Tough It Out With Ten Hag Or Misery Will Never End

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“You can lose your looks, but never lose your aura,” an aging film star once said.
Manchester United lost their ‘looks’ when Alex Ferguson retired, but some people – even opponents – think they still have an aura.
FC Copenhagen fans probably do, judging by the way they celebrated their 4-3 Champions League victory in midweek.
But the closest United have come to greatness lately was in commemorating the death of Bobby Charlton.
It was all done with all the reverence of a great club paying due tribute to one of its gods.
But the class it showed then has been hard to find on the pitch or in the corridors of power.
The haggle over the sale of the club summed up the Glazers’ undignified reign to a T: greedy, dithering and inconclusive.
One insider claimed that when Liverpool were on offer at the same time, “they would have to eat the crumbs off United’s table.”
But the aura had gone stale by then and United fans can be forgiven for losing patience – just as Sheikh Jassim of Qatar did – with the whole process.
But what they, and the club, must not do now is lose patience with the manager.
Ralph Rangnick recently said of his time at Old Trafford: “United needed open-heart surgery and it would need two or three years.”
Erik ten Hag is not even halfway through his second year yet the knives are already out.
He may not be an inspirational figure but deserved a medal for what he achieved last season.
He survived a nightmare start, steadied the ship, saw off the troublemaker-in-chief, reached two finals, won one and qualified for the Champions League.
At other times, he might have been manager of the year.
And he’d done superbly at Ajax beforehand – look at them since he left.
Now, he seems to be suffering from the second-season syndrome that afflicted three of his predecessors.
New signings have yet to fire, there are a lot of injuries and, yes, there’s been bad luck as there was in Denmark.
He may not have the charisma of Pep or Klopp or be the man to bring back the club’s aura, but to sack him now would make no sense at all.
There is no obvious contender for a start: Zinedine Zidane, Roberto De Zerbi, Graham Potter and Julian Nagelsmann are the front runners. Nah.
The sacking of managers at the wrong time is one of the main reasons United have struggled since Fergie left.
Before the locum Rangnick, they tried the nearest thing to Fergie (David Moyes); an experienced continental guru (Louis van Gaal); one of the most successful bosses of the modern era (Jose Mourinho) and a popular former player (Ole Gunnar Solskjaer) – and none worked.
Paul Scholes calls Old Trafford “a graveyard of managers.”
They’ve spent more money than any club in the world, but many big signings have been big letdowns.
Some of ten Hag’s have, too, but amid the gloom, there are chinks of light. Next up is Luton at home, then the international break, then Everton away.
Even in Europe, there’s hope. Bayern, who still have to go to Old Trafford, have already qualified and may play the stiffs.
Copenhagen and Galatasaray may take points off each other allowing United through if the Devils win both their games.
It’s unlikely, but the consolation of a place in the Europa League appears more realistic.
One win and favourable results elsewhere might be enough.
Back in the Ferguson era when United indisputably did have an aura, they looked down on the Europa League.
Only when the wheels began to come off were they happy to win it under Mourinho.
It remains one of three ‘B-grade’ baubles they’ve won post-Fergie.
The way they played under van Gaal and then Mourinho was in an aura-free manner that was not “the United way.”
In football terms, they’d lost their swagger.
Peter Crouch once said: “With all the great players – Keane, Beckham, Scholes, Giggs, Ronaldo – you’d quickly realise why United had an aura.”
And as any old film star would say, with an aura comes arrogance.
Basically, you can’t have one without the other and this was inevitably picked up by the fans and is why rival fans are relishing their demise.
The final international break is a favourite time for managerial change as the new man can get a chance to assess the squad before the January transfer window.
But United should resist the calls. Next month, ‘Mr 25%’ Jim Ratcliffe may be calling the shots so for that reason alone, it would be mad to sack ten Hag.
Ratcliffe is already having Zoom chats with Joel Glazer.
Approval for his partial takeover depends on the board, the English Premier League and the New York Stock Exchange.
If it doesn’t get the nod, it’s an almost unthinkable return to square one.
Yes, United have lost nine matches out of 17 but there are mitigating circumstances.
Injured players will return, a new director of football may come in, but the aura has been well and truly lost.
The last thing United should do is panic: they should accept that success goes in cycles and take the current malaise on the chin like everyone else. It may take a while to fix it.
Liverpool went 30 years without a league title but they eventually found their man and regained their aura.
But it will never come back if you keep changing horses in midstream. - FMT
The views expressed are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of  MMKtT.

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