Sir Jim Ratcliffe has gathered Man United bosses, as well as former player Gary Neville, at Old Trafford for talks, with under-fire Erik ten Hag’s future as manager and a new £2billion stadium high on the agenda.
The Dutchman seems to be inching closer to the door after a woeful start to the season which leaves the 13-time Premier League champions 14th in the table on just eight points from seven matches – their worst start ever in the competition.
Two draws in the last week, including a 3-3 stalemate against Porto in the Europa League and a goalless afternoon against Aston Villa yesterday, have staunched a run of defeats but done little to steady Ten Hag’s position.
Meanwhile, plans for a new Old Trafford stadium took another step forward last month as the first images of a potential regeneration were revealed.
With this chaos in the air in Manchester, Sir Jim has been pictured strolling into United’s home ground this afternoon for crunch meetings with Dave Brailsford and other chiefs.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has gathered Man United bosses at Old Trafford for talks
With chaos in the air in Manchester, Sir Jim has been pictured strolling into United’s home ground this afternoon for crunch meetings with Dave Brailsford
Former United player Gary Neville was also spotted entering Old Trafford on Monday
The talks come ahead of Tuesday’s scheduled board meeting in London. The club must decide whether to stand by Ten Hag or take advantage of the international break by changing manager.
It’s understood they are in no rush to make that decision and sources say that no major developments are expected on Monday.
Minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe watched United’s goalless draw with Aston Villa on Sunday along with director Sir Dave Brailsford, chief executive Omar Berrada, sporting director Dan Ashworth and technical director Jason Wilcox.
Discussions over Ten Hag’s future continued into Monday and it will be on the agenda again when co-chairman Joel Glazer, chief operating officer Collette Roche and chief financial officer Roger Bell join them for the executive committee meeting on Tuesday.
United are wary of fuelling speculation over Ten Hag’s future after Thomas Tuchel and Simone Inzaghi were linked with the job if he is sacked after two-and-a-half years in charge at Old Trafford.
Ratcliffe is known to be an admirer of Tuchel and met the German coach in Monaco during the summer when Ten Hag’s future was in doubt before the FA Cup final.
Tuchel is still available but it’s unclear if the obstacles that prevented him from replacing Ten Hag then can be overcome now.
Money was said to be one of them. It’s understood there has been no new contact between United and his representatives at this stage.
Ten Hag kept his job in the summer but is now under huge pressure again after United’s woeful start to the season
After a lowest-ever Premier League finish of eighth last season, United are currently in 14th place
The other obvious option open to United is to install Ten Hag’s new assistant Ruud van Nistelrooy as interim boss.
The former United striker returned to Old Trafford as part of a summer shake-up of the coaching team having had managerial experience at PSV Eindhoven. Van Nistelrooy has got to know the players and staff, and is well respected around the club.
Otherwise, the landscape has changed very little since June when United decided that keeping Ten Hag was the best course of action and gave him a one-year contract extension.
Former England boss Gareth Southgate is available now, but the other candidates discussed and discarded at the time – Thomas Frank, Roberto De Zerbi, Graham Potter, Mauricio Pochettino, Kieran McKenna and Marco Silva – are much the same.
United are being helped by the fact there is no clamour for Ten Hag to go among supporters, and no sense of inevitability as there was with Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
He has recovered from the 3-0 debacle at home to Tottenham by drawing two difficult away games against FC Porto and Villa.
But after a lowest-ever Premier League finish of eighth last season, United are currently in 14th place on the back of their worst start after seven games, and that has set alarm bells ringing again.
Although Ten Hag insists he has the support of his employers, he said the same in the summer when United were interviewing other managers, and Ratcliffe declined to give the Dutchman his public backing when asked last week.
Although the Ineos billionaire says a decision over Ten Hag’s future ‘is not my call’, it’s understood the he, Brailsford and Joel Glazer will have the final says based on the recommendations of Berrada, Ashworth and Wilcox.