Gary Neville opens up about Erik ten Hag’s future with Man Utd.
Gary Neville on Erik ten Hag’s prospects under Sir Jim Ratcliffe at Manchester United: “I think they’ve already made up their minds. They will not change their decision, regardless of whether it is the Champions League or not.”
Despite Erik ten Hag’s potential to lead Man Utd into the Champions League, Gary Neville thinks the club might have already decided what would happen to him as manager.
Fulham crushed United 2-1 at Old Trafford over the weekend, ending Ten Hag’s team’s Premier League winning run at four games. This knocked United eight points off the top spot.
While the new Champions League format implies that a fifth-place result would probably be sufficient to guarantee participation in the competition the following season, former team captain Neville raised serious concerns about the club’s disorganized playing philosophy under Ten Hag in an interview on Monday Night Football.
Given that Barcelona, Liverpool, and Bayern Munich are all searching for new supervisors to take over roles this summer, he thinks Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the club’s new minority stakeholder who currently oversees football operations, may have already selected his course of action.
“If you take a look at [Omar Berrada] arriving in from City as CEO, as well as trying to get Dan Ashworth from Newcastle, they’re likely to make a choice very quickly if they haven’t previously,” he explained.
“I’m guessing Dave Brailsford and Sir Jim Ratcliffe are already aware if Erik ten Hag will be heading up for the upcoming campaign. It’s unbelievable that they’ll put off making that decision until May and then let themselves get caught off guard.”I don’t think that they’re going to do that, so for me I guess they’ve already reached a conclusion already,” the man stated. “Where Man Utd have been discovered in the last ten years in recruitment has been making wrong choices, late decisions, and not getting ahead of the game.” They will not change their decision, regardless of whether it is the Champions League or not.”
Neville questioned Ten Hag’s direction of travel after seeing Man Utd lose more games this season than they did in 2022–23 due to the team’s history of lacking a cohesive philosophy, which he compared with Jurgen Klopp’s counter-pressing at Liverpool and Pep Guardiola’s possession style at Man City.
“There isn’t anyone who follows Man Utd whether you’re a fan or not a fan who understands what they are trying to do each and every week, and that poses an challenge,” he explained.
