Dismissal of Erik ten Hag: Behind the scenes of a turbulent two years at Manchester United

Ten Hag had to deal with other difficult situations.

Right at the start of his tenure he had to discipline Cristiano Ronaldo for leaving Old Trafford early after being substituted at half-time during a pre-season game against Rayo Vallecano.

The move showed strength but set off a chain of events that would eventually lead to Ronaldo being kicked out of the club after he conducted an inflammatory interview with Piers Morgan in which he said that Ten Hag had “no respect for shows me.”

Ten Hag used a lunch with journalists in Spain during the World Cup break to explain his thinking.

“If he's in good shape, he's a good player and could help us achieve our goals, that's for sure,” said the Dutchman.

“But he wasn’t. I wanted to work with him. He chose a different path.”

Ten Hag soon punished Rashford for missing the start of a team meeting by leaving the England striker on the bench for a game at Wolves. Rashford scored the winning goal after coming on as a substitute.

Then there was Jadon Sancho, who undertook a personal fitness program after United's coaching staff noticed his physical stats were declining. When he was left out of the squad in September 2023 due to a defeat at Arsenal, Ten Hag pointed to the Englishman's poor training performance.

Sancho immediately responded on social media by saying he was being made a “scapegoat”. Sancho deleted the post but refused to apologize.

Ten Hag never picked him for another Premier League game and although he returned to the squad in pre-season, he was loaned out to Chelsea on transfer deadline day.

Last season, Ten Hag struggled with an overwhelming injury list that he wasn't always given the best advice on. With Luke Shaw fit, he was informed that Tyrell Malacia would be available within weeks of the start of last February's season, so Ten Hag opted to let his on-loan left-back Sergio Reguilon return to Tottenham.

However, Malacia soon suffered a major setback in his recovery and Shaw suffered a hamstring injury at Luton on 18 February. Neither has played a game for United since then. Despite an optimistic summer statement from the club about a revamped medical department, Ten Hag was without seven senior players at West Ham due to injury.

However, sympathy can only be extended to a certain extent.

Ten Hag is a likeable man. On this pre-Christmas trip to Spain, he entertained the media over lunch with stories from his youth and early career. Arriving in Los Angeles this summer for a series of interviews with British media more than an hour earlier than originally scheduled, he laughed and joked with reporters and even offered advice on the best coffee spots near his home in Cheshire.

At the recent Football Writers' Dinner in Manchester he stayed long after collecting his award for winning the FA Cup and spoke to journalists.

But during the season, Ten Hag's communication in an official capacity was not particularly good. Some members of the media were told by United employees that Ten Hag preferred “blunt” questions because he found them easier to understand and answer.

The problem was that the answers increasingly did not stand up to scrutiny.

Before and after the international break, Ten Hag spoke of being “on the same wavelength” with the United hierarchy. But despite all the optimistic words, it seemed to be a question of when, not if, he would go.

A source with extensive senior management experience at United was surprised that Ten Hag had not lost his job at the end of last season. He was in disbelief that it didn't happen sometime before the resumption in October.

But numerous United officials both at Old Trafford and outside felt that once the boulder starts rolling down the hill, it is a matter of time before it hits the ground. Now the time has come.

Many United players will be sad to see Ten Hag leave.

In April 2023, the Daily Telegraph reported, external One of the reasons Tottenham decided not to try to bring in Ten Hag from Ajax to replace Jose Mourinho in 2021 was because they felt he lacked charisma.

There is an element of that at United.

Multiple sources have confirmed that there has been no major collapse and there has been no increasing discontent. But there was no connection either. There was a lack of fundamental understanding of what Ten Hag wanted to achieve.

A coach, but not a communicator.