Ten Hag sacked | Ruud appointed Interim Manager

[Stu Pearson]

Hopefully the Directors have been doing their homework and they already have someone lined up.

 

[skc_18]

Just the signings of Mount , Anthony justify the sack , poor form and team organization is just bonus. If you bought half of Ajax and still can’t beat lower half of premier league comfortably you are in wrong place.
Always wondered about this scenario as soon as Ruud came as a coach. Hopefully Ruud can turn it around because squad is pretty decent.

 

[EI Beatle]

Thanks for the 2 Trophies Erik and could you get a job in Saudi and take your misfits with you cheers

 

[quadrant]

Okay. Nice. You believe what you believe.

Well you seem to be making stuff up for no other than reason than to have a moan, so yes, I think I will.

 

[Van Piorsing]

So basically what you are saying is clearing out all but 4 players in 3 years while spending £600m to replace all the departures was not enough, and if he only were able to replace Rashford things would be good. But because he didn’t, Rashford colluded with other players to get him fired.

We can appoint two managers in space of months, and if they won't find a way to squeeze something, then I guess it's their fault. Managers paid the price, they're gone, no problem. Perhaps It's time to judge the players, at least from time to time.

If Rashford stays, that's fine, because he's still more productive than Sanch & Anto. I wish we could appoint someone who can work with everyone and create actual team, but that could be still a wishful thinking. (Hope to be proven wrong, and Berrada could very well have recipe for this.)

At some point somebody will have pull the plug on entire thing, if it's not working.

 

[romufc]

Just the signings of Mount , Anthony justify the sack , poor form and team organization is just bonus. If you bought half of Ajax and still can’t beat lower half of premier league comfortably you are in wrong place.
Always wondered about this scenario as soon as Ruud came as a coach. Hopefully Ruud can turn it around because squad is pretty decent.

I dont think anything will change.

Ruud was taking charge of training this season and we have played badly all season.

I dont see how sacking Ten Hag and not the coaching staff will change anything. Same old, expect Chelsea to score a minimum of 4 this weekend.

 

[Yakuza_devils]

Well you seem to be making stuff up for no other than reason than to have a moan, so yes, I think I will.

It must be great living in a black and white world.

 

[GBBQ]

I am surprised so many have a soft spot for him. I never warmed to him as a character. I definitely celebrated some great results he delivered and didn’t actively dislike him, but I just never took to his personality.

 

[Gandalf Greyhame]

he’ll secretly be relieved. nothing he tried worked and by god did he try the one and only thing he knew for 2 and a half years. he’ll be on tv in 6 months, looking a decade younger, with a full head of hair.

Agreed, felt like he was out of ideas and ways he could change things by the end.

I'm actually surprised they did it now. The last game wasn't really something that I thought would trigger it. For me it is the right decision, and at least puts an end to the constant when will they sack him saga. Really should have been at the end of last season though. Hopefully Rudd does well, but I don't want a repeat of the Ole situation where we gift him the job if he does decent this season.

Yep. This was a very unexpected though not unwelcome timing.

So they waited 3 more games after the international break then sacked him, this is three weeks late (more like 4-5 months late) and we’ve now missed out on the perfect person to steady the ship and who wouldn’t have accepted the piss poor effort from the players in Tuchel.

I don’t believe for a second that there’s any difference money wise in sacking ETH now to what there was before the break and it just smacks of dithering incompetence on Ineos part, it’s 100% the right decision BUT far too late as we’re in a horrible position money wise and allowed more ETH signings in during the summer when he should have parted on good terms and on a high after the cup final.

We lost the option of hiring Tuchel, too. Reports said he was interested, but we never made the move. This timing will look even more baffling if Ruud stays on for a while.

Have no vitriol towards him whatsoever. It was just painfully evident he wasn't good enough. The club getting rid of him after the cup final would have meant he could have gone with some dignity intact, whilst we didn't waste another window signing his players. Not impressed at all with INEOS' dithering.

All the best to EtH in the future.

Felt he had to deal with a lot during his time here.

The aging squad he inherited, the Ronaldo situation, the Greenwood dithering, Sancho's petulance, Rashford's indifference, the ownership change, lack of support during this transition, the way he was left to media wolves without any support from the club after the FA Cup final.

You could argue he was backed by money in the market, but irrespective of whose fault it was, how much value did that money buy?

It was clear he didn't have it in him to change things anymore, but it is also clear that despite our spend, he wasn't supported effectively or given the right environment to thrive for the majority of his stay here.

He had to go. But I am disappointed he is sacked, because it means yet another failure. Yet another rebuild and clear out. The cycle just carries on and on. I had high hopes that we could regain some of the glory years after ETHs 1st season, but here we are again.

United is a manager's graveyard. One can only hope that the next one isn't set up to fail. Our problems still run much deeper than the manager.

We’ve been here before. We’re going in circles.

Yep.

I feel for ETH. I don't think he's a bad coach, I think the job was simply too big for him. Just as it was too big for every other manager since Fergie.

I think future managers will be helped by only needing to focus on the first team, and will hopefully benefit from the cumulative impact of season after season of buying players who are compatible with each other, and with the managers we bring in. ETH inherited a dog's dinner of a squad, who don't seem to suit any style of football other than counter attacking into space.

It's debatable whether any manager could have succeeded in these conditions. But it's undeniable that ETH couldn't.

Now we're in the position we didn't want to be, choosing a manager when the best managers are unavailable. Best case scenario, Ruud keeps a steady ship til summer, when we can get involved in the manager roundabout.

Agreed.

I really wanted him to work out.

Yep, felt like he had the most potential of the ones we had since SAF. It's a shame things didn't work out.

I see a lot of people celebrating this sacking, I don't get why. Yep, results will improve even under an interim, but we've failed yet again. We've lost more years, more money, more momentum, more starts, more players' primes, more potential all round.

I get that this year to be done, but such a set of cumulative losses deserve mourning.

 

[Andycoleno9]

He would reject us cause it’s the middle of the season. No top manager would move. We have to wait till the summer to have a chance at him.

It is not middle of the season though. It is not even 1/4 of the season.
But nevertheless, i wouldn't sacrifice whole season for him. Persuade him to join now or find another manager who will.

 

[Yagami]

We can appoint two managers in space of months, and if they won't find a way to squeeze something, then I guess it's their fault. Managers paid the price, they're gone, no problem. Perhaps It's time to judge the players, at least from time to time.

If Rashford stays, that's fine, because he's still more productive than Sanch & Anto. I wish we could appoint someone who can work with everyone and create actual team, but that could be still a wishful thinking. (Hope to be proven wrong, and Berrada could very well have recipe for this.)

At some point somebody will have pull the plug on entire thing, if it's not working.

This is a ten Hag team, though. We got rid of big name players for him. Gave him hundreds of millions to bring in his guys, and we're worse than ever.

 

[utdalltheway]

Ding dong the witch is dead. Or summink like that.
Finally the board grow a pair and realise what most of us already had.
Hopefully they have a good one lined up, this time.
Also, get shut of most of the ajax signings and get our money back.

 

[Shark]

I am surprised so many have a soft spot for him. I never warmed to him as a character. I definitely celebrated some great results he delivered and didn’t actively dislike him, but I just never took to his personality.

Was he AI technology in human form. Never went deep into anything, regurgitated the same lines over and over. Never really came across as humble either, constant excuses and we were all wrong for doubting this plans going into games. He had the perfect plan always even in heavy defeats.

 

[quadrant]

It must be great living in a black and white world.

If that's what you want to call not believing stuff that people make up online, count me in.

 

[El Zoido]

Agreed, felt like he was out of ideas and ways he could change things by the end.



Yep. This was a very unexpected though not unwelcome timing.



We lost the option of hiring Tuchel, too. Reports said he was interested, but we never made the move. This timing will look even more baffling if Ruud stays on for a while.



Felt he had to deal with a lot during his time here.

The aging squad he inherited, the Ronaldo situation, the Greenwood dithering, Sancho's petulance, Rashford's indifference, the ownership change, lack of support during this transition, the way he was left to media wolves without any support from the club after the FA Cup final.

You could argue he was backed by money in the market, but irrespective of whose fault it was, how much value did that money buy?

It was clear he didn't have it in him to change things anymore, but it is also clear that despite our spend, he wasn't supported effectively or given the right environment to thrive for the majority of his stay here.



United is a manager's graveyard. One can only hope that the next one isn't set up to fail. Our problems still run much deeper than the manager.



Yep.



Agreed.



Yep, felt like he had the most potential of the ones we had since SAF. It's a shame things didn't work out.

I see a lot of people celebrating this sacking, I don't get why. Yep, results will improve even under an interim, but we've failed yet again. We've lost more years, more money, more momentum, more starts, more players' primes, more potential all round.

I get that this year to be done, but such a set of cumulative losses deserve mourning.

I don’t get it. We were losing those things by keeping Ten Hag. At least now we have the opportunity to get things right.

 

[GBBQ]

I dont think anything will change.

Ruud was taking charge of training this season and we have played badly all season.

I dont see how sacking Ten Hag and not the coaching staff will change anything. Same old, expect Chelsea to score a minimum of 4 this weekend.

ETH definitely made some bad tactical decisions. Stuck with players who were way out of form while only giving sporadic minutes to players who seemed more promising.

Not saying Ruud will fix it but there’s definitely room for improvement even with the current set of players.

 

[RDCR07]

It is not middle of the season though. It is not even 1/4 of the season.
But nevertheless, i wouldn't sacrifice whole season for him. Persuade him to join now or find another manager who will.

Well yes for you. But you got to think from Ruben and Sportings perspective. Even Madrid won’t have any luck having managers jump ship during the season.

It makes no sense to say join now or see you never cause we are the ones losing out on a good manager cause of our stupid decision making. It makes sense to wait for him till the summer provided he is willing to come here and not go to City.

 

[Redplane]

Ding dong the witch is dead. Or summink like that.
Finally the board grow a pair and realise what most of us already had.
Hopefully they have a good one lined up, this time.
Also, get shut of most of the ajax signings and get our money back.

I just want a Tuchel like manager this time. We've tried the nice guys for a little while - time to remind the players who they're playing for and how much they collect while showing very little for it.

Also - Love em or hate en but Mou and LvG recognized there was a lot more to fix than just the game performance. Im ready for some pragmatism to return.

 

[Shark]

I dont think anything will change.

Ruud was taking charge of training this season and we have played badly all season.

I dont see how sacking Ten Hag and not the coaching staff will change anything. Same old, expect Chelsea to score a minimum of 4 this weekend.

The thing people have to realize when saying this, is if nothing changes we're getting relegated. Do you believe we will?

 

[devilish]

"That will be £13m please. I'll be on my way" - ETH.

He was probably trying to get sacked since the summer and get a big fat severance.

but but the FA cup final? What about the 'he goes elsewhere and win trophies because that is what he does' thing?

 

[Cnaiür urs Skiötha]

Sacking him only a few days after Tuchel not being available anymore is the next stupid thing we did. No idea where we go next but hopefully even we don’t come with the plan to give it RvN long term after a few positive results let alone get Southgate in.

 

[romufc]

The thing people have to realize when saying this, is if nothing changes we're getting relegated. Do you believe we will?

No I dont think we will be relegated but we will be in a relegation scrap. I do believe that. I can see us finishing anywhere between 12-16 this season.

 

[devilish]

Talk about shutting the gate after the horse has bolted.

If we'd had the brains to do this four months ago maybe our season wouldn't have already been lost after ten matches.

That being said, the F.A. Cup win over City is a great memory so I'm glad he takes that with him.

If they did it last summer and the new manager was struggling then most fans would be criticizing INEOS for letting the Dutch Napoleon leave after winning the FA cup

 

[lex talionis]

I am surprised so many have a soft spot for him. I never warmed to him as a character. I definitely celebrated some great results he delivered and didn’t actively dislike him, but I just never took to his personality.

Ten Hag has limited communication skills, not just in terms of English as a second language but also his lack of skills in reading the room, so to speak. I don’t see a bright managerial future for him anywhere, although I have no doubt he’ll land a gig back in the Dutch league. He was just never cut out for this job.

 

[Raoul]

Taking Xavi at United is akin to Barcelona taking Ole. Both legends who failed at their clubs.

You don't think hiring Xavi would result in 2012 Barca style tiki taka within weeks at United ?

 

[FrenchRed]

Was he AI technology in human form. Never went deep into anything, regurgitated the same lines over and over. Never really came across as humble either, constant excuses and we were all wrong for doubting this plans going into games. He had the perfect plan always even in heavy defeats.

Generally AI or ML will learn from it's mistakes, never saw that from ETH. Also, LLMs will draw from large quanitites of converational and communication data to make it's data sets, coing up with a pretty human like conversational style - no evidence ETH did any of this.

 

[Amsterdam Devil]

Pffff finally. Let’s see what happens now.

 

[justsomebloke]

Had to happen. And overdue. Feel relieved.

 

[quadrant]

I dont think anything will change.

Ruud was taking charge of training this season and we have played badly all season.

I dont see how sacking Ten Hag and not the coaching staff will change anything. Same old, expect Chelsea to score a minimum of 4 this weekend.

We'll no doubt get a small boost, either from players happy ETH has gone, angry at themselves for letting him down (yeah right) or (more likely) worried about their future. Even Ragnick got a short boost.

Beyond that, if Ruud is sensible he'll revert to a counter attacking style, which is something that actually suits our team. Trouble is its a dead end tactically and therefore something ETH couldn't really do long term. Ruud will be given more leeway to do that as an interim and might steady the ship that way.

 

[Van Piorsing]

This is a ten Hag team, though. We got rid of big name players for him. Gave him hundreds of millions to bring in his guys, and we're worse than ever.

He paid the price, he lost the job, strangely not in the summer, but now, in the middle of season. Now it's time to continue while still having some old puzzles from different managerial eras... and Ruud will have to cope with that.

I could be more happy about Ten Hag sack than I really am, but by any means it's not a perfect scenario.

 

[simonhch]

I dont think anything will change.

Ruud was taking charge of training this season and we have played badly all season.

I dont see how sacking Ten Hag and not the coaching staff will change anything. Same old, expect Chelsea to score a minimum of 4 this weekend.

And at one point we had Carrick, McKenna and Ramsey running training, who went on to do good or great things elsewhere after they left United. Running training is one thing, picking the team, giving player instructions and selecting tactics is another. Many a great coach has been tarnished by association with a poor head coach; and we need look no further than our own club to see evidence of that.

This is in no way an endorsement of Ruud. I just think it’s folly to suggest that we have any idea how he will fare, or play, just because he’s been “running training”.

Irrespective, the club will be looking to make a permanent appointment and Ruud is here on an interim basis. What is of real interest to me is how quickly they will make that appointment. It’s so early in the season to write it off already by sticking with an interim in the hope of getting the ideal candidate in the summer. But by the same token, getting in a second tier candidate now, when better options might be available in the summer, isn’t great either. A mess of our own making by keeping Ten Hag over the summer.

The important thing is that Ten Hag is gone. We are in absolute free fall under him and a change, even to an interim was desperately needed. The best of the gettable candidates, Xavi and Frank, seem a bit underwhelming; but both would be a huge upgrade on Ten Hag. I think, like most, that Amorim is the outstanding candidate. Emery is the dream, but the chances of getting him from Villa seem like zilch.There’s an outside shout for Hoeness at Stuttgart.

 

[Spoony]

You don't think hiring Xavi would result in 2012 Barca style tiki taka within weeks at United ?

Did he implement tiki taka at Barcelona? We're best at chaos football. We need a nutcase of a manager, it's a shame Roy Keane has mellowed.

 

[Gandalf Greyhame]

I don’t get it. We were losing those things by keeping Ten Hag. At least now we have the opportunity to get things right.

That assumes that Ten Hag was the only problem. That is incorrect, in my view. He was a major part, but the factors that led to him failing were quite similar to those that led to previous managers failing, and they're rooted in the kind of environment we create for new managers as a club.

Imagine being a CEO who is hiring a series of people to work for you in your company, giving them what you think are the best tools, and when they keep failing you keep firing and replacing them.

At some point the shareholders above you should realize it's not the people you're hiring or the tools you're giving them, it's you. It's time to change CEOs. In our case, it's continued even into a new CEO for the first firing of their tenure.

One can only hope they hire better.

 

[Yakuza_devils]

The easy and obvious part is done now. The difficult part now is to get the right manager in. Hope the Ineos Team get it right this time.

 

[MadDogg]

We can appoint two managers in space of months, and if they won't find a way to squeeze something, then I guess it's their fault. Managers paid the price, they're gone, no problem. Perhaps It's time to judge the players, at least from time to time.

If Rashford stays, that's fine, because he's still more productive than Sanch & Anto. I wish we could appoint someone who can work with everyone and create actual team, but that could be still a wishful thinking. (Hope to be proven wrong, and Berrada could very well have recipe for this.)

At some point somebody will have pull the plug on entire thing, if it's not working.

It really sounds like you literally want to get rid of every single player in the squad. We've effectively done that bar a handful over the last couple of seasons, and you're saying that's not enough so obviously you think that every single one of them needs to go. So what's your idea of a clear out now? Every single player in the current squad? Only the ones who were here before ETH? The ones who have been here longer than one season?

Also, what do you mean that managers have paid the price so now it's time to judge the players? The players have been judged and replaced far more often than the managers. We've gone through five managers, none of whom have gone on to do anything better and prove us wrong (obviously ETH has only just been fired). Meanwhile we've gone though what feels like about 100 players, with some of them going on to have quite good success elsewhere (much more than any of the managers).

Nobody is saying we should be hiring and firing managers every couple of months. But we should act like a top club that actually has standards. The likes of Real, Barca, Bayern and PSG have all gone through more managers than we have despite being much more successful during the same period.

 

[romufc]

And at one point we had Carrick, McKenna and Ramsey running training, who went on to do good or great things elsewhere after they left United. Running training is one thing, picking the team, giving player instructions and selecting tactics is another. Many a great coach has been tarnished by association with a poor head coach; and we need look no further than our own club to see evidence of that.

This is in no way an endorsement of Ruud. I just think it’s folly to suggest that we have any idea how he will fare, or play, just because he’s been “running training”.

Irrespective, the club will be looking to make a permanent appointment and Ruud is here on an interim basis. What is of real interest to me is how quickly they will make that appointment. It’s so early in the season to write it off already by sticking with an interim in the hope of getting the ideal candidate in the summer. But by the same token, getting in a second tier candidate now, when better options might be available in the summer, isn’t great either. A mess of our own making by keeping Ten Hag over the summer.

The important thing is that Ten Hag is gone. We are in absolute free fall under him and a change, even to an interim was desperately needed. The best of the gettable candidates, Xavi and Frank, seem a bit underwhelming; but both would be a huge upgrade on Ten Hag. I think, like most, that Amorim is the outstanding candidate. Emery is the dream, but the chances of getting him from Villa seem like zilch.There’s an outside shout for Hoeness at Stuttgart.

Whilst I can see where you are coming from, I agree that McKenna has done well so far but managing United and Ipswich is completely different.

We can see it this season, its the same problems they had at United as coaches, defensive issues.

Both Carrick and McKenna, struggle to set teams up defensively, look at the goals Ipswich are conceding, Middlesborough are a mid table championship club that concede goals. Neither would do well at United.

 

[acnumber9]

That assumes that Ten Hag was the only problem. That is incorrect, in my view. He was a major part, but the factors that led to him failing were quite similar to those that led to previous managers failing, and they're rooted in the kind of environment we create for new managers as a club.

Imagine being a CEO who is hiring a series of people to work for you in your company, giving them what you think are the best tools, and when they keep failing you keep firing and replacing them.

At some point the shareholders above you should realize it's not the people you're hiring or the tools you're giving them, it's you. It's time to change CEOs. In our case, it's continued even into a new CEO for the first firing of their tenure.

One can only hope they hire better.

The manager can be the CEO in your analogy here.

 

[CoopersDream]

The utter incompetence of not sacking him before the season if this was what they were gonna do. I mean, it's good that we move on from Ten Hag, but I have no confidence whatsoever in that they will get the next manager right.

 

[The holy trinity 68]

Think a lot of managers will be watching how Ruud does and if someone can actually get these players functioning as a serious team.It he can it makes the job easier in a way, that a big overhaul won't be needed. If it doesn't happen it depends then on who wants to take on such a rebuild, if we can sell the necessary players, if there is money available if we struggle to sell players.

Shouldn't need a rebuild. A good enough manager should be able to get more out of these players and improve them. There is a good enough team here, that just needs added to.

People will think the players are not good enough, but that is because the manager was doing a terrible job.

 

[JPRouve]

Taking Xavi at United is akin to Barcelona taking Ole. Both legends who failed at their clubs.

I really need someone to explain this one to me without making silly comparisons such as Ole. And I should insist on the fact that I'm not really interested in Xavi or anyone else.

Xavi took over a mess and won the league, he is the one that either introduced or developed nearly all the kids that are currently shining and were shining with him and for Spain. Also for the Flick current love, Xavi has had similar periods with Barcelona in 2022-2023. To me he seems to be naive when it comes to big fixtures but he didn't fail with Barcelona and he is one of the big reasons they didn't totally collapse after the financial scandals because he relied on kids without issue.