The axis of power who will rule on Ten Hag’s future
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is not afraid of voicing an opinion. Ineos executives involved at his Ligue 1 club Nice had a Whatsapp group and, on occasion, Ratcliffe would not be shy about sharing his bemusement, for example, about an interim manager’s left-field team selections.
It is safe to assume, then, that Ratcliffe will have a view on Erik ten Hag and his suitability as Manchester United manager. But do not mistake that for the Ineos owner calling the shots there. The future of Ten Hag, and those in his squad, are firmly decisions for the experts he is entrusting to rebuild United and, if they were the sort of individuals simply to dance to the billionaire’s tune, it is unlikely he would have employed them in the first place.
The axis of power will ultimately revolve around incoming chief executive Omar Berrada, new technical director Jason Wilcox and Dan Ashworth, once a deal of some description is struck with Newcastle for the sporting director. As things stand, that is heading for arbitration this month.
With Berrada seeing out the remainder of his gardening leave following his departure from Manchester City in January, though, Ineos Sport’s Jean-claude Blanc was drafted in as interim chief executive at the end of last month.
As one of two Ineos representatives alongside Sir Dave Brailsford on United’s club board, Blanc’s longer-term involvement at Old Trafford will be in a more advisory capacity. But without Berrada and Ashworth physically on the ground working alongside Wilcox at this critical juncture, Blanc will provide an important bridge. Not only will he give Berrada more eyes and ears on the ground, the 61-year-old Frenchman can provide a trusted voice, there to offer expert insight, make recommendations and tap into a wide network of contacts established over 16 years working in senior roles at Juventus and Paris St-germain.
Blanc knows only too well what it is like to walk into a maelstrom, after taking over as Juventus chief executive in 2006 when the Italian club were engulfed by the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal and relegated to Serie B.
United do not have a match-fixing scandal to contend with, thankfully, but there is no hiding from the challenges at hand, on and off the pitch. They are eighth in the Premier League and in growing danger of missing out on European qualification. There is little money to spend, a host of overpaid, underperforming players to shift and a manager whose credibility is waning by the week.
It is 78 days now since Ratcliffe’s deal for a 27.7 per cent stake in United was completed and the 100day marker will arrive in the days after the FA Cup final against Manchester City on May 25. United have no intention of sacking Ten Hag before the Wembley showpiece but they should have established a very thorough dossier of information by then on the manager, his overall approach, his relationship with the dressing room and the credentials and availability of potential replacements.
There are various components to this, which is where Wilcox comes to the fore. One of his principal tasks as technical director has been to establish the right “game model” – in other words, a coherent playing style and identity – from which decisions over the manager, signings and sales will flow – not the reverse. Linked directly to that, Wilcox is effectively auditing Ten Hag and his set-up.
Armed with that information, Ashworth, as sporting director, would ordinarily be the one who made the final recommendation for the board but, as the wait for his arrival goes on, Wilcox, Berrada and Blanc will be key to determining Ten Hag’s fate.
Brailsford has been conducting his own appraisal at Ratcliffe’s behest since December, which has included one-to-one meetings with players, and will make his own recommendations in terms of resetting the culture at Old Trafford and improving performance across the board. Like Blanc, it is firmly anticipated that the former British cycling supremo’s role will become more withdrawn over time.
It was Brailsford and Blanc who were instrumental in the appointment of Berrada. They held informal meetings with figures from across the football spectrum as they searched for a replacement for Richard Arnold as CEO, and Berrada’s name cropped up time and again in those talks. Berrada, in turn, was clear United should appoint Wilcox, who impressed him as academy director at City before he left to take over as Southampton’s sporting director last year.
Berrada, with experience of negotiating complex transfers and contracts, such as Erling Haaland’s move to City from Borussia Dortmund in 2022, is expected to assist Wilcox during the window, with Ashworth still waiting to start work at Old Trafford.
Whether Ten Hag will still be on board then remains to be seen.