Manchester United's Dutch manager Erik ten Hag Manchester United's Dutch manager Erik ten Hag has been fired by the club. Photo: Oli Scarff/AFP
Manchester United have finally sacked Erik ten Hag, for a while it felt like they would never do it.
United’s limping and underperforming Dutch manager miraculously kept his job after finishing eighth in the Premier League last season.
In truth, Man United should have sacked Ten Hag in May after he outfoxed Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in the FA Cup Final.
Apparently the INEOS leadership sounded other managers but found no better options, so, they went back to the same inept manager, triggered a contract extension of one year and gave him a further £200 million to spend, while also allowing him to banish permanently players like Jadon Sancho, who were perhaps praying for the manager's head all season last season.
The June decision to keep Ten Hag is proving quite expensive as his sacking will reportedly net the coach upwards of £15 million, much of which would have been saved had he been fired earlier without triggering the extension.
Admittedly, sacking him in May would have been a little cruel, but it would have been the correct cruel and decisive decision that all leaders worthy of their stripes must make at times to arrest decline and organisational decay.
In West London, Champions League winning coaches such as Thomas Tuchel and Roberto Di Matteo and proven winners like Jose Mouronho were quickly shown the door when results turned, despite winning worthy honours for the club.
At United, it had became evident that Ten Hag was never going to be the winning manager Man United so desperately need.
In Ten Hag’s two seasons and two months, he won two cups - the League Cup against Newcastle and the FA Cup against Man City - a feat he was extremely proud of, just ask any soccer journalist assigned to cover Man United.
The two cups he won became his go to answer to make sense of poor results against the likes of Tottenham Hotspurs, Liverpool, West Ham and Brighton.
Many people like former United coach Benni McCarthy have in the past backed Ten Hag to succeed at Man United, citing he was a likeable and a tactical beast, but in truth he lacked the technical and tactical acumen, the personality and was perhaps too military in his approach.
McCarthy’s comments on Ten Hag never sounded like a glowing vote of confidence on the Dutchman, especially when he psycho-analysed his former boss and said he lacked the personality, the fire and the passion.
To me, it always sounded like Benni was communicating doubt about the Dutch guy, and so he has been proven right.
I personally lost all faith in Ten Hag succeeding at United when he told journalists in October last year that he could not play possession football at United like he did at Ajax as he moaned about the players.
“We will never play that football. Because those were different players. We are playing different football than I showed at Ajax because I have to, because I can't play the same way,” Ten Hag told journalists in October last year.
So instead of trying to play attractive possession winning football, which Is why he was hired in the first place, he then decided he would basically try to become a poor man's Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, attempting to play his own brand of “transition football,”.
Thank goodness it's over.
Under Ten Hag's reign at Man United, getting hit for three, four or five has become a far too regular occurrence and it was starting to feel like goalkeeper Andre Onana saves nothing fired in his direction.
Remember the 7-0 loss at Anfield, the 6-3 pummeling by Man City at the Etihad which was accompanied by a double hattrick from Phil Foden and Eerling Haaland, the 4-0 against Crystal Palace, the 4-0 against Brentford, the 3-0 at Bournemouth, the 4-3 meltdown in Copenhagen, I could go on, but the coach has long showed he lacks the pedigree.
Last week, we saw the full back Noussair Mazraoui fielded as a 10 in the Europa League, while the talent that is Amad Diallo sat on the bench, only to be fielded to replace an injured Antony, another poor Ten Hag signing.
In the past two years, United fans and football fans have watched United’s midfield players such as Christian Eriksen and Casemiro being overrun for months owing to the coaches structurally flawed tactics.
Ten Hag has built a midfield devoid of any rigidity, fluidity or form, the Manchester United midfield has in the past few years resembled the MTN Taxi Rank in downtown Joburg, anyone can come and go, no questions asked.
To his credit though, the likes of Kobbie Mainoo, Alejandro Garnacho and Willy Kambwala have been handed debuts, so at least there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
With United legend Ruud van Nistelrooy set to takeover as interim manager until the next manager is appointed, he will need to be at his best and we hope for that Ole type-bounce and change in results.
The midfield is an area that needs urgent attention, and we are hoping Ruud can now apply some of his ideas that hopefully Ten Hag has been ignoring him on in the past few months.
Oh, and probably send Garnacho to the bench, the young Argentine is a talent, but he still needs massive polishing to shine properly and consistently.
It’s never nice to wish unemployment on anyone, but it was inevitable that it would end like this with Ten Hag. Good luck, goodbye.
** Sihle Mlambo is content manager at IOL.
** The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of IOL/Independent Media.