Erik ten Hag criticized Manchester United fans for having “no sense of reality” amid their 11-year title drought in an incendiary interview on the day of the club’s FA Cup final against Manchester City.
The embattled manager is believed to be heading for an exit at Old Trafford regardless of whether his side triumph at Wembley on Saturday against their city rivals after two seasons in charge at the Manchester club.
Ten Hag has been defiant in his stance to remain in the plans of Man United’s new minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS team since the petrochemicals billionaire took over as head of football operations in February.
But under the Dutchman, the club has reached its worst finish in the Premier League, finishing eighth, and European football next season depends on Saturday’s result.
Talking to a half-Dutch SAWTen Hag stressed that the club’s aspirations were too high for the reality of its current difficulties.
Erik ten Hag attacks critics who do not have a realistic view of Manchester United’s expectations
The club has endured an inconsistent season that has seen them finish in their lowest position in the Premier League.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe (right) is believed to have already made the decision to sack Ten Hag whatever the outcome of Saturday’s FA Cup final.
“Manchester United last won the league in 2013, 11 years ago,” Ten Hag told journalist Freek Jansen. “But they still expect us to win every game while competing at the top.
“This club is not prepared for that.
“We were supposed to start building something and we took the first steps last year, but then you discover how big this club is and that no one is ever satisfied.”
“Inside the club people were satisfied, but outside the club there was noise saying that I only won the Carabao Cup, I lost the FA Cup final and came third.
If critics expected much more from Ten Hag’s team, the coach stated that “you have no sense of reality”, since “other clubs had a much better squad” than his United.
Ten Hag was also relentlessly realistic about the 2023-24 campaign, adding: ‘Let me be clear. It’s been bad. It’s been shit.’
But the coach insisted: “Despite everything, we are going to play in an FA Cup final.”
Ten Hag suggested that his club was an easy target for belligerent pundits, and that this had been a factor in the club’s crisis and the negative perception of his role in Man United’s poor form.
The club won its last Premier League title 11 years ago, the final act of Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign.
Ten Hag took aim at the pundits (pictured: former Man United players and Sky Sports presenters Roy Keane and Gary Neville) for making United “easy prey”.
Rio Ferdinand, Roy Keane, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes, all former Man United players, have openly criticized the team at various points during the club’s patchy season, with Ten Hag previously attacking pundits and fans and calling for “patience”. ‘while the team continues its process under his command.
He had stronger words on Saturday, saying his United team were “easy pickings.”
“The experts in England want to score, they want to show that they are worth it and for that Manchester United are easy prey,” said Ten Hag.
“It is the biggest club in England and possibly in the world. The club is loved or hated, there is no middle ground.
‘So when things go wrong, everyone starts talking and talking in very big words. All this negativity from these so-called experts who don’t have the ability to analyze something with facts, but who prefer to attack people to make themselves look better.
And these same people were the ones who gave me a pat on the back last year. “Last year I could walk on water, this year I’m the worst manager in the Premier League.”
The root of the club’s problems has been a huge number of injuries – so serious, Ten Hag added, that one defender, Tyrell Malacia, had not even set foot on the training pitch.
Malacia had previously been drafted in as a backup to England international Luke Shaw, who has also struggled for much of the season with a nagging injury, further hampering the Man United squad.
The Dutchman pointed out that Tyrell Malacia has not even stepped foot on the training field due to the severity of his injury.
Luke Shaw has been unavailable to the manager for much of Man United’s 2023-24 campaign.
Rasmus Hojlund (centre) has also not always been in shape as his Dutch coach demanded
But the coach was full of plans for next season, optimistic about his continued presence on the bench, he said, due to conversations with INEOS itself.
“We need to sign one more striker in the summer,” Ten Hag said of his decision to reshape the team during the upcoming transfer window. And if we can sign another central midfielder and a replacement for Varane, things will look good again.
“If the team stays in shape we can try to get back into the top four.”
Ten Hag added that Ratcliffe and company “want to change everything” and “want to rebuild with (him).”
‘This is what they told me directly,’ he stressed. ‘INEOS will change things at the club and certain projects have already started. Carrington will be completely destroyed and a new training ground will come.”
Despite Ten Hag’s confident zeal, Man United are believed to be considering both Thomas Tuchel and Ipswich’s Kieran McKenna as serious candidates to take charge of the club next season.
Away from the subject of Man United, Ten Hag saved a few words for his former Ajax football director, Marc Overmars.
The former Netherlands international quit his job in Amsterdam in February 2022 after admitting “unacceptable” behavior after it emerged within the club that he had sent inappropriate messages and photographs to several women who worked there.
But amid the Dutch giants’ seismic shift away from Eredivisie dominance in recent seasons, Ten Hag offered a staunch defense of the club’s disgraced boss.
Ratcliffe (right, with United majority owner Avram Glazer) is ready to make radical changes
But, Ten Hag insists, these changes that INEOS intends to introduce will include their contribution.
Ten Hag also offered a staunch defense of former Ajax boss Marc Overmars (left, in 2019)
“I remain adamant that I find the way Marc Overmars has been treated a disgrace,” Ten Hag said. ‘The departure of Marc Overmars killed Ajax at the time.
“And from the club’s perspective it was really stupid to throw him under the bus straight away.
‘Overmars was the binding factor within the club. He did not write a single letter on paper, but every outgoing and incoming line was created by him. He was intelligent, he had strategic vision. When they got rid of him, everything fell apart.’
Overmars took over as director of football at Belgian club Royal Antwerp but was forced to step back in January when his suspension from Dutch football handed out in November 2023 was extended globally.
The 51-year-old lost his appeal to overturn his one-year suspension in February.
