Manchester United Sack Erik ten Hag

Manchester United on Monday wielded the axe, sacking Erik ten Hag two and half years after taking charge of the struggling but one of the flagship of English football.

The Dutchman was informed on Monday morning and leaves Old Trafford after his final game during which the team was defeated by West Ham United on Sunday.

That result left the club 14th in the table, seven points off the Champions League qualification places, after just three league wins from nine games and only four in 14 in all competitions.

Former striker, Ruud van Nistelrooy, recruited in the offseason to work alongside Ten Hag, has now been asked to take charge on an interim basis with the rest of the management staff remaining in position for now.

Ten Hag was retained as United manager in the summer after an end-of-season review following an eighth-place Premier League finish, the club’s lowest since 1990, and a FA Cup final victory over rivals Manchester City.

United triggered a one-year extension option in the 54-year-old’s contract at the start of July. His previous deal, which he signed when he was appointed in 2022, was due to expire in 2025.

However, another hugely disappointing run of form to start the new season has prompted key decision-makers, including chief executive Omar Berrada, sporting director Dan Ashworth and technical director Jason Wilcox, to recommend a change.

The Athletic revealed during the international break that the United hierarchy were scheduled to meet in London while also reporting that Ten Hag’s performance as manager and possible departure was to be discussed at the meeting.

In Ten Hag’s first season at United, he guided them to a third-place finish and oversaw their Carabao Cup triumph, ending a six-year run without a trophy.

Last year, though, United struggled domestically and in Europe, suffering a group-stage exit from the Champions League, and only qualified for the Europa League this season by winning the FA Cup.

United had sounded out potential replacements including now England head coach Thomas Tuchel, newly-appointed USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino, former Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Roberto De Zerbi, Brentford head coach Thomas Frank and Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna.

But at the end of a process led by co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS sporting director Sir Dave Brailsford, the choice was made to move forward with Ten Hag.

United were active in the summer transfer window, signing Matthijs de Ligt, Leny Yoro, Joshua Zirkzee, Manuel Ugarte and Noussair Mazraoui for a combined spend of approximately £205million ($274m), including add-ons.

Following the end of the transfer window and just hours before the Liverpool defeat, Berrada said Ten Hag had the “full backing” of the club’s hierarchy.

Ten Hag previously managed Ajax for four and a half years before taking the United job in 2022. He has also coached fellow Dutch sides Go Ahead Eagles and FC Utrecht, either side of a two-year spell as the head coach at Bayern Munich’s reserve side.

United are next in action against Leicester City in the League Cup at Old Trafford on Wednesday.

‘United finally run out of patience’

Analysis from Manchester United correspondent Mark Critchley For United’s key decision-makers to finally part ways with Ten Hag after a narrow defeat in highly controversial circumstances may come as a surprise to some.

Yet with his side sitting 14th in the table, having won only four of their 14 games in all competitions this season, others may ask what the sense was in waiting any longer? Increasingly, keeping Ten Hag in place felt like delaying the inevitable.

Despite a summer of change above and around him, as well as more than £200million spent on the playing squad, neither results nor performances have notably improved since last season.

Ten Hag clung to the argument that two trophies in two seasons represented progress, but few bought it as results stagnated, and unless there was significant improvement, his superiors were always likely to run out of patience too.

The decision marks a reversal by the INEOS-led hierarchy, who backed Ten Hag when triggering a one-year extension in his contract during the summer, a month on from the remarkable FA Cup final victory over Manchester City at Wembley.

It will now fall to that newly-installed football structure — led by chief executive Omar Berrada and sporting director Dan Ashworth — to select Ten Hag’s successor in a bid to salvage the season.