SO LET’S cut through all the you-know-what and get to the nub of the situation.
However this appears to have been painted, Erik ten Hag does not have a new Manchester United contract.
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There are no new assurances and nothing has changed.
Yesterday’s grand announcement left the Dutchman on the same thin ice he was negotiating before winning May’s FA Cup final against rivals City.
Ten Hag has effectively agreed to stay and work with the new controllers of football operations who, not long ago, were hunting someone else for the job.
All that has happened is that the extra year in his original contract has been triggered to take it to 2026.
It is not the ringing endorsement of a new four or five-year deal.
The 12-month pay-off will stay the same if what seemed inevitable at the end of the last Premier League season is delayed until the next one if things do not start well.
Ten Hag said: “I am very pleased to have reached agreement with the club to continue working together.”
In other words: “OK, I’ll stay.”
Erik ten Hag is no safer now than before FA Cup win
By Neil Custis
After Manchester United announced Erik ten Hag was staying on, they tried to explain why it has taken over two weeks since the Dutchman paraded the FA Cup at Wembley to actually tell him he still had the job.
A thorough review of the season was needed even though Ten Hag said before the Cup final that this had been done.
The club said that they had ‘considered all eventualities’.
In other words ‘which manager would be best for us, and not necessarily the bloke we have got?’.
And the club were also at pains to make it clear how much they admired Ten Hag’s ‘dedication, dignity and professionalism’.
In other words he did not publicly flip his lid at the appalling way he was being treated despite asking Ratcliffe for a public vote of confidence months before the end of the season.
Let us remember Ratcliffe did not even namecheck Ten Hag in his ‘congratulations message’ after the FA Cup was won, despite the fact it was all down to him and the way he outthought Pep Guardiola on the day.
Read the full column from Neil Custis on Manchester United.
Elsewhere he claimed: “We have found complete unity in our vision.”
Meaning they all want to win trophies — well that is a relief.
He added: “We are strongly committed to making that journey together.”
How they manage that is another thing because right now the strings are being pulled from different directions, with Ten Hag in danger of being the puppet.
After all, the coaching team he put together has been dismantled and replaced, with Go Ahead Eagles boss Rene Hake and club goalscoring legend Ruud van Nistelrooy coming in.
Or the future manager and assistant, if you listen to more cynical watchers of what is going on at the club.
Striker coach Benni McCarthy has gone and Ten Hag’s former Ajax right-hand man Mitchell van der Gaag looks to be on his way too.
Why has Ten Hag agreed to all this? Leaks from inside Old Trafford say it is because Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s word is law.
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On leaks, a recent email — apparently warning staff to stop leaking what was going on at the club — was LEAKED.
Ratcliffe has put people in place in Sir David Brailsford, new sporting director Dan Ashworth, CEO Omar Berrada and technical director Jason Wilcox to do his bidding.
Newcastle released Ashworth this week and he said: “Erik has reinforced his record as one of the most consistently successful coaches in Europe.”
If that is the case why were talks held with Thomas Tuchel, as the hierarchy admitted to a dismayed Ten Hag?
Ashworth added that “the club’s review of last season highlighted areas for improvement”. Cheers, Sherlock.
While these words were being penned ahead of yesterday’s 11am release, none of the big names was on show as the devastating news was given to a staff meeting that 250 of 1,100 were out of a job.
It is fair to say that morale is not at an all-time high at Old Trafford right now.
Meanwhile players who have not been on international duty return to training on Monday.
Roll-up, roll-up, the circus is still very much in town.
