Manchester United sacked Erik ten Hag in October and replaced by Ruben Amorim
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Edwin van der Sar has discussed Erik ten Hag's tenure as Manchester United manager.
Edwin van der Sar has discussed Erik ten Hag's tenure as Manchester United manager.
Former Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar believes it was 'almost written' for Erik ten Hag to fail at Old Trafford. The Dutchman was relieved of his duties in October on the back of their defeat at West Ham United which left them 14th in the Premier League table.
Ten Hag was dismissed on the back of their 2-1 defeat following a poor start to the season in all competitions, including the Europa League where he had failed to pick up a win, drawing their opening three games.
During his tenure, he won the Carabao Cup before making it two pieces of silverware in as many years when they stunned Manchester City in the FA Cup, last year.
The former Ajax manager was at the helm during the miniority takeover from Sir Jim Ratcliffe where he obtained 25 percent stake in the club.
From there, Ineos orchestrated a complete restructure of the footballing operations at Old Trafford which saw Omar Berrada installed as the chief executive officer as well as Jason Wilcox and Dan Ashworth join the club.
But a matter of months into the season, Ten Hag was subsequently replaced by Ruben Amorim with the Portuguese tactician failing to transform the fortunes at the Theatre of Dreams.
Van der Sar noted the leadership issues surrounding United and felt that those problems had an impact on Ten Hag's tenure.
"Everything stands or falls with a policy that is simply supported by everyone," he told Viaplay. "I think that has not always been the case in all those years (since Sir Alex).
"It was the same in the early period at Ajax (for Ten Hag). Erik also had a difficult period then. He overcame that with the people around him.
"I actually expected that at United too. Only because, I think, there was another power vacuum…
"The club was put up for sale or partially sold, which gave James Ratcliffe 50 per cent of the shares and the sporting part. In addition, a new CEO and a new technical director came, who often want to appoint a manager in their own line.
"So yes. It was actually almost written in the stars that it would happen like this."
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