Erik ten Hag is culled while players paid millions to realise Manchester United’s on-field product remain, posting heartfelt “thank you boss” farewells on social media while still collecting their lucrative pay-packets.
It will remain ever so, but to gauge how culpable the squad are for Ten Hag’s sacking, United sinking to 14th place in the Premier League and 21st in the Europa League, a simple question can suffice: how many of the listing group left behind by the fifth post-Sir Alex Ferguson manager removed by the club would Pep Guardiola take for his supreme Manchester City XI?
Those of a sky blue persuasion may answer zero owing to tribal loyalties and the success-soaked era of Guardiola’s tenure – a type of if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it stance. There is an argument for a few of the unit Ruben Amorim is poised to inherit, but the next man through the Old Trafford door should beware: a few is not enough to take United where Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the football department chief, wants them to be, in the rarefied air of competing with City, Liverpool and Arsenal for domestic spoils and reaching the latter stages of the Champions League each year.
Starting from the back, Lisandro Martínez seems a shoo-in for City given that Guardiola billed the Argentinian as one of the top “five centre-backs in the world” after City’s 2-1 FA Cup final defeat in May. Martínez, a born leader in a United corps in which a lack of these is a major faultline, would be at ease in a dressing room teeming with those who captain themselves: Ederson, Kyle Walker, Rúben Dias, Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gündogan and Erling Haaland. He could also be shifted to left-back to play in the position Guardiola has no natural operator for, joining Josko Gvardiol as a capable stand-in.
Kobbie Mainoo would glide into the team as City’s next No 8, the role occupied by Gündogan, 34, and De Bruyne, 33, in the autumn of their careers. The 19-year-old’s Jude Bellingham-esque ability to ghost past opponents, schemer’s eye and talent for hogging possession would attract Guardiola, who hoped to buy Bellingham before losing out to Real Madrid.
Bruno Fernandes, the best footballer at United and another given vocal public praise by Guardiola, would vie with Phil Foden for the No 10 berth. The main charge against the Red Devils’ captain concerns ill-discipline – in keeping to a team shape and his mouth from yapping at officials. To Guardiola, a cute man-manager, this is a bagatelle of a challenge, and Fernandes, too, has the main-man persona to stroll into the City changing room.
So far, the count is three footballers good enough to compete for the land’s pre-eminent side. Now, two more who Guardiola may or may not take: Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho.
As wide players each would need to dislodge Jack Grealish, Jérémy Doku, Savinho or Bernardo Silva and be able to prosper patrolling either wing, which City’s manager asks of his current quartet.
First, Rashford: this term he has an underwhelming four goals in 14 appearances but has rediscovered the joy of tapping the ball past a full-back and burning past him. But a season and a bit has passed since his box-office 30-goal return, 18 of which came in the league, a major factor in propelling Ten Hag’s men to a third-place finish.
None of Grealish, Doku, Savinho and Silva (who is also deployed in midfield) are prolific but each is trusted by Guardiola to turn it on. Rashford’s more than eight years in United’s first team show he is incapable of this: file him as an outside chance then.
Garnacho seems a surer bet. In a nascent United career (he made his debut in late April 2022) the youngster has been a consistent force and although a strike ratio of 20 goals in 100 appearances is modest, it suggests that, at 20 and with an X-factor talent, he can raise this to a far more impressive return.
So after a £600m investment in the five transfer markets of Ten Hag’s two-plus seasons in charge only four of United’s squad good enough for the champion team across town, two of which are the in-house-reared Mainoo and Garnacho. This makes a firm case for the squad having to carry some of the can for United’s flatlining displays and Ten Hag’s sacking.
A counterargument is that the Dutchman signed off on all those recruited for the £600m so has a firm hand in their presence at the club. After Ratcliffe swept into United, his was a manifesto big on the structural change needed to support Ten Hag. In came Dan Ashworth (as sporting director), Jason Wilcox (technical director), and Omar Berrada (chief executive), with Sir Dave Brailsford as the Ineos owner’s key lieutenant/man on the ground.
What followed: £200m of the £600m splurged in the summer on five signings: Joshua Zirkzee, Leny Yoro, Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui and Manuel Ugarte. Yoro apart, because he has been injured since pre-season, they have underwhelmed, appearing average at best.
Berrada, Ashworth and Wilcox are also factors, then, in United’s malaise. And in Ten Hag’s demise. But as with the players, they remain and the man in the hot seat has paid.
