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Manchester United are in talks about appointing Sporting manager Ruben Amorim as Erik ten Hag’s replacement.
Dutchman Ten Hag was sacked on Monday following the side’s poor start to the season.
Amorim, 39, is a highly regarded coach who has won two Portuguese league titles with Sporting – including their first in 19 years – since joining in 2020.
The extent of the talks over Amorim are not known.
It
Former Ajax boss Ten Hag, 54, took charge in the summer of 2022 and led the club to third place in the Premier League in his first season.
He also guided United to their first piece of silverware in six seasons with a 2-0 win against Newcastle United in the 2023 Carabao Cup final and finished runners-up in the FA Cup final, losing 2-1 to Manchester City.
His second season
Manchester United and Ten Hag may be happy with a draw at Villa Park, a tough assignment as Bayern Munich discovered when they were beaten here in the Champions League on Wednesday, but it cannot disguise the manager and the team’s continued struggles.
United’s failure to win means they have their worst points tally after seven games of the Premier League era.
It is their worst start since 1989-90, when
Eight points from their opening seven games is United’s worst return since the 1989-90 campaign when Sir Alex Ferguson – who was also present at Villa Park – came under huge pressure before eventually winning the FA Cup.
Only once, in 1972-73, have United scored fewer than five goals in their first seven matches. They have failed to score in their last three matches and no United player has scored
Manchester United simply had to avoid defeat at Aston Villa to ensure the focus on manager Ten Hag did not become more intense, perhaps to the point where the Old Trafford hierarchy felt it was time for a change.
It was hardly a sparkling performance, indeed for long periods this game was bogged down in a morass of mediocrity, but at least United fought for their manager and actually had
Ten Hag has won two trophies in two years at Old Trafford, but an impressive 2-1 victory against Manchester City in May’s FA Cup final proved vital to the Dutchman keeping his job.
Ten Hag ended the club’s six-year wait for silverware with victory against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final in his first season at the club, also achieving a third-place finish in the Premier League.
But his second
When Ratcliffe purchased a stake in United last December, he assumed control of football operations.
The 71-year-old made clear after becoming minority owner that the club’s problems extended far beyond Ten Hag – or indeed any manager that had come before him since 2013.
“In the last 11 years, Manchester United have had a lot of coaches and nobody has been very successful in that environment,” Ratcliffe told BBC Sport
Ten Hag claimed the red card shown to captain Bruno Fernandes three minutes before half-time “changed the game”. It did not. United’s manager is deluding only himself if he believes this. It made United’s task even harder, but Spurs were threatening to run riot even before Fernandes’ dismissal.
If it was decided to stage a world straw-clutching championship, Ten Hag would have a good chance of winning with that one.
Alex Turk – Stretford Paddock
It’s Erik ten Hag’s third season at Manchester United and social media remains littered with cries of #TenHagOut.
One win in nine European games is a calamity. Just three victories this season – against Fulham, Southampton and Barnsley – isn’t much better.
So, it’s understandable that discontent is growing among the fanbase.
United’s new ownership have offered reasons to be optimistic about the club’s future
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag says he has to be “trusted” over his reasons for dropping Marcus Rashford to the bench for Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace.
Prior to the match Ten Hag said the England forward was returning to his best form after taking control of his career, scoring three times in two games.
But the Dutchman then unexpectedly left Rashford out in favour of Alejandro Garnacho