The winds of change that blew over Manchester United this summer and holistically, since Ineos took over, blew away many people with them.
However, the key man in the dugout, Erik ten Hag, survived the brunt of it and came out the other side with a contract extension.
The FA Cup final win greatly helped his chances but he was under threat of losing his job still, after guiding United to their worst-ever Premier League finish.
Ineos openly talked to other managers with a view to replacing Ten Hag but now, Sir Jim Ratcliffe has revealed why that sacking never came in a frank discussion.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe on Erik ten Hag
Ten Hag had won the fans back to his side with the FA Cup win, which he was also losing before that final but the people he needed to impress the most were in the boardroom.
After a rigorous process which Ten Hag also lifted the lid on earlier, they decided they have the best man for the job already.
However, there has been a major recalibration of the coaching staff and the executive structure in support of the manager has also changed.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s comments on why Ten Hag survived the sack reveals the thinking behind those changes and makes everything clear.
In an interview with The Times, Sir Jim said that Ten Hag’s ability as a manager was never under doubt, it’s just he was “doing too much”. He put it in a hilarious way which reflects extremely badly on the Glazers.
He said: “Erik is a good guy and had been doing his best, but doing too much. He was trying to sort out the squad and fix leaks in the roof at the same time.
“What happened is that Alex Ferguson and David Gill [the former managing director] left at the same time, 11 years ago. Up until that point, those two had been managing the sports side of the club and the Glazer family had managed the commercial side very well. And then all of a sudden there’s this vacuum.”
Reaffirms fans’ theory
Sir Jim recently delivered a ruthless verdict on the state of affairs at Man United and the comments above are an extension to that same sentiment.
It’s a real eye-opener that the fans had already diagnosed this issue much earlier but the Glazers wanted to remain blind to it.
Sir Jim saying the same just reaffirms the fans’ theory and puts into perspective how big of a bubble the Glazers used to live in.
Despite it being an obvious shortcoming with a straightforward solution, they kept applying bandages to a fracture by appointing the likes of John Murtough as sporting director, while Darren Fletcher was probably the first technical director to help the manager coach the team by sitting in the dugout.
Thankfully, that is something Ineos addressed on priority and the results of the same are already clear. Add another loss for the Glazers to a list that is getting impossible to maintain at this point.
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