Man Utd stance on sacking Ten Hag revealed by Fabrizio Romano as iconic star names when axe will fall

Manchester United currently remain behind Erik ten Hag and have no plans to sack him right now, though one factor could “change their stance” according to Fabrizio Romano, and with a Treble-winning star explaining why the club will have no choice but to remove the Dutchman from his job.

Ten Hag found himself under intense pressure for much of last season with Manchester United suffering a woeful campaign in the Premier League, finishing in an all-time worst-ever position of eighth, having also been humiliated in the Champions League, finishing bottom of a group that also contained Galatasaray and FC Copenhagen. However, a surprise victory in the FA Cup final against Manchester City earned the 54-year-old his second piece of silverware and spared him from the axe.

Despite that, new minority shareholders INEOS spent much of the summer debating Ten Hag’s position, holding talks with the likes of Mauricio Pochettino and Thomas Tuchel over the prospect of replacing the Dutchman in the hotseat.

After taking their sweet time to reach a decision, Sir Jim Ratcliffe ultimately decided to stand by his man, even handing Ten Hag a contract extension by a further year and through to the summer of 2026.

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At the time, the decision was welcomed by plenty, given both Ten Hag’s trophy success and given his record actually matched up to both Mikel Arteta and Jurgen Klopp over their first two years at Arsenal and Liverpool, respectively.

However, it’s been a hugely turbulent start to the season for Ten Hag, and while United squeeked a win in their opening game of the season against Fulham, subsequent losses to both Brighton and Liverpool have turned the heat firmly back up.

Ten Hag: Man Utd sack stance revealed by Romano

With Richard Keys claiming Ten Hag had made United a ‘laughing stock’ and with Jamie Carragher questioning what, if anything, was going to change with the Dutchman at the helm, a report on Wednesday claimed Ratcliffe had already drawn up a three-man shortlist of potential options to replace Ten Hag were the axe to fall.

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However, with Andy Cole urging United to ‘stick to their guns’, transfer reporter Romano has now come out and revealed United’s “internal position” and claiming they will ‘wait on new signings before changing their stance’.

“It’s been a complicated start to the season for Manchester United – they of course managed a late 1-0 win over Fulham in their opening game but have then suffered back-to-back defeats against Brighton and Liverpool. It’s been a very poor couple of games, and an important defeat by three goals at home to their biggest rivals,” Romano said in his Daily Briefing column.

“This has already sparked some talk about the future of Erik ten Hag as manager, but the club have immediately been very, very clear on this. Both Omar Berrada and Dan Ashworth have backed Ten Hag, and whether this is the right decision or not is for you to decide, not me, but overall I think it’s positive from the club, and different from the past.

“Both Berrada and Ashworth have been very public in backing Ten Hag, and also discussing how he was very involved in the planning of the squad in the transfer market. They still believe that Ten Hag is the man to start this new project under the ownership of INEOS.”

New signings are a factor

“It’s a strong statement by United, and their position internally remains that, before judging anything in terms of results and performances, it will be important to see the impact of all the new signings.

“It’s still very early days for young striker Joshua Zirkzee, who is playing in a completely new team and new league with different expectations and pressures, while we haven’t even seen Leny Yoro or Manuel Ugarte playing in competitive games yet.

“Yoro in particular was an important signing for United this summer, a fantastic talent, but he immediately suffered a big injury.

“Ugarte was also the top target in midfield, but Ten Hag has said publicly that it could take some weeks for him to be fully ready to make an impact in the team.

“So let’s see how United are doing once the new signings have been able to make an impact before saying anything too strong about the position of Ten Hag.”

Teddy Sheringham calls for Man Utd axe to fall

That’s a stance shared by United’s treble winner Andy Cole, who feels United are right to wait before removing Ten Hag from office.

However, his strike partner from that famous Treble winning side in 1999, Teddy Sheringham, is adamant a change has to be made and he believes Ten Hag will be gone before Christmas.

“When you’re finishing eighth in the Premier League, that’s quite clearly not good enough, for Man United. Full stop. End of story, for me. You’ve got to change what’s going on,” he said via the Daily Mail.

“When you look at the inconsistency of last season, and that has followed on, without a shadow of the doubt in the first three games of this season… you can see there’s been no change whatsoever.

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“Different players, maybe. But still no change in the philosophy, and the way Erik ten Hag wants to play. Look, I don’t want to see people getting sacked. It’s not nice to say that people shouldn’t be in certain positions, but he shouldn’t be there. It’s not good enough for Man United.

“Do I think the manager will be there at the end of the season? No, I don’t. I think he’ll be gone by Christmas.”

With the international break upon us, Ten Hag has some time to gather up his thoughts and work on his plans for their next Premier League game at Southampton on September 14. They then face Barnsley in the third round of the Carabao Cup in the midweek before a trip to Selhurst Park, where United were soundly beaten 4-0 towards the back end of last season.

A run of positive results will surely be needed from those games in order to ease the immediate pressure.