{"id":642319,"date":"2025-12-19T13:55:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T13:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/642319\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T13:55:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T13:55:19","slug":"man-utd-had-four-meetings-with-champions-league-winning-manager-to-replace-erik-ten-hag-ineos-handled-poorly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/642319\/","title":{"rendered":"Man Utd had four meetings with Champions League winning manager to replace Erik ten Hag, Ineos handled &#8216;poorly&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Manchester United made a complete mess of sorting the manager position out in the summer of 2024, with Erik ten Hag ending up staying.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After winning the FA Cup against Manchester City, there were a few weeks of speculation over whether <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/erik-ten-hag\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Erik ten Hag<\/a> would be sacked, with Ineos linked with approaching countless managers.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/news\/what-erik-ten-hag-said-as-his-contract-extension-at-manchester-united-becomes-official\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Manchester United extended Ten Hag\u2019s contract<\/a>, giving him a \u00a3200m transfer window in the process, a decision which was ultimately a massive blunder by Ineos.<\/p>\n<p> Are you happy with Ineos and Sir Jim Ratcliffe? <\/p>\n<p> \ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n<p>Just four months later, Ten Hag was gone, and this led to a mid-season managerial change, which saw <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/news\/ruben-amorims-worst-defeats-as-manchester-united-head-coach-including-3-0-thrashing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ruben Amorim have United\u2019s worst Premier League campaign<\/a> ever.<\/p>\n<p>But the club did attempt to replace him in the summer.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2246550820-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Thomas Tuchel being interviewed by Roy Keane.\" class=\"wp-image-309578\" \/>Photo by Michael Regan \u2013 The FA\/The FA via Getty ImagesManchester United met with Thomas Tuchel four times over manager appointment<\/p>\n<p>It was as clear as day that Ten Hag had to go in the summer of 2024, with Ineos having no faith, but it seems that a failed recruitment drive was behind his extension.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-15305769\/Manchester-United-Downfall-Untold-Volume-Five-Jim-Ratcliffe-rescue-Ineos.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Daily Mail<\/a>, United chiefs would admit keeping Ten Hag was a big mistake.<\/p>\n<p>Efforts from Ineos to replace Ten Hag with Thomas Tuchel didn\u2019t work out, with the report explaining sources close to the German say United handled their hiring attempts poorly.<\/p>\n<p>United conducted four interviews with Tuchel, with the manager believing the questions were pointless, before ultimately no offer was made between the two parties.<\/p>\n<p> The 7 managers contacted by Ineos about the Man United job before Ruben Amorim\u2019s appointment <\/p>\n<ul class=\"inline-links multi\">\n<li>Roberto De Zerbi<\/li>\n<li>Thomas Tuchel<\/li>\n<li>Graham Potter<\/li>\n<li>Thomas Frank<\/li>\n<li>Xavi<\/li>\n<li>Mauricio Pochettino<\/li>\n<li>Marco Silva<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2216338300-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"Ineos chief Sir Jim Ratcliffe looks on before the trophy presentation after the Europa League final match between Tottenham and Manchester United at the Estadio de San Mames in 2025 in Bilbao, Spain.\" class=\"wp-image-295711\" \/>Photo by Michael Regan \u2013 UEFA\/UEFA via Getty Images     <\/p>\n<p> \ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n<p>One source says that Ineos were running around like a headless chicken trying to find a new manager, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/news\/dan-ashworth-had-one-big-concern-about-ruben-amorim-before-manchester-united-exit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dan Ashworth being against Amorim<\/a> in the summer, explaining why he was axed in the autumn.<\/p>\n<p>Where would United be if Thomas Tuchel was appointed in summer of 2024?<\/p>\n<p>Keeping Ten Hag was an error, no matter which way it is spun, with faith in the German completely gone by this stage.<\/p>\n<p>Appointing Tuchel would have been a pretty great move for the Red Devils, with the coaching pedigree he has, likely to immediately improve United, with the 2024\/25 season likely to have resulted in a top-four finish.<\/p>\n<p>Tuchel would probably currently have United in some sort of title race given his history at prior clubs, with Marcus Rashford likely a key player for him.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, he would probably be respecting the club\u2019s values as he has done at Chelsea and Bayern Munich.<\/p>\n<p>It always felt like Tuchel was likely to be a United head coach, and there is still a chance in the future. But if he were appointed in 2024, United would be in a much better position right now than keeping Ten Hag, which set the club back years.<\/p>\n<p>  Join Our Newsletter <\/p>\n<p>Receive a digest of our best United content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester United made a complete mess of sorting the manager position out in the summer of 2024, with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[36047,94,5467,79,6573,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-642319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-erik-ten-hag","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ineos","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-thomas-tuchel","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115746579657731431","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}