Sir Jim Ratcliffe has gathered Man United bosses, as well as former player Gary Neville, at Old Trafford and Carrington 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 ever start in the competition.
Two draws in the last week, including a 3-3 stalemate against Porto in the Europa League and a goalless run-out against Aston Villa yesterday, have staunched a string 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 Joel Glazer 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 Joel Glazer
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.
Tuchel’s potential appointment would see him return to manage in the Premier League for the first time since leaving Chelsea in 2022.
Ten Hag kept his job in the summer but is now under huge pressure again after United’s woeful start to the season
Sir Jim and United’s hierachy will meet in London on Tuesday amid scrutiny over Ten Hag’s position
After a lowest-ever Premier League finish of eighth last season, United are currently in 14th place
The Red Devils played out a bore draw against Villa on Sunday which saw few chances created
While in west London, Tuchel lifted the Champions League in his first season at the club. The German also won the Club World Cup during his spell in the English capital.
Tuchel left Bayern in the summer but the club considered a U-turn before appointing Vincent Kompany.
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.
United are reportedly keen on replacing Erik ten Hag with Thomas Tuchel
Tuchel could take over from Ten Hag who is under pressure after a poor start to the campaign
Tuchel won the Champions League with Premier League rivals Chelsea back in 2020-21
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 that he, Brailsford and Joel Glazer will have the final says based on the recommendations of Berrada, Ashworth and Wilcox.
If the managerial crisis at Old Trafford was not enough, the future of the stadium itself remains equally as topical after new photos revealing what a future regeneration might look like were released last month.
It was confirmed last month that the Red Devils wanted to press forward with a new ground in the same area as Old Trafford, rather than redeveloping the current 74,000-seater stadium.
Mail Sport revealed in August that the club have appointed famous British achitect Sir Norman Foster to create the blueprint to revamp the area owned by the club.
The 89-year-old’s company, Foster and Partners, began working on initial proposals on the transformative project which would see a £2billion 100,000 capacity ‘Wembley of the North’ at the centre of it.
And in a new update on proceedings, the first designs of a regenerated area were made public at a Labour Party conference in Liverpool in September.
Former Manchester United captain, Gary Neville, and the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, were at the conference as they seek backing to remove a freight rail terminal to free up space for development.
While speaking from the congress, Burnham outlined United’s potential ambitions for the new stadium and how it can have a positive effect on the city.
‘This would be the single most significant football location in the world,’ Burnham told Sky Sports. ‘It would mean the north west of England has the best football infrastructure of anywhere else on the planet.
‘The jobs that would be clustered around this stadium would be huge, it would link into the media city. This would create a development on the west of Greater Manchester to balance what Manchester City have done in the east.
‘It would get more freight on rail and more passenger benefits. What’s not to like?’
The first designs of a new Old Trafford were revealed at a Labour party conference
The new plans would see Manchester United move from their current 74,000-seater ground
Renowned architect Sir Norman Foster could be tasked with designing a new Old Trafford
Ineos chief Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants a new stadium to be built in place of the current ground
It is understood that United have been assessing the options as to whether they should stay at their current home of Old Trafford, or build a new state-of-the-art venue next door to it.
The Glazer family had previously appointed Populous in 2022 to oversee a redevelopment of the ‘Theatre of Dreams’ and the surrounding area, and they drew up blueprints for their vision.
However, the company’s involvement is believed to have gone quiet since Ineos arrived at the wheel and now Ratcliffe is ready to abandon plans to keep Old Trafford.
