“It’s not switching a light switch. It’s not just about a new coach. It’s not a simple fix or a short-term fix. We have to walk to the right solution, not run to the wrong one.”
Those were wise words from Sir Jim Ratcliffe in February, shortly after his 25 per cent investment in Manchester United was finalised.
It was not the unequivocal vote of confidence Erik ten Hag might have wanted, but it was an acknowledgement of the size of the challenge that any coach would face at a club that has drifted for 11 years since Sir Alex Ferguson retired and the Glazer family’s influence took hold.
Ratcliffe spoke about the “challenge to get the organisation and environment right” rather than imagining the club’s fortunes would immediately be transformed by a change of manager. It was time to appraise and evaluate everything. Walk to the right solution, don’t run to the wrong one.
But football doesn’t always allow you to take your time. Sometimes the pressure to act becomes overwhelming. Sometimes a problem arrives on your doorstep and the very appealing notion of walking to a solution — on your own terms, in your own time — disappears.
Have United reached that point with Ten Hag? It has begun to feel that way. A creditable first year in the job — finishing third in the Premier League, winning the Carabao Cup, reaching the FA Cup final and Europa League quarter-final — has been followed by a dreadful second, raising doubts about whether anyone at Old Trafford, including Ten Hag himself, has the appetite and energy for a third.
Appetite and energy are important factors here. Does Ten Hag have the energy to reinvigorate a group of players who look as demotivated as they did two years ago before he arrived? Do Ratcliffe and his staff have the energy to spend the coming weeks looking for a new manager when there is a shortage of obvious, available alternatives?
Ratcliffe’s words on the matter reflect a recognition that there has been far more wrong at United over the past decade than the identity of the man in the dugout.
Like David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and even Ralf Rangnick before him, Ten Hag could reasonably claim to have been hampered by a culture of complacency and mediocrity in dressing room and boardroom alike.
