Sir Jim Ratcliffe says Ten Hag not ‘central issue’ at Man Utd and tells fans not to expect improvement for THREE YEARS
SIR JIM RATCLIFFE has opened up on Manchester United’s chaotic handling of Erik ten Hag’s future.
The Red Devils brass had decided to give the Dutchman his P45 before last month’s FA Cup final triumph over local rivals Manchester City.
But Ratcliffe performed a major U-turn this month, opting to hand the former Ajax boss a new deal at Old Trafford after an end-of-season review.
That’s despite speaking to multiple managers to replace the 54-year-old, including former Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel.
The decision to retain Ten Hag’s services will ensure continuity remains, although Ratcliffe insists United’s problems are much bigger than who is at the helm of the ship.
The INEOS billionaire told Bloomberg: “The coach isn’t the central issue at Manchester United.
“It’s a sports club. It needs to be competitive, it needs a degree of intensity.
“But with a supportive side to it because you are dealing with players who are relatively young.
“It hasn’t had that type of environment historically.”
The club can finally start the process of identifying transfer targets now that Ten Hag’s been told he’ll be in charge next season.
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Ten Hag was steadfast in his belief last season that the club can challenge on all fronts with some additions to a fully fit squad.
But Ratcliffe, 71, doesn’t foresee the club’s woes on the pitch disappearing anytime soon.
He admitted: “I’m not confident that we’ll solve all the problems in the first transfer window.”
Ratcliffe isn’t writing off the club’s chances of challenging for major honours next season, he just thinks they’ll be better placed in the 2025/26 campaign.
“We’re sort of a bit handicapped in that sense, so I think we’ll do a fairly good job,” he said.
“It will take two or three summer windows to get to a better place.”
Erik ten Hag is no safer now than before FA Cup win
By Neil Custis
After Manchester United announced Erik ten Hag was staying on, they tried to explain why it has taken over two weeks since the Dutchman paraded the FA Cup at Wembley to actually tell him he still had the job.
A thorough review of the season was needed even though Ten Hag said before the Cup final that this had been done.
The club said that they had ‘considered all eventualities’.
In other words ‘which manager would be best for us, and not necessarily the bloke we have got?’.
And the club were also at pains to make it clear how much they admired Ten Hag’s ‘dedication, dignity and professionalism’.
In other words he did not publicly flip his lid at the appalling way he was being treated despite asking Ratcliffe for a public vote of confidence months before the end of the season.
Let us remember Ratcliffe did not even namecheck Ten Hag in his ‘congratulations message’ after the FA Cup was won, despite the fact it was all down to him and the way he outthought Pep Guardiola on the day.
Read the full column from Neil Custis on Manchester United.
It’s been six months since Ratcliffe finally got his hands on shares in the club and was given control of sporting matters.
And he admits the club has been run more like a business than a football team under the ownership of the Glazer family.
He said: “We’ve got more accountants than we’ve got sporting people at Manchester United.
“If you’re not careful, the Premier League is going to finish up spending more time in court than it is thinking about what’s good for the league.”
The Old Trafford faithful are hopeful that Ratcliffe will help restore the club back to its past glory.
That’s ultimately the primary goal of life-long United fan Ratcliffe, although he’s all too aware that Rome wasn’t built in a day.
“There’s room for improvement everywhere we look at Manchester United, and we will improve everything,” he said.
“We want to be where Real Madrid is today, but it’ll take time.”