Manchester United are at the crossroads with yet another manager after giving him a new contract in the summer but they are holding their nerve for now.
The next two games could be pivotal, starting with the Europa League game away at FC Porto and Aston Villa after that, who have now downed Bayern Munich in their most recent meeting.
It is not looking good for the Erik ten Hag unless he miraculously pulls out two world-class performances from the hat.
Granted, that can’t be ruled out completely, considering the team did exactly that against Manchester City in the FA Cup final last season.
Amidst all the scrutiny, Ten Hag spoke to the media in the buildup to the Porto game and his latest comments give an indication of what Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Co are thinking about his job right now.
Erik ten Hag on his future
Just recently, Ten Hag caught the ire of the United fans again after he mentioned winning trophies at Old Trafford and doing so throughout his career.
He remains oblivious, or prefers to ignore the team’s performance in the league and the lack of any consistency or philosophy.
Ineos have so far backed Ten Hag publicly but anyone who has seen the football business knows that a statement of confidence means nothing if results continue to deteriorate.
Ten Hag, in the meantime, has maintained a fighting stance in the media and harshly pushed back against suggestions that his job is in danger.
He said: “We talk every day. We are a union and we made that commitment in the summer. We refreshed the staff and I appointed my assistants, I appointed the staff. I did this. We refreshed the squad as well.
“This club wants to be back on top and it’s a long-term target. We talk every day. Every day we evaluate and review the process and where necessary we make our decisions.”
“It’s not necessary [talking to Ashworth] to give me confidence. We talk every day about how we can improve this club, this team, improve the processes, the procedures, the connections. That is what we talk about.”
Reading the room
Nobody is going to ask Ten Hag to acknowledge that his job is in danger which is not natural for anyone in the job, but his refusal to acknowledge that his tenure has struggled for lift-off has been infuriating for the fans.
Of course, it’s hard to talk when the results are falling drastically because then, every word you say is taken and twisted into something negative.
However, with Ten Hag, there is no need to twist the words since he’s often oblivious about reading the room and the fan sentiment anyway.
The “process” is good and United fans always back a manager unless it gets absolutely toxic and hopeless, but growing pains in the process should be mixed with encouraging platforms to build upon.
So far, United’s “progress” has been just one step forward, more than ten steps back which is why he’s slowly losing support.
His alluding to the trophies he has won throughout his career at every opportunity is increasingly getting reminiscent of another Man Utd manager who started talking himself up when he knew the time was ticking on his tenure.
“This is football heritage,” said Jose Mourinho.
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