Erik ten Hag sacking: Inside a turbulent two years at Manchester United

Ten Hag has had to deal with other tough situations.

Right at the start of his tenure, he had to discipline Cristiano Ronaldo for leaving Old Trafford early after he had been replaced at half-time during a pre-season game against Rayo Vallecano.

The move showed strength but set in place a chain of events that would eventually lead to Ronaldo being kicked out of the club following an incendiary interview with Piers Morgan when he said Ten Hag “doesn’t show respect for me”.

Ten Hag used a lunch with journalists in Spain during the World Cup break to explain his thinking.

“When he is in good shape, he is a good player and could help us achieve the objectives we have, that is quite clear,” said the Dutchman.

“But he wasn’t. I wanted to work with him. He chose another way.”

Ten Hag disciplined Rashford shortly afterwards for missing the start of a team meeting by leaving the England forward on the bench for a game at Wolves. Rashford scored the winner after being introduced as a substitute.

Then there was Jadon Sancho, who was put on a personal fitness programme after United’s coaching staff noted his physical stats were dropping. When he was left out of the squad for a defeat at Arsenal in September 2023, Ten Hag cited the England man’s poor performance in training.

Sancho immediately responded on social media by saying he was being made “a scapegoat”. Sancho deleted the post but refused to apologise.

Ten Hag never picked him for another Premier League game and while he did return to the squad during pre-season, on transfer deadline day, he went on loan to Chelsea.

Last season, Ten Hag had to wrestle with a crippling injury list, on which he had not always received the best advice. With Luke Shaw fit, he was told Tyrell Malacia would be available within a couple of weeks of the start of February last season, so Ten Hag opted to let his on loan left-back Sergio Reguilon return to Tottenham.

But Malacia was soon to suffer a major setback in his recovery and Shaw suffered a hamstring injury at Luton on 18 February. Neither has played a game for United since. Despite a bullish summer statement from the club about a revamped medical department, at West Ham Ten Hag was without seven senior players because of injury.

However, sympathy can only be extended so far.

Ten Hag is a likeable man. On that pre-Christmas trip to Spain, he entertained the media over lunch with stories of his youth and early career. In Los Angeles this summer, arriving more than an hour earlier than initially planned for a series of interviews with UK media he laughed and joked with reporters and even offered advice on the best places to go for coffee near his Cheshire home.

At the recent Football Writers’ Dinner in Manchester, he hung around and spoke to journalists long after he had collected his award for winning the FA Cup.

But during the season, in an official capacity, Ten Hag’s communication was not great. Some members of the media were told by United staff that Ten Hag preferred ‘blunt’ questions because he found them easier to understand and answer.

The problem was, the answers, increasingly, did not stand up to scrutiny.

Before and after the international break, Ten Hag spoke about being on the “same page” as United’s hierarchy. But for all the bullish words it has seemed to be a question of when, not if, he would leave.

One source, who has vast experience at a senior level at United, was surprised Ten Hag did not lose his job at the end of last season. He was incredulous it didn’t happen at some point before the October resumption.

But numerous United figures, both in and out of Old Trafford, agreed with the sentiment that once the boulder starts to roll down the hill, it is a matter of time before it reaches the bottom. Now it has.

Many of United’s players will be sad to see Ten Hag go.

In April 2023, the Daily Telegraph reported, external one of the reasons why Tottenham opted not to try to bring Ten Hag in from Ajax to replace Jose Mourinho in 2021 was because they felt he lacked charisma.

There is an element of that at United.

Multiple sources have confirmed there has been no big bust-up and no growing ill feeling. But there was no connection either. A lack of a basic understanding of what Ten Hag was trying to achieve.

A coach but not a communicator.