Ruud van Nistelrooy appointed interim head coach
READ: Who might replace Ten Hag as permanent Man Utd manager?
Watch 5 Live Sport's Monday Night Club discussing Ten Hag's sacking by clicking play at top of page
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Manchester United are in a relegation battle so there can only be one man for the job… Sam Allardyce #BigSam4ManU
Rob the Scouser YNWA
Simon Stone
BBC Sport's chief football news reporter
It's just come to the end of the line for Erik ten Hag. United stood by him at the end of last season after he won the FA Cup.
I think most people thought if that had not happened in the way it did, he would have been sacked then.
Ultimately he has paid the price for the fact they finished eighth last season. Improvement was demanded and they are currently 14th in the Premier League.
Phil McNulty
BBC Sport chief football writer
Manchester United’s decision to sack Erik ten Hag is the correct one – but only highlights the folly of the decision to reluctantly keep faith with him in the summer.
Once clubs start talking to other managers, as Manchester United did, it is obvious they do not have full trust in the incumbent and the credits are rolling unless they pull out a remarkable run of results. The opposite leaves them only one game away from a crisis.
And Ten Hag is a classic example.
The dysfunction at the heart of Old Trafford meant they not only kept Ten Hag but extended his contract then allowed him bring in more players he knew without any improvement, such as Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui and latterly Manuel Ugarte from Paris St-Germain.
And the appalling decision, both in the financial and football context, to pay £82m for Antony, who Ten Hag also knew from his time at Ajax, was a millstone around the neck of the club and manager.
It has been a catalogue of errors and misplaced faith, matched by poor results that led to today’s dismissal of Ten Hag.
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As expected as it was. Offering him a new contract expecting a better outcome in the summer was ludicrous. It will need a long term strategy still though whoever they put in place now. Far too many players not performing whether capable or not.
Ceiron
Image source, Getty ImagesManchester United have won just four times from their opening 13 games in all competitions - one of which came against League One side Barnsley.
With just three wins from nine in the Premier League, United sit in 14th place - already 12 points behind leaders Manchester City and just seven points off the bottom three.
They have scored just eight times in the league, with only bottom club Southampton and Crystal Palace having scored fewer goals (six).
Despite having a more promising scoring record in their European fixtures - five in three games - United remain winless in the Europa League, having taken the lead in all of those fixtures before having to settle for a draw.
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I admire ETH, he plays fantastic football. But eras come to an end.
Barry
Image source, Getty ImagesManchester United captain Bruno Fernandes has posted on Instagram after Erik ten Hag's sacking.
He wrote: "Thanks for everything boss! I appreciate the trust and the moments we share together, I wish you all the best in the future
"Even knowing the last period isn’t been great from all of us I hope you fans can keep with you the good things the manager as done for our club!"
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The right call to sack ETH. Why wait for the Chelsea game when that had a demolition job written all over it? I think our chances in that game have now increased. But the problem now is hitting refresh again and I'm concerned with the amount of influence ETH had on transfers as there's a number of players in the squad that he brought in with the likes of De Ligt, Antony, Zirkzee etc. It will be interesting to see how they all respond.
Mark, Manchester
Simon Stone
BBC Sport's chief football news reporter
Club sources at Manchester United have told me:
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A team as big as United should never be happy with winning cups and not the league. For far too long now that's been the case and this sacking was 9 games too late. Now the new manager has to get rid of 90% of the Ajax boys and buy quality. So yet another 3 year plan. Very poor management decisions have ruined this club.
Nick, Rochdale
Paul Macdonald, of FootballTransfers.com, uses a metric called 'estimated transfer value' (ETV), external to assess players' worth. It takes in various factors including age, performance, experience, contract length across hundreds of thousands of players.
Macdonald said: "[Erik] ten Hag's net spend is comfortably higher than any other United manager since Ferguson. He's been given incredible backing in the transfer market. Looking at specific players' estimated transfer value, we can evaluate some of those deals."
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The comments about Man Utd’s performances recently are similar to those stretching back to Ferguson’s departure and several managers, so it must be something other than the managers that is causing the problem.
Colin
Simon Stone
BBC Sport's chief football news reporter
Manchester United have spent a lot of money on players and over the three summers Erik ten Hag has been in charge, they have spent a huge amount of money - hundreds of millions of pounds on players.
Many of them Ten Hag has either managed previously or have come on his recommendation, and many of them have just not been good enough. The prime example of this is Brazilian winger Antony.
I was told that when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was the manager of Manchester United, he looked at Antony, who was offered to the club for about £30m.
Solskjaer said he'd take him but they shouldn't pay any more than £30m, and they didn't sign him.
When United struggled to bring in the players they wanted during Ten Hag's first season in charge, he then pushed for Antony to come in and United ended up paying more than £80m. He is the second-most expensive player in Manchester United's history and he has been terrible.
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As a Manchester United fan, I supported him until the last Europa league game. He is the kind of disciplinarian that was needed to steady the ship, but he absolutely bottled it this season. Dubious selections, having no definite game play or plan and acceptance of draws as favourable results are a few things that will not fly at any top division club, let alone Manchester United
Ratheesh, Orpington
Erik ten Hag was Manchester United's fifth permanent manager since the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson retired after his team reclaimed the Premier League title in 2013.
Here is the win ratio for each boss:
Manchester United sacked Erik ten Hag after his team's fourth league defeat of the season on Sunday.
That was his 35th defeat from 128 games in all competitions. United won 70 of them and drew 23, leaving Ten Hag with a win ratio of 54.7% while at Old Trafford.
Here is the developing story on Ten Hag's departure from Old Trafford.
Erik ten Hag has the highest net spend (money spent minus money recouped from sales) of any Manchester United boss since Sir Alex Ferguson.
David Moyes
Louis Van Gaal
Jose Mourinho
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Erik ten Hag
(Figures provided by FootballTransfers.com for BBC Sport)
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The sack was coming for Ten Hag. Underwhelming table finishes combined with a lack of progress won't keep you in a job
Noah
I'm surprised Manchester United didn't at least give Ten Hag the Chelsea game. They must have seen they only have 3 wins a quarter of the way through the season and deemed it their floor. The FA Cup win only bought him 6 months.
Martin
Image source, Getty ImagesSir Jim Ratcliffe said Manchester United must "walk to the right solution, not run to the wrong one" after he bought a 27.7% stake in the club in February.
The 71-year-old billionaire told BBC Sport "something is wrong with the environment" at United, who won the most recent of their 20 English titles in 2013, but called for patience from supporters.
"In the north west, we have two neighbours who are really impressive football clubs. I want to knock them all off their perch," Ratcliffe said.
"The short-term issue is we want to get into the Champions League. It's a two-to-three-season challenge to get the organisation and environment right, to get the performances on the field right and win football matches. That involves the design and structure of the organisation being correct.
"In the last 11 years, Manchester United have had a lot of coaches and nobody has been very successful in that environment. That says to me there is something wrong with the environment. It is not constructive for me to blame anyone, it's just a fact. My focus is on how I change that environment to get the best out of the coach and squad."
West Ham 2-1 Man Utd
Sunday's defeat at West Ham was Manchester United's fourth from nine Premier League games this season, leaving them 14th in the table with 11 points.
This is United’s second-lowest points tally after nine games of a Premier League season (11), with 2019-20 (10) being the only campaign in which they’ve had fewer points at this stage.
Casemiro's equaliser at London Stadium was United's eighth league goal of the season.
Only Crystal Palace and Southampton (six each) have scored fewer Premier League goals than United. Indeed, the Red Devils have the biggest negative differential between expected goals and goals scored in the competition this term (-6.56 - 8 goals, 14.56 xG).
