Kieth Wyness, who is the former chief of Premier League club Everton, feels that Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe made a schoolboy error at the club.
Wyness believes that Ratcliffe’s decision to allow manager Erik ten Hag increase his backroom staff is a mistake and it is going to cost the club in the future.
Ten Hag faced an uncertain future at the club in the summer but the Red Devils decided to show faith in the Dutch manager and kept him at the club. After doing that, they allowed him to bring his assistant managers.
He made the decision to hire former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy and Dutch manager Rene Hake as his assistant managers.
After a poor start to the new season, questions have been raised about Ten Hag and his decision making, whether it is for team selection or for recruitment.
Wyness told the Football Insider:
“Don’t forget, it’s not just Ten Hag but his whole backroom staff.
“It’s a real Dutch contingent that he has hired.
“That’s the schoolboy error Jim Ratcliffe made. He allowed Ten Hag to put this big staff together even after the talk of him going at the end of last season.
“It’s a problem for Man United, how they negotiate that.
“It’ll be interesting. It’s another potential nightmare for them if things have to change this season.”
After the win against Brentford at the weekend, the Red Devils are now in 11th position in the league table.
They are way behind their rival teams who are all sitting in the top four of the Premier League.
Erik ten Hag is struggling to keep his Man United job
Ten Hag has found it difficult to build on his FA Cup success from last season despite being backed by the club in the transfer market in the summer.
Man United have made it a habit of making surprising decisions, from transfer fees for the players to terminating Sir Alex Ferguson’s contract as the ambassador of the club.
Giving complete authority to Ten Hag may come back to haunt them in the future.
They have been linked with some of the best managers in world football to replace the Dutchman and the new few weeks will decide whether he will keep his job or shown the exit door.
I think the biggest error was the decision to trigger the optional one yr extension.The idea of keeping ten Hag in the last yr of his contract was fine given that no suitable replacement had been identified as yet but there was no need to trigger the optional extension coz it’ll raise the compensation figure should they decide to get rid of him.On the issue of the assistants, I think it was a smart move on Ratcliffe’s part coz these assistant have managerial experience having been in charge of relatively big teams so there are obvious options to replace Ten Hag even on an interim basis should he be fired.These assistants can also attract managerial jobs at any given time & leave Man U without inflicting any cost on the club as it’ll be them who will be terminating their contracts.