Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe will reportedly attend just his second game of the season as he prepares to fly to the UK to watch the Red Devils take on Aston Villa in the Premier League.
Man Utd manager Erik ten Hag is under pressure at the moment after a poor start to the season, and it seems Ratcliffe will be present if there are to be any meetings to decide the Dutch tactician’s future after the Villa game, according to The Athletic.
The report states that Ratcliffe would have the final decision on Ten Hag, so the fact that he’s set to watch United’s game against Villa is surely a clear sign that we could be nearing a big decision if results and performances continue to go badly.
United lost 3-0 to Tottenham at the weekend and will surely need to bounce back against Porto in the Europa League tonight, as well as against Villa when domestic football returns at the weekend.
Who could Sir Jim Ratcliffe look for to replace Erik ten Hag?
There have been plenty of reports about Ratcliffe’s candidates to be next United manager, with Team Talk notably claiming that most of the candidates are English, with Gareth Southgate, Eddie Howe and Graham Potter joined on the list by Inter Milan’s Italian head coach Simone Inzaghi.
It’s not necessarily obvious if any of those would be an upgrade on Ten Hag, but at the same time one imagines the club will feel they have to change something soon after giving the former Ajax boss plenty of time.
Ten Hag took over in the summer of 2022 and although he’s won the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup since then, his team’s performances have mostly been really poor, with the club finishing 8th in the Premier League last season and finishing bottom of their Champions League group.