Gary Neville believes Manchester United’s new football structure are reluctant to sack Erik ten Hag.
United secured a point against Aston Villa in the Premier League at the weekend but the goalless draw left them 14th in the table and the pressure on Ten Hag remains enormous.
Ten Hag has overseen United’s worst start in Premier League history and the October international break is a chance for Ineos to asses the situation and potentially make a change. Thomas Tuchel is under consideration by United, but Neville believes the 0-0 draw at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon will be enough for Ten Hag to keep his job for another few weeks because sacking the Dutchman so early into the season would not reflect well on the club.
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Dan Ashworth (sporting director), Omar Berrada (CEO) and Jason Wilcox (technical director) will decide on Ten Hag’s future and attended the Aston Villa game with Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Neville provided his verdict after Sunday’s game and admitted the point was probably enough to ‘keep the wolves at bay’ for another few weeks.
“It’s a small step forward,” Neville told Sky Sports. “I think if you offered any United fan, players and the coach a draw then they would have probably snapped your hand off and I think that’s when Erik ten Hag spoke in his interview after the game, there was an element of relief.
“It keeps the wolves at bay for a couple of weeks and give him a little bit more time. I don’t think anybody thought there would be a major incident after today’s game with a draw.
“It was going to have to be another difficult day, another bad defeat like it was last weekend against Tottenham, so I think it buys a little bit of time but it’s United’s worst start in Premier League history, so we can’t really over-celebrate. I’m speaking as a fan and as a pundit.
“When we think it’s a decent point drawing at Villa, it tells how you far Villa have come and how low the bar is at this moment in time at United. They won’t want to do anything this season because it’s a reflection on the manger and on them. Even though INEOS have only been there for a few months.
“Dan Ashworth and Omar Berrada have only been in a few months, so you can’t really lay the blame at their door, and you’re going to need two or three years to sort this out. But obviously the club made the decision to keep Erik ten Hag in the summer and they don’t want to reverse that decision after seven games. So they’ve got to hope in the next few weeks, maybe through a reset, that new structure around Erik ten Hag has to start to work.
“If the next international break comes around and United are still in that sort of 13th position in the league, there will be a lot of pressure so the next few weeks are critical.”
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