In a terse statement Manchester United have announced that Erik ten Hag has been sacked as manager.
Ten Hag was the fifth permanent manager to attempt to right the ship at Old Trafford following Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement in the summer of 2013. The Dutchman leaves with a reasonable claim of being a successful United manager, given he won silverware, something 14 of his predecessors did not do.
In some ways, his tenure underlines how hard it is for anyone to live up to the standards set by Ferguson - who, in a pointed coincidence, recently had his ambassadorial position ended by the club - and, before him, Sir Matt Busby.
No club in England has won more top-flight titles than United's 20, but 18 were won by either Busby (five) or Ferguson (13). Those two also account for 33 of United's 44 major trophies and, in total, 20 out of the club's 23 managers have failed to deliver a First Division/Premier League title.
To be a Manchester United manager is to accept an impossible job with constantly shifting aims. Managing United is a difficult job, and many of the problems Ten Hag encountered were not exclusive to his reign.
To hold that role is to serve as the de facto figurehead for a multi-billion-dollar enterprise trying to please a global, multi-generational fanbase. This club are newsworthy at local, national and international levels, every day. Nature abhors a vacuum, and a little over a billion football fans grow restless when United aren't seen to be doing something.
Where do the club go from here? A misguided belief in institutional exceptionalism has led to 11 years of disappointment and decay that the club's new minority investors are only beginning to address.
United have not participated in a meaningful title race lasting into May since 2013, and have finished in the top four on five occasions since Ferguson's retirement. United's former vice-chairman Ed Woodward once said - infamously - that "playing performance doesn't really have a meaningful impact on what we can do on the commercial side of the business". United fans are entitled to wonder why their club cannot deliver both.
Share Get link Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Other Apps Labels Manchester United Premier League West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of PS200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace's stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai's ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom's auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club's ability to continue as a going concern without making player s The gold standard in European football grounds is the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in north London, a PS1bn construction project completed in 2019. Its impact on the club's finances has become increasingly clear as the effects of the pandemic have faded. Previously, the average fan would spend less than PS2 inside the ground on a typical match day, but now that figure is about PS16, thanks to new facilities including the longest bar in Europe and an on-site microbrewery. Capacity has gone up from 36,000 at the club's previous home of White Hart Lane to 62,000. The new stadium - built on land adjacent to White Hart Lane - has opened the door to a broad range of other events that have helped to push commercial income up from EUR117mn in 2018 to EUR215mn in 2022. Last year, Tottenham hosted US singer Beyonce for five nights on her global Renaissance tour, two NFL matches, as well as rugby games and heavyweight boxing bouts. Money brought in from football has gone up too. Match day income is Tottenham Hotspur is in talks to sell a minority stake in a deal that could value it at up to PS3.75 billion and pave the way for Joe Lewis and his family to sever ties with the Premier League football club. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is seeking an investment that values the club at between PS3.5 billion and PS3.75 billion, including debt. While the terms of any deal have not been finalised, City sources expect Spurs to sell about 10 per cent. The club is being advised by bankers from Rothschild on the sale. Tottenham wants to raise fresh capital for new player signings and to help fund the development of an academy for its women's team, as well as a 30-storey hotel next to its north London stadium. The financier Amanda Staveley, who brokered the deal for Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund to take over Newcastle United, is understood to be among the parties to have expressed an interest in Tottenham. Staveley's fund, PCP Capital Partners, has raised about PS500 million to depl