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Manchester United have decided to fire Erik ten Hag as manager no matter the outcome of Saturday’s FA final at Wembley Stadium against Manchester City, sources told The Guardian’s Jacob Steinberg.
Ten Hag’s exit could mirror Louis van Gaal’s departure from United in 2016. Van Gaal beat Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final but was sacked two days later.
Thomas Tuchel is reportedly considered the front-runner to replace Ten Hag. Former Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino, Brentford’s Thomas Frank, England’s Gareth Southgate, Ipswich Town’s Kieran McKenna, and ex-Brighton manager Graham Potter are also candidates, according to Steinberg.
Ten Hag is set to pay the price for United’s eighth-place finish, their worst-ever in the Premier League era. They’ll miss European football altogether if they fail to win the FA Cup, which comes with a Europa League berth.
During Friday’s press conference, the Dutchman vowed to continue the project he started two seasons ago when he replaced Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Ralf Rangnick served on an interim basis until Ten Hag arrived.
“That is first to win the game on Saturday and then we are in the project. Keep going in the project,” Ten Hag told reporters. “After every season, you review it and see where you are in the project and what things may need to change.
“We spoke lately about it. There are players developing and values going up.”
The 54-year-old has routinely blamed the club’s historically poor season on the litany of injuries his team has had. United players suffered a Premier League-leading 45 separate injuries over the 2023-24 campaign, according to numbers compiled by Premier Injuries and BBC Sport.
Ten Hag said the owners had enough “common sense” not to fire him.
“They see when you have 32 different backlines, when you lose eight centre-backs, if they see we use 13 partnerships at centre-halves,” he said earlier this month. “When they see we don’t have a left full-back, when we have so many injuries, they know that will have a negative impact on results.”
But co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been shaking the club to its core since acquiring a minority stake in February, hiring a new suite of executives and reportedly issuing warnings to staff about job performance.
Ten Hag helped United end a six-year trophy drought last season by winning the League Cup. He has a 57.5% win rate as their manager.
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