Ten Hag to remain Man Utd manager after review

Ten Hag to remain Man Utd manager after review -

Erik Ten Hag will remain as manager of Manchester United following a post-season review by the club's board.

United instigated their review immediately after the FA Cup final.

Ten Hag went into the game against Manchester City at Wembley amid a backdrop of reports claiming he was going to be sacked no matter the outcome.

Instead, United's deserved 2-1 victory allowed the club hierarchy to approach the review in a more positive light.

It is understood what are being described as "constructive conversations" with Ten Hag have taken place around the outcome of the review.

All eventualities were considered and the clear preference was for the 54-year-old Dutchman to remain in charge.

Surprised at this, it was said before the cup final that he would definitely be sacked.

Pleased for Ten Hag because he seems like a decent bloke. But they had an awful season in the league - will be strange if they made this decision just because he won the FA Cup.

They will have to spend a lot of money to even compete for top four - but they do seem to have finally sorted out the football side at board level with Ratcliffe, Brailsford and the football directors coming in (take note Vincent Tan).

Ten Hag is known to be delighted at the outcome on Tuesday, although there have been suggestions he was getting irritated at the time taken for United to reach their conclusion.

United do not believe two weeks is an unreasonable length of time to conduct a thorough assessment of what is the first season under a change of ownership.

Thomas Tuchel is thought to have spoken to new United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe last week but ruled himself out of the running, while the club's interest in Mauricio Pochettino also cooled even though he was available after his exit from Chelsea.

Graham Potter, Thomas Frank, Roberto de Zerbi and current England boss Gareth Southgate were also linked with the job, although Brentford were never contacted about Frank and appointing Southgate this summer was impossible due to his commitments with England.

Ten Hag has been on holiday with his family in Ibiza.

Importantly the board took into account that the structure was not in place at the club to help any manager succeed. Although I'm far removed from being a Man Utd fan, I'm pleased for Ten Haag, especially as he's won a trophy for them in two successive seasons.

Wouldn’t it be terrific if he now told them to stuff their job.

Sometimes you need to take a step back, before going forward.
Assuming the football side of events is in the process of being sorted out at board level, following the dreadful recruitment in recent seasons, I see no reason why United won't soon be back challenging within the top four. They have some fabulous young talent in the squad.
Whether Ten Hag is the manager to take them back there in the next year or two remains to be seen.

What a mess, still. If Tuchel wanted it, apparently it was his to take. Him saying no has meant that Ten Hag stays.

New co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and trusted ally, United director Sir Dave Brailsford, began their own detailed assessment of the inner workings at Old Trafford in January.

It is fair to say they were not impressed.

Ten Hag viewed the situation he had walked into 18 months earlier as "a mess".

In his extensive interview with BBC sports editor Dan Roan on 21 February, Ratcliffe observed: “It’s not switching a light switch, not just about a new coach or a simple short-term fix. We have to walk to the right solution, not run to the wrong one.”

Within a couple of weeks of Ratcliffe’s assessment, BBC Sport was told issues around the structures in place at United had left his Ineos group to wonder if it was fair to judge any manager on the results being delivered, because it felt the existing set-up was destined to fail.

By then the plan was taking shape to bring in Jason Wilcox as technical director and Dan Ashworth as football director to complement Omar Berrada, who will formally take over as chief executive on 13 July.

Gary O’Driscoll had already arrived from Arsenal as United’s head of sports medicine and had begun assessing nutrition, training and the sleep of each player with the aim of improving overall fitness and robustness amid a dire injury situation, the worst in the Premier League.

Towards the end of the season, Ten Hag said he knew the reason for the lengthy injury list but was not prepared to elaborate. He still has not. He did say no manager could have dealt with it.