It had been clear for some time to everyone apart from Erik ten Hag that he was only in a job at Manchester United because Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his grim coterie of scowling and impotent henchmen did not know what else to do.
Ten Hag, a decent man and a decent coach, who mocked newspaper stories that the United hierarchy was considering dispensing with his services as ‘fairytales and lies’, found out on Monday morning what many managers have discovered before him.
Sometimes, powerful people in football tell you what you want to hear. Sometimes, what you want to hear does not align with the truth. Sometimes, it is not the people you think it is who are telling you the lies.
The truth was that Ten Hag had become an expert in blaming others – particularly referees – for the failings of him and his team.
The truth was that, in his third season in the job, United had no identity, no style, no vision and no hunger.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos were supposed to drain the swamp at Old Trafford. They have simply retreated further into its weeds and exacerbated the situation after Erik ten Hag was sacked
Half-competent decision-makers would have sacked Erik ten Hag over the summer break
He is a good man but keeping him and backing him has cost United hundreds of millions
United, already seven points off the top four, have wasted another Premier League season
The truth was he spent around £650m on new signings and yet still found occasions where he picked Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire as his first-choice centre backs. And, by the way, Evans and Maguire were both better than some of the dross that arrived on his watch.
The truth was that, under Ten Hag, United were ridiculously vulnerable at the back. They lost 4-0 to Brentford in August 2022, they lost 6-3 to Manchester City in October 2022, they lost 7-0 to Liverpool in March 2023. Late last month, they were outclassed by Tottenham in a 3-0 reverse. That’s the same Tottenham who lost to Crystal Palace on Sunday.
The truth was that even in the context of United’s post-Sir Alex Ferguson agonies, the club was getting further and further and further away from reviving those glory days than they ever had been in their 11 years in the wilderness.
He will not be represented prominently in the iconography of United’s managers. He was not a Busby or a Ferguson, nor even a Ron Atkinson or a Tommy Doc. He was just another false prophet in the cursed post-Ferguson years.
Blame the players if you want. And at times under Ten Hag, they have looked like an under-performing, under-achieving, smug, self-satisfied, over-entitled rabble unwilling to put in the hard work that is the basic requirement even for sides as brilliant as Manchester City.
But the buck always stops with the manager. If the players have played like duds and dupes, that is down to the boss. The truth was that Ten Hag’s reign may have started brightly but it should have ended long before Monday’s meeting with chief executive Omar Berrada and sporting director Dan Ashworth at United’s Carrington training ground.
When Sir Jim was not watching his new-age yacht getting blown out of the water by Kiwis at the America’s Cup in Barcelona, he and Sir Dave Brailsford and Berrada and Ashworth and Jason Wilcox sat in their unsmiling row in the Old Trafford directors’ box this season, watching United burn.
These men, who were supposed to constitute a brave new departure from the hated Glazer stasis, had become symbols of ruinous indecision, twiddling their thumbs, a joyless, grey politburo staring out over their own decaying and dilapidated Red Square.
The new leadership group has set the club back with ruinous indecision (L-R: Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Sir Dave Brailsford, Omar Berrada and Dan Ashworth)
Ten Hag was able to spend over £600million on new signings but most have not worked out
Manuel Ugarte is already surplus to requirements despite costing £50m from PSG this summer
The buck stops with Ten Hag if the team he has assembled are playing below expectations
Even half-competent decision-makers would have fired Ten Hag at the end of last season, when United finished eighth in the Premier League, but it took a defeat at West Ham on Sunday, which pushed them down to 14th, for the reaper inside Sir Jim to find his scythe.
Sir Jim wears the countenance of a man who might be rather fond of a cull here and there but United’s minority owner has found it an awful lot easier to rid himself of the little people at the club, either making them redundant or ending packed lunches for matchday staff, than to take the one employment decision that really mattered.
There is something about football that seems to make fools of otherwise successful people and if the billionaire Sir Jim has saved a few pennies on his petty economies, his failure to dismiss Ten Hag in the summer has cost United hundreds of millions of pounds.
They gave the Dutchman a new contract when everyone else could see he was a busted flush and they allowed him to spend another £200m on summer signings, many of whom may now be surplus to requirements when a new manager finally arrives.
Let’s face it, Manuel Ugarte is already surplus to requirements. He cost £50m from PSG in the summer and he can’t get in the side. We can add his cost to the £80m Ten Hag blew on Antony, who may well be, pound for pound, the worst signing in United’s history.
Perhaps Sir Jim and his motley crew of so-called sports industry leaders deserve a modicum of credit for doing the right thing eventually and relieving Ten Hag of his duties on Monday morning. Better late than never, I suppose.
But football is a dynamic business and by dithering and procrastinating, the Ineos brigade have paid a heavy price for sticking with a manager for six months longer than they should have done.
Their Premier League season is only nine games old and it is already over. It is a write-off. It has been sacrificed to the ineffectuality of men like Brailsford who might know how to post a Jiffy Bag but don’t have a clue about football.
For all his penny-pinching, Sir Jim has ended up blowing hundreds of millions of pounds
The attempt to get Mainoo and Garnacho on Man City’s Ballon d’Or flight was a low point
United’s dawdling means they missed out on an outstanding candidate in Thomas Tuchel
In the time it took them to make up their minds about Ten Hag, they lost out on the outstanding candidate to be his successor, Thomas Tuchel.
A quick note to Sir Jim and his men at this point: when you are gazumped by the FA, when you’re making Mark Bullingham look like a hot shot, you really haven’t got a lot further to fall.
There is really no point in sugar-coating it: so far, the Ineos era at Old Trafford has been an utter shambles. After the Glazers, they were supposed to drain the swamp but instead, eight months into their tenure, they have retreated ever further into its weeds.
It was only last week, in fact, when things reached another low point off the pitch: United asked Manchester City if Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo could blag a lift on City’s private plane to the Ballon d’Or ceremony in Paris on Monday night. City told them their plane was full with their own, rather more sizeable, group of nominees.
Heaven knows who at United came up with that brainwave. Maybe it was Brailsford’s idea of a marginal gain.
Maybe Sir Jim wanted to reduce United’s carbon footprint? Unlikely, probably. Sir Jim is currently building a massive petrochemicals plant in Antwerp. Eco-warrior is not really his vibe.
So what now? What now after rank mismanagement has brought them to this point? They backed their man to the hilt in the summer and now they have had to perform a humiliating volte-face before the end of October.
The most important part of the season is already dead and buried. United have no chance of winning the Premier League and they have lost so much ground on their leading rivals in the first quarter of the campaign that the top four is probably out of reach, too.
Sir Jim (left) pictured with Ten Hag (middle) shortly after taking charge at the club
Ten Hag led the club to two trophies, winning the Carabao Cup in 2023 and the FA Cup in 2024
The Dutchman was offered a contract extension in July after co-owners Ineos decided to keep him in charge following an end-of-season review
They’re not even in the Champions League, of course, so they have the minor pots like the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup to pursue. There’s the Europa League, too. You have to scroll down a long way in that table to find them. After three fixtures, they currently sit 21st, between Viktoria Plzen and IF Elfsborg.
Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ten Hag’s former assistant, has been appointed as United’s interim manager and will lead the team into the Carabao Cup last 16 tie against Leicester City on Wednesday night.
And then, on Sunday, United will welcome Chelsea to Old Trafford and they will welcome them with a degree of trepidation.
Because as Sir Jim and that grim politburo stare down from the directors’ box, they will see a Chelsea side that is a product of the kind of hard decisions United were unwilling and unable to take.
Let’s not overdo the praise for Chelsea quite yet just because Cole Palmer is a genius and they managed to string a few passes together in their narrow victory over Newcastle United on Sunday.
When you spend the kind of money Chelsea have spent in the transfer market, the law of averages says you are going to turn up one or two decent players at least.
But for all the mockery Chelsea have received, for all the criticism that came their way when they fired Mauricio Pochettino at the end of last season in the middle of what looked like a revival, Chelsea are evolving into a good side.
They have made progress, which is something United have spectacularly failed to do. They have an identity under their new manager Enzo Maresca and it is an identity which is pleasing on the eye. After the chaos of the last couple of seasons, they sit fifth in the Premier League. They are still a work in progress but they are moving in the right direction.
Ten Hag’s record at Manchester United across all competitions since his arrival in 2022
Ruud van Nistelrooy is in interim charge while United work on a permanent appointment
The indecision of Ineos does not instil great confidence in the idea that they will pick the right successor to Ten Hag. The first pitfall they must avoid is being swayed by Van Nistelrooy’s results as a caretaker. Sure, they might beat Leicester. They might even beat Chelsea.
But even though Van Nistelrooy is a legend of the club, that is not enough. He does not have the experience or the track record to lead United out of this mess.
If Sir Jim, Sir Dave and the rest want to prove they have a constructive long-term vision for United, they need to avoid making a showy, short-term appointment like Zinedine Zidane.
They need to appoint someone who will build something at Old Trafford, someone who can create a team for United fans to be proud of again, someone who can build a team with identity and style.
There are several obvious candidates. Thomas Frank, the Brentford boss, would be among them. Graham Potter, the former Brighton and Chelsea manager, should be high on their list, too. Gareth Southgate has said he will not take another job until next year but perhaps he could be persuaded.
Other names, other fine managers, will be mentioned as well. Ruben Amorim has won a host of admirers at Sporting Lisbon and Xavi led even a troubled Barcelona side to a league title before he went down in flames.
Thomas Frank and Graham Potter should be high on United’s list of potential candidates
They should steer clear of making a flashy short-term appointment such as Zinedine Zidane
But the modern Manchester United has become a machine that chews up the best managerial talents and spits them out, however highly recommended they come.
There is something rotten at the club and Sir Jim and his politburo have not provided any evidence yet that they are the people to root it out.
They have wasted another season at England’s biggest club by botching the Ten Hag decision. After procrastinating for so long, they will surely have a successor waiting in the wings. Their inaction has cost United too much already.