If Sir Jim Ratcliffe is going to be as hands on at Man United as expected, Erik ten Hag could soon find his position under threat at Old Trafford.
It’s yet to be ratified, but the Glazer family should soon be signing over 25 percent of the club to Sir Jim, who will take an active role on the sporting side of the business.
Clearly, for a club of United’s standing, 10th place in the Premier League and one of the worst starts in their history is unacceptable.
Ten Hag enjoyed a stellar first season in the job so he has a benchmark from which to work, however, the Red Devils have been so poor in 2023/24, it does beg the question as to what’s gone wrong.
Perhaps the business in the transfer market hasn’t been the best, though confidence also plays a big part for any player and United have suffered a collective crisis in that regard.
If the Dutchman isn’t able to get his side going to the degree required, Sir Jim could look to replace him with a protege of Roberto De Zerbi, the Brighton and Hove Albion manager that has been lauded for the way in which his side are playing football.
Francesco Farioli currently works for Sir Jim at his other club, Ligue Un giants, Nice, and Sport Bible suggest he could hop across the channel and see in another new dawn at the Theatre of Dreams.
“One day, I wrote an article about Foggia on the internet on a website called Wyscout,” Farioli told L’Equipe (h/t Sport Bible).
“Shortly after, I received a congratulatory message from a member of De Zerbi’s technical team.”
“We started working together after a year and a half… we focused on football 24 hours a day. Sometimes we were still working on the computer at 2am. Those were good times.”
I always say stick with the manager but some decisions in the Darby just didn’t make sense.