It is more than two weeks since Erik Ten Hag’s Manchester United beat Manchester City in an FA Cup final billed as potentially his last game.
United chiefs launched a review into the club’s season following that surprise win over rivals City, yet there is still no decision about the Dutchman’s future.
The build-up to the game was dominated by talk of manager Ten Hag’s chances of keeping his job.
Some went so far as to state that Ten Hag was a dead man walking and would be sacked no matter what the outcome at Wembley, saying the Dutchman would pay the price for a terrible season in which United finished eighth – their worst performance since the 1989-90 campaign when Sir Alex Ferguson came close to losing his job.
Ten Hag stood his ground and in an interview in the Netherlands said he had been told new co-owners Ineos wanted to rebuild the club “with me”.
It turned out that assessment was a bit of a stretch.
Ten Hag was reflecting his impression of a number of previous conversations with Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Sir Dave Brailsford and Jason Wilcox, the Ineos team initially responsible for running the football side at Old Trafford following the change of ownership.
In reality, United were committed to a full review at the end of the season, with the manager’s future seen as part of that.
