Manchester United’s Ralf Rangnick’s famous disgust explains why Erik ten Hag still has a job

Manchester United have made countless mistakes in the years since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement.

Here’s a good game to play with your pub mates: List them all in order. The first is obvious – they didn’t hire a director of football in 2013 to assist with the transition period after Ferguson’s exit.

That United didn’t hire Ralf Rangnick as director of football when he was literally presented to them in 2022 was another catastrophic error. Fortunately, INEOS is finally on the mend with the pillar appointments of Jason Wilcox and Dan Ashworth.

But make no mistake, United’s misuse of Rangnick was criminal. Here he was one of the best sporting directors in the game, but United used him as a babysitter. The German regularly showed the breadth of his footballing experience during his interim spell as manager and ultimately provided too many home truths for the Glazers to retain him as a consultant as originally planned. Perhaps Rangnick’s most famous (or should that be infamous?) rant was his April 2022 “open heart surgery” revelation, days after a 4-1 defeat at Liverpool.

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Amid a desperate run of results – although United have already lost more games this season than in 2021/22 and are set to finish two places lower – Rangnick has told United exactly how to get back to the top.

“It is not enough to do some minor changes – cosmetic things. In medicine you would say this is open heart surgery,” he said. “If this is happening and everyone has realized that it needs to happen and if people want to work together, then it makes sense and I think it doesn’t take two or three years to change these things.

“This is something that cannot be done by one person as a manager. With all due respect to Jürgen (Klopp) and Pep (Guardiola), I’m sure they didn’t do all the things themselves (at Liverpool and Manchester City). .

“There were other people involved in those two clubs, people in certain positions, regardless of the area, to rebuild. In all areas you have to have top people and they have to work together in a very close, reliable way. way.”

A quick look at the events that have transpired since Rangnick’s comments tell their own story about how he was ignored for so long. United had John Murtough as their first director of football in 2021, but his track record in such a role was close to zero. Darren Fletcher was their technical director and also inexperienced.

The club’s 2022 transfer window, Erik ten Hag’s first as manager, revealed who was really in charge of the recruitment process, with Christian Eriksen, Antony, Tyrell Malacia and Lisandro Martinez all signings led by the manager.

The other arrival, Casemiro, was an alternative to Frenkie de Jong who, despite an early peak, has seen his form collapse this season to the point where United are now keen to sell the 32-year-old .

Other United signings from the Ten Hag era also exhibit a lack of collaboration, as Rangnick might call it. Wout Weghorst was another Dutch player signed on a very cheap loan; Sofyan Amrabat was a former mentee of Ten Hag; Mason Mount was also the manager’s choice.

For many, these players and their subpar performances are a damning indictment of Ten Hag’s decision-making. United’s line-up at Crystal Palace on Monday night included seven Tan Hag signings. So the responsibility for such an abject display lies mainly with the manager.

However, it is the desire of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS to work in a more similar framework to that which Rangnick alluded to. As Rangnick said, running such a huge football club cannot be left to one person. The roles of Txiki Begiristain and Michael Edwards – and their extended back teams – at Manchester City and Liverpool respectively in recent years cannot be understated.

United need to become savvy, collaborative and less naive in the transfer market. Ratcliffe and his confidantes know this all too well.

So perhaps United’s changing football model could give Ten Hag a stay of execution. It certainly explains why he’s still in his job given how awful the results and performances have been this season. There will be nothing unshakable about the club’s next major footballing decision.

There is, however, a good chance that INEOS will still make a change in the dugout, believing that a fresh start under a new head coach is the only way, all things considered. But the new manager will still need the support of a functioning football department. Whatever you think of Ten Hag – and popular opinion seems to be swinging against him – United’s problems go far beyond the manager. This has been true for a decade or more.

Rangnick knew all too well. It’s just a shame that United have lost the last two years of his enlightening comments.