It’s not been the best season for Erik ten Hag and his Man United side, with one thing after another seemingly adding to the woes of a manager that always looks like a rabbit stuck in the headlights at press conferences.
The Dutchman’s inability to communicate effectively with the media is likely to be replicated in the dressing room, and that would go some way to explaining why he can’t get a tune out of an expensively assembled group of players.
Two of them, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford, have caused ten Hag no end of trouble with their off field antics, the latter being not played in United’s last game because of calling in sick despite being exposed as having gone on a drinks bender the day before.
There’s too much noise around the first team now, and Premier League co-creator, Jon Smith, believes that Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the INEOS group will look to move ten Hag on at the end of the current campaign.
“Unless something dramatic happens and there’s a turnaround at Man United in the last four months of the season, which is possible, I think it’s likely that we’ll see Erik ten Hag’s tenure end this season,” he said in his exclusive column for CaughtOffside.
“If I was Sir Jim anyway, I would probably want to put in my own management team, and obviously the core of the management is the coach.
“I think INEOS’ strategy would be very much like that of PIF when they bought Newcastle. They didn’t say ‘okay, we’re here, Steve Bruce you’re out, and we’re bringing in Fred Smith now.’
“They let him continue, quite rightly, it didn’t quite work out for him, so they then brought in their their man.
“I think that’s a mirror image of what’s going to happen at Man United.”
The way that United have been playing for the vast majority of the season could be said to be down to the amount of injuries that ten Hag has had to deal with, however, the way that the team struggled for large parts of the match against Newport is an accurate guide as to where the problems on the pitch also lie.
One can understand, of course, that if INEOS bring their own man in, that things will take time and the club will be back to square one yet again.
However, we’re at the point now where a hard reset at Old Trafford is required, and an entire club aligned on the same journey thereafter.