Despite not taking to the Old Trafford dugout for a Premier League fixture yet, new Manchester United boss Erik Ten Hag already has a rife list of problems to solve if he is to become the first Red Devils boss to succeed since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement in 2013.
The obvious and most disruptive saga that has taken the shine off the Dutchman's first few weeks in the Old Trafford hot seat has been the speculation surrounding the future of Cristiano Ronaldo. The 37-year-old former Real Madrid man missed a large portion of the club's pre-season schedule after he didn't begin the early days of the Ten Hag era with the rest of his teammates, as he was absent for their tour of Thailand and Australia, citing family problems as his reason.
And while the six-time Ballon D'or winner seems unlikely to be granted a move to a Champions League club this transfer window, which he so desperately craves, with Atletico Madrid, Chelsea and Bayern Munich distancing themselves from a move for the forward, his apparent unwillingness to put his personal motivations to one side in order to help United get off to a promising start in the Premier League this weekend sums up exactly why Ten Hag may have bitten off more than he can chew with this current group of players.
