The Ratcliffe purge gathered pace last week. The cull of the senior figures at Manchester United continued with the announcements of the departures of Patrick Stewart, interim CEO and Chief Legal Officer, and Cliff Baty, the Chief Financial Officer. It leaves very few survivors of the old regime in the corridors of power at Old Trafford. At times it has seemed there may only be one: Erik ten Hag.
And yet, whatever the quality of legal advice United were receiving, there can feel greater priorities for Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Ineos and the incoming powerbrokers at Old Trafford than dispensing with a lawyer. The single most important position at the club remains occupied by the same person. For Sir Dave Brailsford and Jean-Claude Blanc, Omar Berrada, Dan Ashworth and Jason Wilcox, the urgency to complete the clearout must be growing.
Rewind to February, to when Ratcliffe’s £1.3bn investment was completed, and he talked of “populating all the key roles with people who are best in class, 10 out of 10s”. Nominative determinism may offer Ten Hag his best chance of ticking the boxes now. Monday’s abominable 4-0 defeat at Crystal Palace – it is tempting to call it a new low, but there is plenty of competition for that title – left United on course for their lowest finish for 34 years, potentially with their worst goal difference since they were relegated in 1973-74. They may yet win the FA Cup: in every other respect, however, it has been a historically bad season for them.
After their poorest-ever Champions League campaign, they have now suffered more Premier League defeats than ever before. They will probably end up conceding more goals than in any previous Premier League season. Infamously, they concede more shots than any other team in Europe’s top five leagues (or many another division, for that matter). Among other things, Palace demolished Ten Hag’s implausible argument that it did not matter if United allowed opponents 20 shots if they were low-quality chances. Aided by Andre Onana’s inadequacies, Palace scored four times with an xG of 1.48. Perhaps it isn’t a good idea to let excellent footballers shoot a lot.
But perhaps it isn’t a good idea to conduct a tactical experiment on a team who, whenever they afford their back four no protection, seem to have no midfield. Injuries are Ten Hag’s ever-present excuse – though he appears unaware that other clubs have had them, too – but his starting 11 at Selhurst Park cost around £400m and featured seven of his signings. The previous time United lost 4-0 in London, in his second game at Brentford, it highlighted the problems he inherited. Now the sense is that he created the current difficulties.
Both the shambolic showing at Selhurst Park and the campaign as a whole raise serious questions about his judgement. Ten Hag’s record in the transfer market is dire; as Ratcliffe conducts an audit to try and save money, wait until he works out who wasted £85m on a one-footed winger with one league goal this season. That said, there was a compelling entry for the Antony award, given to the Brazilian who produces the worst performance in a Manchester United shirt, from Casemiro against Palace. If Casemiro looks a one-season fix, the same may be said of Ten Hag.
That Bayern Munich are apparently considering Ten Hag, after wanting Ralf Rangnick, suggests they think United is so dysfunctional that failing there is no bar to managing the German superpower. Perhaps, though, they just haven’t watched United this season. The point was made on Monday that the Ten Hag was outcoached by Oliver Glasner. But he has been outcoached with great regularity: by Thomas Frank and Marco Silva, by Andoni Iraola and Eddie Howe, by FC Copenhagen’s Jacob Neestrup and Coventry’s Mark Robins, by Gary O’Neil when he had been in the Wolves job for four days.
United have lost to the teams currently 10th, 11th, 13th and 14th in the Premier League. The side in 12th, Wolves, seemed to destroy Ten Hag’s gameplan for the season on the opening night. The team in 15th, Everton, have had 47 shots against United this season. The club in 16th, Brentford, deserved to win at Old Trafford.
Ten Hag’s case to continue has rested on the increasingly spurious claim that everything would be magically fixed if everyone was fit and the presence of three young players, in Rasmus Hojlund, Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo. Otherwise, however, he looks an isolated figure overseeing a descent into chaos.
With a year left on his contract, the cost of paying him off might not sound prohibitive. It comes in the context of United’s issues with Financial Fair Play, their willingness to sell players to raise funds and performances to suggest they will get few high offers. While Ratcliffe and co are looking to generate more money, United’s early Champions League exit has cost them some, an inability to qualify for next season’s competition will cost more and missing out on Europe altogether will see a club whose home games generate around £4m each take a further hit. Maybe the numbers will play a part, but beyond that a broader feeling should have developed. That surely the madness of the last few months cannot continue.
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