Eric ten Hag’s stay at Man United’s bench was one of the biggest surprises in the past few months. The club’s results in the Premier League (eighth place) and Champions League (elimination already in the group stage) were disappointing, and even winning the FA Cup by beating the city rivals couldn’t improve the impression. Given that the manager is usually the first to “pay the price” for the team’s poor form, the Dutchman’s days at Old Trafford seemed numbered.🚨🚨🎙️| Sir Jim Ratcliffe on Erik ten Hag:”He is a good guy and had been doing his best but he was doing too much. He was trying to sort out the squad and fix leaks in the roof at the same time.” pic.twitter.com/k3KEKTHVBS— centredevils. (@centredevils) August 11, 2024 But then, out of the blue, United’s management, led by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, decided to give the strategist another chance and trigger a one-year extension. Many wondered why the 71-year-old “put the club’s eggs in ten Hag’s basket” again, and he briefly disclosed the reasons, speaking to The Sunday Times.”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,” said Ratcliffe mysteriously.Ten Hag’s odd advice and problem with forwards on the horizonAfterwards, the INEOS chairman and CEO discussed much more painful topics, such as the club’s situation and how difficult it is to achieve goals at Man United.”I mean, the results speak for themselves. In the last ten or eleven years, it should have been a contender for the Premier League and Champions League trophies every year and it hasn’t at all. It is a big responsibility to return the club to where it should be. It should be performing at least in the top eight in Europe. Now if we can’t do that then we won’t have been successful,” stated the billionaire.##NAJAVA_MECA_8262777##He even knows the breaking point after which nothing was the same at Old Trafford and after which “a vacuum” appeared.”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,” Ratcliffe admitted.
