Time is what Ten Hag needs, and time is exactly what he doesn't have.
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Watching Manchester United this season has been a massive chore. One minute we are playing out of our skin, and the next, we are playing like a relegation side. Some are quick to blame the manager for these problems, but anybody who has watched us over the years will come to the same conclusion: It is more than the manager!
There is no way you can go through 5 managers [Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho, Ole, Ragnick] and now Ten Hag and experience the exact same scenario, where players play well for a patch and suddenly cannot put two good performances together back-to-back.
It must be something else. The one constant has always been the ownership. However, people always question why we weren't as bad under Ferguson even with the same ownership. They forget, Ferguson was a larger than life personality at the club, both figuratively and factually. He had far-reaching authority at the club and had a fantastic team to work with, and the owners were smart enough to keep of.
After he retired, that entire weight, the huge responsibility of running the behemoth that Ferguson had created, was placed on the feeble shoulders of one David Moyes.
No wonder he failed. The managers who would come after him similarly couldn't match-up to the expectations of the fans who were accustomed to regular success.
While the instability caused by the Glazer ownership and their unwillingness to evolve the club played a crucial role in why most of the managers struggled, it would be foolish to ignore one other issue.
No other club in the top leagues in the world have had the amount of success under a single manager comparable to the length of time [26 years!] Alex Ferguson was at United.
Now, in this modern Era of football, it is virtually impossible for managers to even get 5 years, let alone 20. Most managers who have come to Manchester United have felt the weight of that legacy. Ole, for example, tried to match up to it but expectedly failed.
The unfortunate truth is that no manager will ever match-up to Ferguson because they will never get the time to fail. Also, other clubs have since become more competitive in the transfer market.
So, what can Ten Hag do?
Two things...
First, despite the poor start to the season, Ten Hag is fortunate that for the first time in years, he is likely to be working under a competent football structure, assuming he is not sacked on day one.
Names like Jean-Claude Blanc, and Paul Mitchel have been touted as significant incomings for Sir Jim Ratcliffe's rebuild. These are some of the most competent professionals in the world of football and they would make such a huge difference to how Manchester United is run.
Secondly, unlike the other managers who have come before him, Ten Hag has sought to rebuild the club in his own image, rather than try and be another Ferguson.
The way he handled the Ronaldo situation, Rashford when he was late for a team meeting last season, Garnacho in pre-season, and currently the Sancho situation speaks of a manager who is trying to solve the ill-discipline problem that has dogged the club since 2013.
While positive results and performances have been missing this season, it would be a massive mistake to sack the only manager who has broken the mold since Ferguson.
