The leading contenders to take over from Ten Hag – Tuchel, Gareth Southgate, Graham Potter, Roberto de Zerbi, Ruben Amorim – come with enviable pedigree. But all of them could be forgiven for asking whether they are being set up to fail. It is not just that United, having sunk so far, are now plumbing Mariana Trench-like depths, with a club-record 13 league defeats in a single campaign. It is the fact that so many retired players, from Neville and Roy Keane on Sky to Owen and Scholes on Premier League Productions, are using their TV soapboxes to stir the pot and accentuate the decline.
Nothing expressed United’s toil to escape the shadow of past glories quite like Solskjaer’s admission, in 2019, that he was refusing to use Ferguson’s parking space at Carrington. It created an impression that Ferguson, long into retirement, continued to sit as judge and jury on anyone appointed in his wake. It is a similar environment for the players. Every time that they under-perform, they know that they will be subject to brutal character assessments from Keane, who was so outraged by the FA Cup semi-final against Coventry – a game United won – that he said he disliked his own team.
The broadcast commentariat is dominated by United alumni. If it is not Owen calling for Ten Hag’s premature exit, it is Neville arguing that the manager’s press conference conduct makes his heart sink. And if it is not Keane savaging United’s deficiencies in defence, it is Rio Ferdinand piping up on social media that he is watching them from behind the sofa.
All might be justified in their complaints, but the barbs threaten to generate a toxic atmosphere for any would-be manager. Any mistake will be greeted with a grave shake of the head and those deathly words: “This is Manchester United.”
But if the club are to learn anything from their latest gruesome failures, they will realise that this very sentiment is part of the problem. For the bitter truth is that United can no longer trade on their name alone.