I think the Laurie Whitwell article in the Athletic, whilst playing well to the narrative that the players are the problem, is really worrying.
I've seen managers in various jobs walk in and alienate staff and have to fight constant battles to get people onside and I can't say I've ever seen departments that were particularly unmanageable before that; it has, in my experience, almost always been a failure of management.
In the media ten Hag comes across as prickly, uncharismatic and robotic, and the glimpses we get behind the scene seem to support that picture. Being a manager is as much about getting players on board as it is about having a fantastic tactical plan, and whilst I am sure there are bad eggs in the squad that need to go, it's yet more reports of senior players unconvinced by his methods and by him as a manager.
I think the problem with this INEOS decision is that there is only one possible way that ten Hag can be a success here, and that's by an almost complete cull of the remaining senior players who either have, according to Whitwell, undermined him or just don't fit. Casemiro will have to follow Varane, Rashford will have to go and Maguire too.
The obvious question is do INEOS trust a man they clearly were quite willing to get rid of if they could find a better option to carry out a ruthless cull and retool the squad with younger and more pliable players who won't push back? Because, even if you do that, you're left with the distinct possibility that the reason Varane and Casemiro were running around telling people that ten Hag's tactics don't work is because they've won it all and know that ten Hag's tactics don't work.
I think this summer is going to be instructive, and I can't see us emerging well from it.