Since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, Manchester United have had five permanent managers in just over a decade with nobody lasting much longer than three years. However, Ferguson has previously warned United that they need to give their managers plenty of time, having defended Louis van Gaal over calls for him to be sacked. Speaking less than two months before Van Gaal was axed, Ferguson called for patience in comments that could easily be applied to Ten Hag’s current situation.
“It is dead easy to be critical,” Ferguson said back in 2016. “You have to be realistic about some things. The number of injuries he has had: Phil Jones has played only seven games this season, Ashley Young, [Antonio] Valencia, [Luke] Shaw, these are big losses.
“It doesn’t matter which team you are, if you have players missing of that calibre, it has to have an impact on the team. The other aspect which is always easy to forget, there are five new players in their first season at United and two are young players in [Anthony] Martial and Memphis [Depay], and their promise is good. For 150 years of history it is worth having a couple of years on the quiet side of success because they will always come back and come back strong.”
While Van Gaal was ultimately sacked after two years in charge, Ten Hag’s future remains up in the air and he has insisted he is not bothered by the speculation about his position. “You know when you are working at Man United there will always be noise, rumours around the club, the manager, the players, whatever,” he said last month. “There will always [be an] issue – you like it, to talk about.
Of course we have different interests, but we are not focusing on that. We are focusing on the process, we are focusing on the team to play better, to improve the way of play, so I don’t care about [it].” *Join our new WhatsApp community* *and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content.
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