Ratcliffe and Co might yet shut out the noise and look to future with ETH
THE task for Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his new football leadership team at United is to strip away the noise, measure the misfortune and assess whether Erik ten Hag remains the man to lead them into a new era.
That was certainly the view of Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford in their early discussions about investment in United. Even as that deal reached the final stages towards the end of 2023 they remained confident they had the right manager, just not the right structure.
Now, with the end of the season in sight, the structure is coming together, but their biggest decision has become about the man who will always be the figurehead of any football club.
Ten Hag is in danger of overseeing United’s worst-ever Premier League season and falling short of European qualification for next season.
For most United managers, that is unsurvivable.
Ten Hag does have some mitigation, however, in terms of a chronic and unrelenting injury crisis and he also has credit in the bank. That’s why Ratcliffe was so sure he had the right man in the first place.
Last season Ten Hag ended United’s six-year trophy drought, returned them to the Champions League and cracked the whip over a squad that needed an injection of discipline. This season, almost everything has fallen apart.
Injuries are an issue, but the same weaknesses visible in United in the autumn are still there now the sun is out again. That is never going to be a good look for a manager and after the 4-0 defeat at Crystal Palace on Monday, the chances of Ten Hag surviving are slim.
Slim, but not impossible. He could yet win the FA Cup final, or gain positive results against Arsenal and Newcastle this week. Those making the decision at Old Trafford might decide the lack of an obvious candidate to replace him makes change a risk that isn’t worth taking.
And maybe they decide that this season is actually just a writeoff and the good work of his first campaign shouldn’t be tossed away. United need a project manager and in Ten Hag they have someone who seemed to fit the bill a year ago.
If Ratcliffe is still considering sticking rather than twisting, he might look at the man in the opposite dugout this weekend and see reasons for keeping faith. Mikel Arteta has been through difficult times at Arsenal.
Having taken charge at the Emirates in December 2019, he could only guide the Gunners to eighth that season and then eighth again in his first full season.
Like Ten Hag, he had an early trophy to cling to as evidence of potential, with the FA Cup won at Wembley in 2020. At the start of the 2021/22 season Arsenal were bottom after losing their first three Premier League fixtures and Arteta was on the brink. It would have been no surprise had he been sacked at that point. The surprise was that he survived to finish fifth in that season. Arsenal had sensed he was putting a project in place and kept the faith. He was jettisoning big-name players who didn’t fit his ethos and players on high salaries that they were no longer justifying. Window by window, he was putting his squad and his philosophy in place – and then it clicked.
For the second successive season, Arsenal are in a title race with City and with a young squad led by an impressive manager, they look in a good place to end their 20-year wait to win the Premier League sooner rather than later.
They were rewarded for seeing through the noise and the instant judgements.
Maybe Ten Hag will never get to that point. But the trajectory of Arteta’s success at Arsenal does show that often there will be some dark days before you reach your destination.
Ratcliffe might look at the man in the opposite dugout this weekend and see reasons to keep faith
Tyrone Marshall