Sir Jim Ratcliffe was asked why he kept Erik ten Hag at Manchester United during the new interview

Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has explained the decision to keep Erik ten Hag in his position as first-team coach.

Two-and-a-half weeks after United beat Manchester City in the FA Cup final, it has finally been confirmed that the Ten Hag will remain in charge at Old Trafford following an end-of-season review.

The Dutchman came under huge scrutiny after finishing eighth in the league, which was the club’s worst Premier League finish.

As a result, United’s owners INEOS are said to have held talks with several managers over Ten Hag’s potential replacement, including Thomas Tuchel and Mauricio Pochettino.

But it was concluded that both sides’ preference was for his term to continue – a decision Ratcliffe was asked about while speaking at The Times CEO Summit this week.

When asked to explain his reasoning for keeping faith with Ten Hag, the British billionaire said: “Erik? Because he’s a good coach. He was very good at Ajax. Actually, he was at Bayern Munich. ..”

Ratcliffe was then cut off mid-sentence as another question was sent his way. “Manchester United’s success comes down to the choice of manager,” asked the interviewer.

Ratcliffe replied: “The man in the street likes to think that the manager is everything and everything revolves around the manager, and maybe it did under Alex Ferguson.

“But if you look at those 11 seasons at Manchester United, we’ve had a whole series of managers, and some of them are very good, we’ve probably had seven managers and none of them have succeeded at all.

“You can’t prescribe the root of the problem to the coach. It is the environment in which they work. That’s where we put our efforts – the management, the practices, the quality of the people, all those types of things that we need to address at Manchester United – which is what we would do in (any) business.”

Ratcliffe’s comments come just days after he said the manager was “not the central issue at Manchester United” during an interview with Bloomberg.

He added: “It’s a sports club. It has to be competitive, it needs a degree of intensity, but with a supportive side because you are dealing with relatively young players. It didn’t have that kind of historical background.”

Ten Hag spoke about his United future last week when he joined Dutch broadcaster NOS for England’s Euro 2024 clash with Serbia.

“Me and Manchester United still have to find an agreement for the new contract,” he said. “This is not easy, we will have to keep talking about it.

“United told me they spoke to (Thomas) Tuchel, but in the end they came to the conclusion that they already have the best manager.”

Ten Hag led United to FA Cup glory. Image credit: Getty

Ten Hag also confirmed that he met with club officials in Ibiza to discuss his future.

“Manchester United disturbed my holiday, they suddenly stood on my doorstep. They flew to my place in Ibiza,” he said.

“INOES took its time. We are new to football, it is normal to reflect the season. It’s no secret that they talked to several candidates.

“Here in the Netherlands this is ‘not done’, in fact it is not even allowed here. But in England they have different rules and laws.

“As in any organization, and this seems very sensitive to me, there is an assessment. From there conclusions are drawn. The new management is playing football for the first time.”