The Guardian - Manchester United to sack Erik ten Hag after the FA Cup Final

[FerociousCorgis]

How are we sacking a manager after just 2 years, when the first year was great and there was no stability in the second year (both with injuries and in the club's ownership and hierarchy). Absolute fecking mess. Also a complete disgrace to let this leak before the cup final. It just feels like all the excitement for the FA Cup final has been zapped out and instead just seems like a horrible thing to watch knowing he gets sacked win or lose. At the moment Ineos's only achievement is that they are making the Glazers look good.

calling last year great is crazy. We were decent up until the cup final, and then it was trash from then on. We limped to the end, and i thought well maybe it was just EtH grinding out the season due to injuries/poor form of certain players-next year will be much better.
But no, this season was a complete disaster. I can count on one hand the amount of good games we have played. We legit looked worse than damn near everyone we played, and i believe most of the times it was several levels below, not like just slightly worse. He has to go, people are just complaining about the timing of the leaks.

 

[Eriku]

Absolutely idiotic for this to drop the day before our most important match of the season.

Can only hope the lads will be keen to send him off with a trophy, but I imagine it’s not ideal for their headspace.

Should have sacked him earlier when he persisted with suicidal tactics allowing every side to counter us to death with ease, giving a new coach a chance to turn us around.

 

[Irwin99]

They don't, the original post was refering to players getting multiple managers sacked or similar. No one got Rangnick sacked his contract ended, he was only an interim.

It is universally acknowledged that they gave up on him though-players calling staff 'Ted Lasso' and other unprofessional crap.

 

[giggs-beckham]

He will literally get paid off to do nothing or go find another job.

People act like he's facing execution

 

[2 man midfield]

feck sake, the roof isn’t the only thing that leaks around here is it

 

[Ayoba]

In a pensive mood tonight, and I can't help but feel very disappointed by this outcome. I, like many united fans, had high hopes with ETH. Certainly after the 1st season we looked like we were going in the right direction and we finally won something aged 5 years.

It's such a shame how this season has turned out. Back to the drawing board....again

 

[izec]

How are we sacking a manager after just 2 years, when the first year was great and there was no stability in the second year (both with injuries and in the club's ownership and hierarchy). Absolute fecking mess. Also a complete disgrace to let this leak before the cup final. It just feels like all the excitement for the FA Cup final has been zapped out and instead just seems like a horrible thing to watch knowing he gets sacked win or lose. At the moment Ineos's only achievement is that they are making the Glazers look good.

Because his second season was a disgrace. Stop with the excuses

 

[Tincanalley]

This changes nothing. Ten Hag would have known. The players if they aren't terribly thick would have suspected it at least as well. We've just had the worst season in club's modern history, there was no logic in him staying. Ineos never publicly backed him although they had every chance to do so. We need to stop being this attached to managers.

You seem to know a lot about logic

 

[Leftback99]

The one center back we bought while EtH was here is literally that type of player though.

Hardly. Aggression maybe, pace and power no.

 

[FrankDrebin]

I don't think the players have 'thrown him under the bus'.

 

[Alpha 1]

I have criticised his tactics and coaching this season. A part of me feels sorry for him (although he'll earn far more than i ever will over my lifetime even after being fired); he obviously is a good guy but truth be told this season has been a very hard watch and the decision is in the best interest of the club. He had to go.

 

[Livewire1974]

He will literally get paid off to do nothing or go find another job.

Yeah, makes it all ok then.

 

[Rista]

You seem to know a lot about logic

Anybody with any sense would have seen this sacking coming. The leak is completely irrelevant.

 

[Lay]

When your excitement for a cup final is lost because the manager is getting sacked, that's when you know you're way too emotionally invested in the manager and not the club you support

Agree. It's just another manager at the end of the day who will be heavily compensated for being shite. The club will carry on without him just fine.

 

[Dutch Fraud Squad]

Timing could've been better!
He's not helped himself at all with his intractability towards tactics. Here's hoping he's spent the last couple of weeks coming up with some sort of plan to stiffle citeh and scrape out a win on penalties...I won't hold my breath though.

 

[Pascal Quiff]

That’s what you was hoping Shows how bad you must have been to not get any wins against us this season.

We shat the bed tbf, still can't understand it....part of me thinks it may be the same for City tomorrow and it'll be closer than most are predicting.

 

[Offside]

In a pensive mood tonight, and I can't help but feel very disappointed by this outcome. I, like many united fans, had high hopes with ETH. Certainly after the 1st season we looked like we were going in the right direction and we finally won something aged 5 years.

It's such a shame how this season has turned out. Back to the drawing board....again

Only until the league cup final. The last 2 months of last season were absolutely shocking. Like this season there was genuinely not a good performance. The only games we’ve played well in the last 15 months were both against Chelsea at OT, the only other big club who were in a bigger shitshow (even they overtook us this season).

I don’t think any other manager had so few good performances over such a long period of time. We are guaranteed to be shit every week - tomorrow is a guaranteed defeat.

 

[AnotherLondonManc]

Looks all the more likely now that this will be the last báld fraud derby

Whatever happens for ETH, we can all at least wish him good luck in the final el baldico

 

[El Zoido]

In a pensive mood tonight, and I can't help but feel very disappointed by this outcome. I, like many united fans, had high hopes with ETH. Certainly after the 1st season we looked like we were going in the right direction and we finally won something aged 5 years.

It's such a shame how this season has turned out. Back to the drawing board....again

Same feeling. And I like Erik as well, he seems like a thoroughly decent bloke. It really did feel like he’d cracked it last season up until the cup win. He dealt with a number of difficult issues extremely well. He dug his own grave with the tactics this season though, and his transfer business has been absolutely appalling. I still think he’s a good manager, but things can spiral. The job got away from him.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Yeah, makes it all ok then.

I'm sure he'll be fine.

 

[stevoc]

It is universally acknowledged that they gave up on him though-players calling staff 'Ted Lasso' and other unprofessional crap.

Ok. Not sure what some random rumour from 2 years ago has to do with what's being discussed though.

 

[horsechoker]

Looks all the more likely now that this will be the last báld fraud derby

Whatever happens for ETH, we can all at least wish him good luck in the final el baldico

Pep v Slot next year

 

[redIndianDevil]

Good. Axe deserved just for Mount transfer.

 

[red.knight]

He's did well to get to 2 years considering the performances and results this season.

I feel we will regret this decision. Ten Hag has done a lot to sieve out the dead weight and bring in lots of fresh young players. He just needs more time to refresh what is for the most part a dead squad. He has cut the wage bill by quite a bit and even now has plans to trim it further. Why can’t we just weather the storm a little longer and at least give him his full three years? WHY? Do some fans actually think two years is enough time to fix the rot in our club? We all know lots of the players we have are not good enough and yet here we are. Again. And leaking a day before a cup final is beyond embarrassing.

 

[Tincanalley]

How come Sky not leading w this?

 

[mu4c_20le]

Good. Axe deserved just for Mount transfer.

Should be tried on the ICC for Antony.

 

[klayton88]

If this is in fact true, there can't be too many people know about the decision that's been made... Meaning the leak should be easy to identify?

 

[thisisnottaken1]

Good decision. Probably should have announced it after the final though.

 

[pratyush_utd]

Depends where the information came from, who leaked it or if it isn't all just guesswork backed up by the club not commenting.

I was not pro INEOS. I was pro Qatar. So there's no bias around me. However what makes you think that INEOS leaked it? They had zero to gain out of it. The only people I can think that benefit out of this leak is ETH and his dodgy agency. I mean if tomorrow United lost 6-0 then no one would blame the manager because they would say that he was distracted

How do you know the club leaked it? WHY would the club leak it now? It makes zero sense.

Not saying it was leaked by United. But meeting him before FA cup final was always going to leak. We could have just called and asked him to wait till FA cup final.

 

[golden_blunder]

True, but I still think Bayern showed the right way to go about it with Tuchel, and we've now done it the wrong way twice.




Guess it depends how much of a shock it is to ETH and the players. Probably not much of one to the players.

But I think we assumed at the time when it happened to LVG that he would have known beforehand and expected it to be his last game, and later on his quotes suggest it blindsided him a bit. Never underestimate the arrogance of a Dutch football manager.

The same Bayern who says they were releasing him, then got multiple no answers before going back to him begging to stay before he told them to feck off

 

[stevoc]

I feel we will regret this decision. Ten Hag has done a lot to sieve out the dead weight and bring in lots of fresh young players. He just needs more time to refresh what is for the most part a dead squad. He has cut the wage bill by quite a bit and even now has plans to trim it further. Why can’t we just weather the storm a little longer and at least give him his full three years? WHY? Do some fans actually think two years is enough time to fix the rot in our club? We all know lots of the players we have are not good enough and yet here we are. Again. And leaking a day before a cup final is beyond embarrassing.

Have you been following events of the last 2 years? Especially the last 12 months, no idea how anyone is surprised by this.

If it's a dead squad then Ten Hag killed it. £450m spent, 60%+ are now Ten Hag players. We only have 10 players left out of the current 28 who played under Ole, 2 of those are already confirmed to be leaving.

 

[pratyush_utd]

First time i actually saw him was when he was interviewing with Gomes at end of the season awards ceremony. He seemed quite nice and was unfairly criticised during bad times under Ole.

Wont be against his signing, but i had wanted ETH and it turned out extremely bad. So what do i know? Hopefully it works out this time

 

[NoLogo]

While I think it's bad timing to do this ahead of the cup final I don't feel it's the wrong thing to do. Now it's going to be interesting to see who our next manager is going to be. Potter, Poch, Tuchel, McKenna or someone complete surprise?

 

[Moriarty]

Pep v Slot next year

If Liverpool start playing well and winning games, will they be known as a Slot machine?

 

[klayton88]

This club is so embarrassing at times, I bet ETH wished he'd listened to LVG now.

We don't know this came from the club. I don't even think we are that tone deaf to announce it in this manner.

 

[DJ_21]

We shat the bed tbf, still can't understand it....part of me thinks it may be the same for City tomorrow and it'll be closer than most are predicting.

Possibly. Tbf you missed a dozen chances against us. We always expect us to get battered whenever we play yous and city but ETH only ever seems to play compact against your teams. I think city will beat us but I don’t think they’ll batter us, by scoreline anyway. They’ll probably batter us on chances.

 

[DJ_21]

If Liverpool start playing well and winning games, will they be known as a Slot machine?

Love that

 

[MadDogg]

How are we sacking a manager after just 2 years, when the first year was great and there was no stability in the second year (both with injuries and in the club's ownership and hierarchy). Absolute fecking mess. Also a complete disgrace to let this leak before the cup final. It just feels like all the excitement for the FA Cup final has been zapped out and instead just seems like a horrible thing to watch knowing he gets sacked win or lose. At the moment Ineos's only achievement is that they are making the Glazers look good.

His first season was good, not great.

His second season was an unmitigated disaster where our results have been the worst in the modern era and yet they are still significantly better than what our actual performances have deserved. Literal Championship-quality teams have looked better managed than we have. No other top club would even be debating whether or not to sack him after having a season of this magnitude, the only question would have been whether they'd sack him months ago or let him finish the season.

 

[Gabriel Djemba-Bebe]

It’s cute people think we ever had a chance tomorrow that this news would somehow derail us

Cup finals are usually tighter than ordinary games because of what's at stake - see City in last year's FA Cup final and Champions League final vs far weaker opponents. They can often be decided by small margins like a GK's mistake or a striker being profligate.

 

[mu4c_20le]

This club is so embarrassing at times, I bet ETH wished he'd listened to LVG now.

Voluntarily resign?