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With each new Manchester United appointment, there comes a sense of mounting futility. Erik ten Hag has been given an initial three-year contract, with the option of a further year, but it has been a long time since it seemed possible that a United manager might last that long. It may be noted that ten Hag has almost nothing in common with his four predecessors in the unenviable role of replacing Sir Alex Ferguson—nothing other than the fact that, at the right moment, he was highly thought of enough by the right people to attract the attention of the Manchester United board.
First there was the continuity appointment: David Moyes was Scottish, had done well at Everton, and seemed to offer a similarly uncomplicated approach to that of Ferguson. Then, after Louis van Gaal’s two-year tenure that brought an FA Cup, there was José Mourinho, all Machiavellian guile and defensive organization but appointed several years after his peak, a guarantee less of trophies than of strife. Then came Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the sunshine man, a welcome antidote to the sourness of the end of the Mourinho era. But he was essentially somebody whose only notable tactical accomplishment was setting up a team to sit deep against high-level opposition and strike on the break.
