Manchester United has had it all before the appointment of Erik Ten ahead the start of the 2022-23 season. However, they’ve never had it as good as the era of Sir Alex Ferguson, since the legendary manager called it a quit after the end of the 2012-13 season.
From an unworthy successor in David Moyes, they went for experience in form of Louis van Gaal, with the hope of replicating the latter days of their former Scottish boss. In the end, the association can only be termed as a trial and error.
The desperate road led them to the doors of the special one, the Portuguese, renowned for success and trophies. And albeit he did delivered to certain degree, they would learn that the ego that made him so special, does not align with the club’s tradition.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer got behind the wheels in what was to be a temporary fix. The Norwegian took them from coast to coast, unfortunately they had nothing to show for their impeccable journeys.
Life under David Moyes – Moving on from Sir Alex Ferguson
It was always going to be a demanding task succeeding Sir Alex Ferguson. On papers, it was much easier for fans to accept the former Everton boss but in reality, the Scottish manager was in no man’s land. The chosen one by Fergie they said, turned out to be set-up for disaster.
It was not a period when you compel fans to settle for a process. The 27 years under Fergie brought so much success that United faithfuls understood no other language. It was win after win and they rarely go three seasons without winning the league title. Actually, they never did.
Moyes struggled with managing expectations and the pressure of succeeding Ferguson. His tactics appeared overly cautious for a manager at a club like United. He failed to inspire confidence in the squad, resulting in several poor performances, particularly against top teams. When a club like United starts to lose bragging rights, the fans will definitely come for whoever is in charge.
He lasted just ten months on the job and had to be relieved of his duties, with United finishing seventh in the league, a year after they were crowned champions in Ferguson’s final season. It was their lowest placement in the league in the Premier League era.
Louis van Gaal – A veteran, Perhaps, a pragmatic solution
The Dutchman appeared a pragmatic approach given his wealth of experience as well as a credible credential having managed and succeeded at top teams Ajax, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and the Netherlands national team. A top class appointment, right ?
He became Manchester United’s first manager outside the British Isles. Despite making a good impression upon arrival, he started to get things wrong with his choices in the transfer window.
Van Gaal confessed to inherting a broken squad, but he brought in the likes of Marcos Rojo, Ander Herrera, Luke Shaw, Angel Di Maria, Daley Blind and Radamel Falcao for around £150 million.
Ten years on, only a few of these players had good spell at the club. Luke Shaw for example is one of them, but has battled with series of injuries ever since. Ander Herrera and Marcos Rojo were also impressive, but even they would have been just squad players in the days of yore.
It went totally wrong with Di Maria, who was the only classy player amongst the lots at the time of their signing. The Argentine would go on be the worst signing of them all. And he also confessed that LVG is the worst manager he has ever had. Poetic.
Despite the little to no impact from the summer signings, United returned into the top four, finishing eleven points behind champions Chelsea in the 2014-15 season. Although there were controversies along the way, LVG proved an upgrade on Moyes, and the end of the season left the club with renewed hopes.
Unfortunately for the Dutchman, he fell into the same pit the following summer. Signings like Memphis Depay from PSV, Matteo Darmian from Torino, Sergio Romero from Sampdoria, Morgan Schneiderlin from Southampton, Bastian Schweinsteiger from Bayern Munich and Anthony Martial from Monaco proved no bargain, and with that, his continuity with the club became a bone of contention with a lot of in-season dramas.
Despite the failure of his signings, Loius van Gaal will still be very proud that he worked with the players from the ranks at the club. Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard in particular had a wonderful time under the watch of the Dutchman, who gave the former his senior debut in 2016.
He was relieved of his duties two days after leading Manchester United to the Emirates FA Cup glory with a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace in Wembley. It ended on a high on personal note for LVG. He was a good manager but unfortunate, yet, he was not unimpressive.
Up next, a cinema with the Special One, Jose Mourinho
Jose Mourinho’s arrival in 2016 was accompanied by a lot of expectations. And, though, the Portuguese achieved some success, including three trophies in his first season, he eventually succumbed to the same fate as his predecessors, when the team completely fell off under his watch.
Despite his early successes, controversies and inconsistency followed. The hierarchy decided to sack him under a lot of pressure. Rightly so because United was losing the plot, and the team was in disharmony. Even the former Chelsea boss must have had enough of what was going on around him.
Jose Mourinho fell out not only with the management but as well his players. Many of the club’s legends will also not seize to meddle, that itself is a plague eating up the club. However, they all should have known that the Special one is not the kind of manager you employ when embarking a rebuild. Or they do not realize they do have to settle for one.
Jose Mourinho is known for winning silverwares, and despite the ugly finale to his time in Old Trafford, he’ll still relive it as a successful stint, and so will a lot of fans of the club, who watched the team beat Ajax in Stockholm, despite a notable number of absentees.
But going forward, has that been the best decision ? Whether or not Mourinho was sacked at the time, he does not appear a manager who will spend five years at a club, whereas what United need is stability. Unfortunately, they were never getting that with Mourinho. His departure was inevitable, too bad it had to come in such circumstance.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer : Ole at the wheel
Perhaps Manchester United should have settled for a rebuild process under one of their own, who was able to steady the ship to some extent, even after the flurry of emotions, and the instant improvement driven by a new manager syndrome.
For the former Manchester United striker, his United side did had something over the others that have steered the ship since the departure of Ferguson, and that is continuity. Although it never ended in climax in all of the time, the team was always improving season after season. In the league, he led them to third and second place finishings in his first two full seasons.
The process was perhaps disrupted when they made the poor decision to bring back Cristiano Ronaldo. Not taking anything away from the impactful Portuguese, Manchester United had scored 73 Premier League goals in the season before his arrival, number only bettered by their city rivals, City.
They were clearly not struggling for goals. The Portuguese’ arrival meant the club had to be more ambitious, and not settle for a time consuming process — but where has that decision got them now ? It meant they had to let go of OGS, who was not really fancied by a lot of the fans due to his seemingly lack of experience at top level before landing the United job.
Every spark faded – It was like a curse
For every manager that had been appinted, reality had dawned right after the ecstasy of a new manager’s syndrome. The early days were always filled with delights and optimistism.
In the exemption of David Moyes, who was new to the demands and pressure from supporters that almost never had to wait more than three games before a win in their lowest, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who never won a silverware, first seasons had always left the impression of ‘it’ll only get better from here’ on the Red Devils.
Nevertheless, those that gave more reasons for optimistism are those that failed woefully with time, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was able to spend more time on the job before his sacking because there was always signs of improvement season in and out. They just couldn’t get it over the line.
“I think someone has put a curse on us… truth is I don’t know what’s going on… we talk about it as team-mates and we just say ‘we don’t know what’s happening’. We should have competed for more trophies, bigger titles, but I just don’t know why this team doesn’t function” – David de Gea in February 2022, while he was the Goalkeeper at Manchester United.
To certain degree, the Norwegian has been the best post Fergie. While not undermining the performance of the others, who also won titles, it was only with OGS that performances look sustainable for Manchester United.
Aside their impressive league finishes, he led them to finals but they couldn’t get them over the line. They had so many great runs in Europe but continually fell short at the most important moments.
In 2021, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made fans realize that winning knockout competitions is not the proper way to guage their progress but a minor success, which could overshadow a larger failure. He said;
“I’ve been here for two and a half of those years and coming I felt a big rebuild had to be made. In the league position you see if there’s any progress – for me, that’s always the bread and butter of the season. You see how capable you are of coping with ups and downs.
Any cup competition can give you a trophy but sometimes it’s more of an ego thing from other managers and clubs to finally win something. But we need to see progress and if we perform well enough the trophies will end up at the club again.
It’s not like a trophy will say: ‘We’re back.’ No, it’s the gradual progression of being in and around the top of the league and the consistency, and the odd cup competition can hide the fact you’re still struggling a little bit.
We are 12 points ahead of where we were at the same time last season. When you see the culture and what happens every day, I feel a lot of improvement has been made. The boys have taken on board what we want.”
A bitter truth, but unfortunately, received by a group of people who have been starved of silverware in four years. But now that they have those silverwares they dreaded so much, they have known better.
In the end, it was still the responsibility of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to manage top players as he was the manager at a top club like Manchester United. Being unable to thrive under the circumstances costed him his job, and he should have no one but himself to blame for the outcome.
Rebuild with Erik Ten Hag a false dawn
The current situation of Manchester United under Erik Ten Hag can be said to be a direct opposite of what it was with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. He has ended the trophy drought, but is not even close to ending their nightmares.
Erik Ten Hag came in a man very outspoken of his achievements. The Dutchman enjoyed a successful stint at Ajax, where he won three Eredivisie titles and a couple of domestic Cup.
His first season was not without disappointment but winning the Carabao Cup title and in the process ending the five-year wait for a silverware served as a consolation, and after the shambles that took place with Ralf Rangnick in charge, the first year of Ten Hag was a positive change of atmosphere.
After the loss to Brighton in his first home game as Manchester United boss, and another one against Real Sociedad in the Europa League, Erik Ten Hag led the team to an astonishing 31 games without a loss in Old Trafford, with victories against Manchester City, Arsenal and Barcelona in that run.
United finished third in the league, even through they were never close to challenging for the title. They finished 14 points behind champions Manchester United. It was a huge step forward for the club, only if they had build on it.
Due to how well he started at the club, by November 2023, Ten Hag became the joint fastest manager to reach 50 wins for Manchester United, taking 78 games. Even though at the time, the poor performances have started coming more frequently.
As time passed, things turned into shambles. Manchester United recorded some of their lowest numbers ever. However, the Emirates FA Cup run to the final, which ended in a win over Manchester City overshadowed how bad things were. But of course, not everyone was convinced.
A lot of time during last season, the former Ajax coach came under fire and was close to being sacked, but knowing that a process takes time, the hierarchy was critical about having to start over, and disrupting what progress there might have been. Looks like they may have an easy decision to make soon.
Some underwhelming records under Erik Ten Hag
In the Premier League
Erik Ten Hag is the first-ever Manchester United boss to lose to Brighton in a home game, doing so on his first official assignment as the coach. The following weekend, he became the first-ever United boss to lose to Brentford, with the Bees running out 4-0 winners on a humiliating afternoon for Manchester United in the Gtech Community stadium.
He then went on to becom the first Manchester United boss to:
• Concede 23 shots in a Premier League match
• Lose as much as 13 games by Christmas since 1930
• Lose first two away games in a season since 1973
• Lose five of the opening 10 league games in 36 years
• Go four games in a row without scoring since 1992
• Earn as low as nine points from the opening seven league games since 1989
• Lose four of the opening seven games in Premier League history
• Conceded 20 goals to Manchester City and Liverpool in their first six games against them• Lose as many as 14 games in a single season
In the UEFA Champions League
• Earn as few as five points in the in a group campaign
• Lose their opening two Champions League group games
• Concede four penalties in their first four group games in history
• Concede seven goals in the opening two Champions League group games
• Concede three or more goals in back to back Champions League games
What next for Manchester United ?
The INEOS have done well since their takeover of footballing matters at the club and giving the Dutchman a benefit of doubt to lead the team into season is a way of justifying themselves, should they eventually decide to sack him later.
Having won the Emirates FA Cup at the end of last season, Erik Ten Hag gave the fans a reason to believe in him, sighting the unfortunate injuries as some of the reasons they failed to reach their objectives.
Manchester United finished the season in eighth, their lowest ever in Premier League history, completely missing out on a place in Europe before they beat City in the FA Cup final to secure an automatic slot for the Europa League. And that was enough to buy Erik Ten Hag more time on the job.
They conceded 58 goals, their most in a 38-game season in history. Since the appointment of Erik Ten Hag till date, United has a goal difference of plus 11, a number that ranks below Aston Villa and Brighton in that time.
Also in last season, they finished with a goal difference of minus one, and so far they are on minus three, despite the investment in the summer, the team appears to be losing their identity as the season ages. Ten Hag has proven no different from his predecessors, and now the club must be close to taking action.
Desperation is starting to set in, and for manager who continues to divide opinions within the hierarchy, sacking him will not be farfetched, and it may come sooner rather than later, if both performance and result do not improve.
Eleven years since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United still struggles for stability. They are looking more pathetic these days and have lost the fear factor of the Manchester United of the past.
The home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur last weekend is only one of the many shambolic displays that has been witnessed in Old Trafford past Fergie, and it now looks like they are running out of options, as well as clue on what exactly to do next.
Nevertheless, the manager is always a famous victim in such a case, and Erik Ten Hag has proven himself no saint.
5 Comments
Impressive, such a detailed content. Keep up the good work
Thank you for the insight.
I think it is high time he is sacked, because by mid-season a lot of things would have gone wrong. There is nothing to be optimistic about this season, Nightmares upon Nightmares.
Signing of another coach should be done carefully, because signing another coach and having a bad result again is very bad for business.
I wish INEOS luck in recruiting another coach.
Lovely write up more wisdom bro
Almost cried reading through this.
We’ve most definitely been through a lot post Fergie.
Beautiful piece of Journalism from the Olt team!
Insight and reality
But it’s time to move on after three seasons costing too much than bargained for nevertheless the unending loss and shambolic displays.
United heirachy has a lot to do in ensuring getting the right coach now that’s the only saving grace