Manchester United could fall further behind their rivals if they continue to be uncertain regarding Erik ten Hag

With the 2023/24 club season behind us, the new era under Manchester United under the INEOS sporting ownership is officially underway and Erik ten Hag is still at the helm. Last season was disappointing. The last-minute FA Cup win was memorable, salvaging, but it cannot and must not mask United’s worst Premier League finish since 2013.

Erik ten Hag‘s second season performances put him on the verge of sack even before the FA Cup final. After the final, United’s INEOS overlords made it known that they would evaluate the season as a whole before making a call on his future.

At the time of writing, no official statement has followed this, so Ten Hag remains United’s manager. The prevailing uncertainty is a problem, at least as far as preparing for next season is confirmed.

United are already behind

As United enter a new season, they enter a new era in which the new owners have promised to do away with the antics of the recent past.

One of the biggest issues the previous regime had was a lack of football-savvy body occupying the space between the owners and the coaching staff in the club hierarchy. INEOS want to change this, and so far have been going about it in the right away, having poached some big names, with Jason Wilcox (technical director) and Omar Berrada (CEO) having already taken up their respective roles.

They are yet to bring in a director of football, though. Talks have been in place for months with Newcastle United over Dan Ashworth, but recent developments have made things even tricker for the Red Devils.

As things stand, we’re not sure whether Ashworth will arrive at Old Trafford. at all This is a problem in two ways: without a director of football, United cannot really go ahead devising a football strategy to drive player recruitment around, and they cannot make “long-term” managerial appointments either. This leaves United with either sticking with Erik ten Hag or giving someone a job that will be all but interim in nature until the director of football arrives.

We are well into June, and with the summer set to be filled with international football, the next season will be upon us even quicker than usual. Teams around United have already started making moves, while they remain unconfirmed over their manager. Player recruitment is something United have been spectacularly bad over the last decade: both in terms of which players to buy and when to let players go.

Once again, United find themselves needing to shed a lot of dressing room weight ahead of August. Raphaël Varane and Anthony Martial are the two big names already out of the club; more ought to follow them soon.

Given their tactical and availability issues, United also need to get players in. This is hard enough when you don’t have Champions League football to offer and have a decade’s worth of track record of ruining talents left, right and centre. With United’s current predicament, it doesn’t get easier.

United need to be savvy, but they also need to be up to pace with the rest of the pack, lest they fall even further behind. Even without a director of football, they will need to bring players in, and before they do that they need to finalise upon the manager.

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With a long-term solution currently not available to them, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for United to let Erik ten Hag continue in the final year of his contract and build for at least the next season.