door to Ten Hag, whose perceived lack of charisma and communication skills – publicly at least – was never the right fit for one of the world’s most famous clubs.
As a result, a sixth permanent manager since Ferguson’s departure is now being sought. Whoever comes in will inherit an expensively assembled but under-performing squad and will have the unenviable task of deciding which bits to keep and which to get rid of.
Being the manager of England has long been described as football’s impossible job but being in charge of United in the post-Ferguson era may perhaps have taken over that mantle.
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