Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag must feel insulted by the INEOS season review process

If your significant other had dinner with others, how would you feel about it?

Manchester United have contacted other managers and it is understood Sir Jim Ratcliffe has met Thomas Tuchel in Monaco to discuss taking over the club.

Erik ten Hag was preparing for the FA Cup final when United contacted Kieran McKenna’s representatives and was on holiday while Ratcliffe courted other managers. Ten Hag and United no longer have a healthy relationship and he must feel undermined as a manager.

The optics are far from ideal. INEOS are reportedly looking for a new manager and will settle for Ten Hag if they can’t identify someone to succeed the Dutchman.

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Nobody wants to feel the best in a relationship and perhaps Ten Hag wouldn’t mind a divorce from United after continued uncertainty over his managerial position.

It has been 17 days since the FA Cup final and there has still been no communication regarding his future. Many feel that the INEOS season review process has now become a farce and that Ten Hag were disrespected by the circumstances surrounding last month’s episode.

INEOS were stuck between a rock and a hard place ahead of the FA Cup final. Of course, they sensitively contacted representatives of other managers, but those stories hit the media and spoiled Ten Hag’s preparations for the biggest game of the season at Wembley.

Ratcliffe’s regime would have been damned if they didn’t get in touch with other managers – the lack of foresight could have cost them in the managerial market – and damned if they did because of the risk of leaks, but it was a shame to see stories coming out before… The FA Cup Final because Ten Hag deserve respect.

Journalists are tasked with finding stories, and they only do their job by writing information, so it’s up to the source of the story to prevent it from becoming public.

Whether fans believe the Ten Hag should be sacked or kept for next season, they agree he deserves to be treated with respect, which has been an increasingly difficult rule for United to uphold as the review process continues and more managers are contacted.

Ten Hag may not care that other trainers have been contacted. He may believe he is part of the game and be desperate to keep his job as United manager for next season.

On the other hand, he may feel that his position has been undermined, that he has been disrespected by the situation and that it would be difficult for him to return in the 2024/25 campaign, given that the narrative would be about his future, especially that his contract expires next summer.

If Ten Hag remains in charge for next season, he would be under enormous pressure given how last season went and every result and performance would be scrutinized.

It’s no secret that INEOS have considered changing managers and have contacted other coaches, so United should make a strong start to prevent adding fuel to the fire.

There is a feeling that if Ten Hag continues, INEOS could offer him a contract extension to prevent that narrative from engulfing the start of a new season, which should be a clean sheet and an opportunity to go from one campaign to the next. which United finished. The eighth.

The Ten Hag could consider it a dream scenario and use the way he was disrespected as leverage in contract extension talks. The whole situation has become a mess since the FA Cup final and it is in everyone’s interest to have an answer as soon as possible.

The transfer window for Premier League teams opens on Friday. No one thought there would be no communication from United days before it opened.