What took Manchester United so long to sack Ten Hag? More ruthlessness is needed

They got there in the end. In an entirely predictable turn of events Manchester United have finally found the gumption to follow through on a decision that was made a long time ago. They have sacked Erik ten Hag, who can have no complaints after another dreadful sequence of results, but the question for Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s sprawling executive team is why it has taken so long when they had the opportunity to make a clean break last summer.

United had decided that Ten Hag’s time was up before the FA Cup final against Manchester City last season. The outcome of that game was not supposed to make a difference. The message was that even a 4-0 win would not save the Dutchman. United, who had finished in eighth in the league, were talking to multiple managers about taking over and there was no denial when the story was put to them a day before the final.

Born 2 February 1970, in Haaksbergen, Netherlands.

Playing career

Ten Hag began his career at the Dutch side Twente, where he played primarily as a defender from 1989-1990.

Stints at Utrecht, De Graafschap and Waalwijk before returning to Twente in 1996, where he finished his playing career in 2002.

Ten Hag made more than 300 league appearances in Dutch professional football.

Coaching career

Ten Hag started coaching in 2012 with Go Ahead Eagles, leading the team to promotion after 17 years outside the Eredivisie in his first season in charge.

In 2013 he joined Bayern Munich II, taking charge of the reserve team and working under the guidance of Pep Guardiola during the Spaniard’s time as Bayern head coach.

Ten Hag returned to the Netherlands to manage Utrecht in 2015, takin them to a fifth-place finish and a spot in the Europa League through the playoffs.

Ajax

Appointed Ajax manager in 2017. During his tenure, the club won three Eredivisie titles (2018-19, 2020-21, 2021-22) and two KNVB Cups (2018-19 and 2020-21).

Ten Hag gained widespread acclaim after guiding Ajax to the 2018-19 Champions League semi-finals, the club’s first appearance at that stage since 1997, and beating the defending champions Real Madrid 4-1 and Juventus 2-1 along the way.

Ten Hag left Ajax after leading them to the 2022 KNVB Cup final in April

Manchester United

On 21 April that year Ten Hag was appointed Manchester United manager on a three-year contract.

In his first season in charge he led United to a third-placed Premier League finish and League Cup triumph, ending the club’s six-year trophy drought since a Europa League success in 2017 under Jose Mourinho.

In 2023-24 United finished eighth in the league and won the FA Cup by beating Guardiola’s Manchester City 2-1.

Ten Hag’s United tenure ended on 28 October after a series of inconsistent performances left United in 14th place in the Premier League with 11 points (W3 D2 L4) and three drawn Europa league games.

The Dutchman’s final match in charge was a 2-1 defeat at West Ham following earlier losses against Brighton, Liverpool and Tottenham. Reuters

Yet that conviction disappeared after the shock of beating City. There was a shift in tone, indications that Ten Hag had a chance of an unlikely reprieve, even though certain members of the structure Ineos was putting in place could hardly be described as fans of the former Ajax manager. It was noted that Kieran McKenna’s decision to stay at Ipswich after taking them up from the Championship had a big effect on United’s plans.

They kept looking at other managers, with Ratcliffe meeting Thomas Tuchel in Monaco in June. “They’ve completely gone back on it,” a source said when it emerged Ten Hag was staying. “They were making the change.”

United bottled it. It was obvious keeping Ten Hag was a poor call and it is no surprise it has taken only four months for everything to break down again. Some fans celebrated the manager’s new deal: maybe they had forgotten about the poor signings, the thrashings, the negative goal difference, the absence of any discernible playing style and the early exit from the Champions League. What did they expect to change? And why were United swayed off course?

All they did was kick the can down the road. Anybody could see Ten Hag’s authority in the dressing room would be diminished; that the questions would swirl as soon as there was another bad run of results. United, though, looked the other way.

There has been no improvement this season. If anything, they are even worse. The latest signings do not look good enough and the humiliations have continued. The defeats against Tottenham and Liverpool were impossible to defend, but still United dragged it out, floating through two international breaks, allowing England to snap up Tuchel. The impression is of inertia. It is not a good look.

This unwillingness to act seems to be ingrained in United’s culture. Ed Woodward, the maligned former chief executive, allowed José Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjær to cling on for too long and Ineos have been similarly generous with Ten Hag. The lesson is that more ruthlessness is required. The hope must be that this sacking marks a change in approach. United should not be waiting to hit rock bottom before deciding they need a new manager.

Perhaps there is something instructive about Ten Hag’s fate being sealed by Michael Oliver carrying out his video assistant referee duties during United’s defeat against West Ham on Sunday. United could easily have looked the other way, even after slipping to 14th place. They played beautifully during the first half at the London Stadium, creating chances at will, and it is harsh to blame Ten Hag for his attack’s wastefulness.

Equally, a serious team would not have lost that game. The decision for West Ham’s winning penalty was a joke, but United make trouble for themselves. The weaknesses were evident even when they were on top. There were sloppy passes, the finishing was unfocused and United were unable to respond to West Ham’s half-time changes. They ran out of steam and Ten Hag had little impact from the bench.

Manuel Ugarte, the latest player to be held up as the final piece of the jigsaw after his summer move from Paris Saint-Germain, did not come on even while West Ham were wresting control of midfield away from Casemiro and Christian Eriksen. Perhaps Oliver was doing United a favour when he advised David Coote, the referee, to check a potential penalty for what was nothing more than a coming together between Matthijs de Ligt and Danny Ings.

The misfortune brought clarity. United are no longer kidding themselves. They are not using a poor VAR call as a shield. There is at least some kind of progress. The mistake was to see the win against City as something bigger, when it was a case of succeeding against an off-colour opponent thanks to a counter-punching, single-use gameplan that still relied on a lot of moments falling in their favour.

No more, though. United have come to the right conclusion after delving deeper into their malaise, ignoring Ten Hag’s cries of injustice after losing against West Ham. It is a step in the right direction.