Back in the summer, Manchester United backed Erik ten Hag.
Having qualified for the Champions League, and won the Carabao Cup, progress seemed to finally be made under the Dutchman – who had inherited a club in crisis following Ralf Rangnick’s dreadful stint in the dugout.
United, sensing a chance to perhaps reel in Manchester City, decided to go gung-ho on summer transfers despite working on a strict budget amid takeover talk.
Mason Mount, Andre Onana and Rasmus Hojlund were all recruited for big fees from Chelsea, Inter Milan and Atalanta respectively.
Results for Man Utd haven’t been good enough with Crystal Palace beating them on Saturday
And United then proceeded to bring in Altay Bayindir – as well as wrapping up loan deals for Sergio Reguilon and Sofyan Amrabat.
The problem is, however, that the club now seem to be going backwards.
Not all of it is Ten Hag’s fault, of course. The Mason Greenwood situation, for example, was terribly handled by his superiors.
The Dutchman had expected to have the England international in his squad this season after charges against the 21-year-old were dropped back in February.
But United, after an online backlash, abandoned that plan and sold Ten Hag short in the process.
It isn’t Ten Hag’s fault, either, that Antony has been under scrutiny as well.
Three women in Brazil allege that the Samba winger assaulted them, something the forward strongly denies.
United have decided to bring Antony back into the fold after a short period of absence while police investigations remain ongoing.
Ten Hag can’t be blamed for the way that, too, has cast a dark cloud over the club.
And it’s believed club medics, rather than the Dutchman, were responsible for defender Lisandro Martinez playing with a broken foot.
Martinez will now be sidelined for the next two to three months while he recovers from his injury.
Had United acted sooner, that situation could have been avoided.
But while Ten Hag has had to contend with issues out of his control, sack pressure is rising on the 53-year-old ahead of the club’s crunch Champions League showdown with Galatasaray on Tuesday night.
It is a game that, simply put, they can’t afford to lose.
United have already lost five matches so far this season, with Tottenham, Arsenal, Brighton, Bayern Munich and Crystal Palace putting them to the sword.
Most worrying was the defeat to Palace on Saturday, just days after the Red Devils had beaten the same opponents in the Carabao Cup.
United are a club that must win. It’s in their DNA, or at least it used to be.
But losing at home in the Champions League would all but end their hopes of progressing, and winning, the famous competition.
Previous managers have lost their jobs at Old Trafford for less than what Ten Hag has achieved so far this season, after all.
His predecessor, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, lasted just three months in the 2021/2022 season after previously signing a new contract with the club.
Man Utd will be without Lisandro Martinez as Erik ten Hag battles to turn things around
Trophies weren’t enough to save Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal, too.
And United started the season badly, but better than this term, during David Moyes’ sole campaign in charge.
Sack pressure is rising on Ten Hag. Whether he can turn things around, starting tonight, remains to be seen.
