Simon Stone
BBC Sport's chief football news reporter on Football Daily

I don’t think Erik ten Hag did all of the transfer business over the summer. I think he’s put players forward, I think the recruitment department have put players forward, I think Jason Wilcox has put his ideas in and then, they’ve had to plump for someone haven’t they? That’s the way it works.

Some of the players he knows from Ajax, Matthijs De Ligt was his captain that got to the Champions League semi-finals and within a minute basically of getting to the Champions League final so clearly, he knows some of those players and maybe, the fact he did know some of those players is kind of factored in to the whole recruitment because they think he knows them, he knows their mentality, he will be able to get the most out of them.

He’s not worked with Manuel Ugarte at PSG and they’ve paid £50m for him and he’s not looked particularly brilliant.

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Simon Stone
BBC Sport's chief football news reporter on Football Daily

If we just look at Harry Maguire and this kind of brings us back to the recruitment aspect and how much say that Erik ten Hag had in that, basically, he first of all decided that Maguire couldn’t play as a left-sided centre-back and that he had to play as a right-sided centre-back because he didn’t open his body up quickly enough and he wasn’t as mobile as he wanted. Then, he decided that Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez were his two main central defenders and this summer, he’s decided that Matthijs de Ligt is his main man.

Now, they are his decisions, he is the manager of the football club, he will stand or fall by the decisions he makes. I think he was just basically just saying to Maguire, ‘look, you’re not my first choice centre half, you’re an England player, if you want to go, off you go’. Maguire decided he wasn’t going to go, he was going to stick around.

The subsidiary point of that is that nobody who has played in central defence, albeit Martinez looked really good in his first season until he got injured, but nobody who has played in central defence has either stayed fit enough or played well enough to make you think he is better than Harry Maguire.

So, all of this money has been spent and it’s not made Manchester United any better.

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Image source, Getty Images

Speaking on Radio 5 Live, former Manchester United defender Henning Berg says he thinks Ten Hag "tried to replicate what he did at Ajax".

Adding: "but I think he found it very very difficult to play that way, with the players and the team that he had in the Premier League.

"I don't think they had the level or the quality to do it".

Image source, Getty Images

Former Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane has posted on Instagram, external. It's a selfie in a raincoat and he's got a rather stern look on his face.

He captioned the picture: "In good teams, coaches hold players responsible. In great teams, players hold players accountable."

No direct mention of Manchester United's decision to sack Erik ten Hag but make of that what you will.

Alan Shearer
Former England striker

When asked how Erik ten Hag's Manchester United reign will be remembered, Alan Shearer told BBC Sport:

"When United won the FA Cup in such impressive fashion we all thought 'Ok, now's the time they're going to kick on and move forward'.

"But then of course the new owners came in, they spoke to other managers over the summer but then they gave him a new contract and around £200 million to spend, which of course hasn't really improved the team.

"I think for the size of club United are, when you fiish eighth in the league and now you're 14th, that's not really acceptable. What has happened was always going to happen if nothing improved."

Robbie Savage
Former Manchester United player on the Football Daily

Manchester United are absolutely miles off challenging for Premier League titles. You're looking at the Champions League group, the top three in the Champions League are Villa, Liverpool and Man City. Manchester United are 21st in the Europa League table which is astounding.

You look at Unai Emery, Pep, Arne Slot, Maresca, they have a style and an identity.

Simon Stone
BBC Sport's chief football news reporter

It's less than four weeks ago that Ruud van Nistelrooy spoke to journalists as he was setting up training equipment for the Manchester United players ahead of their Europa League trip to Porto.

Van Nistelrooy had a long chat with former team-mate Wes Brown, who now works for MUTV and, presumably, will soon be assessing whether his old pal's United team is doing well or not.

Van Nistelrooy will not be doing a press conference before Wednesday's EFL Cup tie with Leicester, but he should be doing one afterwards.

New interim boss Ruud van Nistelrooy knows what it's like to taste success in a Manchester United shirt.

Need a reminder of better times, United fans?

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher speaking to Sky Sports News: "They [Man Utd] need a top manager. You look at the managers that have been successful in the Premier League era - Pep [Guardiola], Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp. It's not just knowing the game, it's having the personality and a presence - Erik ten Hag never really had that.

"Jose has been there, he couldn't topple Pep Guardiola. Whoever you bring in, you've got to be hopeful that you don't have to compete with Pep Guardiola next season and he moves on and you might have a chance then.

"They need someone with a presence and an aura and you feel like they belong at Manchester United. At times we've seen over the last 10-12 years, whether you're a player or a manager, Old Trafford and Manchester United can engulf you because it's such a huge job."

Simon Stone
BBC Sport's chief football news reporter on Football Daily

Image source, Getty Images

If we're being honest, this decision was made after Manchester United lost 4-0 at Crystal Palace at the end of last season. After that game it virtually been decided that Erik ten Hag had to leave.

They made no secret of the fact that they spoke to a number of perspective managers, Thomas Tuchel among them, and then it was just a question of the announcement coming after the FA Cup final.

The FA Cup final, it wasn't just the fact that Manchester United won the FA Cup final against Manchester City, it was the way they played. Basically Ten Hag had spent weeks going on about if he got all of his players back from injury then he would have a better team and they would play in a certain way. That on that day is what happened.

I think, given the situation they were in, given the alternatives - none of whom quite fitted the bill - INEOS were uncertain about where to go and so they thought they would give Ten Hag the opportunity to show it wasn't a one-off. Unfortunately for Ten Hag it was a one-off.

Phil McNulty
BBC Sport chief football writer

Thomas Tuchel was clearly of interest to Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe in the summer but talks came to nothing and the flawed decision to stick with Erik ten Hag – and the subsequent expensive outlay on a new contract for the manager and more signings – was made.

United clearly felt Tuchel was not the man for them but will they now regret not going in again for the German who has lived his life in elite coaching circles before he was appointed as the new England coach by the Football Association?

Tuchel is known to be high maintenance and has had uneasy relationships with those in power above him before, but he is a proven winner, bringing the Champions League to Chelsea and also taking Paris St. Germain to the final.

He, perhaps, did not suggest the sort of stability and calm United might want as they enter a new era with a restructured club, but Tuchel has the highest credentials.

Given that United have so many people in the Old Trafford hierarchy these days, it is the least their supporters would expect that Ratcliffe and his cohorts will have already formalised a clear next step and that huge global fanbase will be watching their every more.

It remains to be seen if Tuchel turns out to be the one that got away.

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Former Manchester United right-back Henning Berg has been speaking on Radio 5 Live:

"It's never a good situation to change the coach or manager during the season. If they had done it in the summer, the new manager would have had time to implement his style, like Liverpool have done. They had time to change, to work, for the players to be ready for the season to start. This is much much more difficult.

"With all the managers that have been at United, it just shows. All of them are good managers, all of them have had success at other places, but not been able to make it at United in the long term.

"The best managers are taken. Tuchel just took the England job. Who's going to come in and you can say are a 'proven winner' and who has the experience to guide United from where they are now into the top, is one of the most difficult jobs, I'm sure".

Image source, Getty Images

Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo has posted on Instagram after the sacking of Erik ten Hag.

He said: “Thank you for your trust and belief in me and for giving me the opportunity to play with my boyhood club.

“I wish you all the best for the future”.