Former Manchester United pair Wayne Rooney and Roy Keane hope that Erik ten Hag isn’t sacked this summer.
Ten Hag’s side have slumped to eighth place in the Premier League table after losing to Arsenal on Sunday. United’s 14 league defeats is the most in the club’s history.
Despite this, the Dutchman still has the backing of prominent former players of the club, namely Rooney and Keane, who were pundits for Sunday’s defeat on Sky Sports.
Speaking after the match, Keane said, “I hope he’s given more time, and they get to the summer, they can regroup and restructure the club, or whatever that might be.
“There’s huge problems at the club, but I hope he’s given a chance to get things right, because last year there were some positives, we have to be honest with that.
“And they have an FA Cup final coming up, and if they manage to beat Man City, it’s going to be very, very difficult, but there’s huge challenges he’s facing, and he’s under huge pressure.”
Similarly, Rooney said, “I personally hope they do give them time, because I think there’s a lot of problems. Recruitment is massive, and it hasn’t been good enough throughout the year, so I do think it takes time to do it right.”
However, Rooney admits there is every chance Ten Hag loses his job. He said, “But what we’ve seen before, I was part of [Man United’s team] in the FA Cup final when we won in 2016 and Louis van Gaal lost the job, so you never know.”
Sunday’s defeat was United’s ninth home loss of the season – the most since the 1973/74 season. They now look likely to miss out on European football for the first time since 2014.
United still have two Premier League games to play before the FA Cup final against Manchester City. It’s likely that Ten Hag will need positive results in these remaining fixtures if he is to keep his job come the summer.
9 – This is Manchester United's ninth defeat of this season at Old Trafford in all competitions – they have never lost more at home in a single campaign in their history (also 9 in 1920-21, 1930-31, 1933-34, 1962-63, and 1973-74). Bleak. pic.twitter.com/HnDboiJckF
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) May 12, 2024
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