It was about as shut as an FA Cup-winning supervisor has come to a mic drop.
In a room of journalists who had spent the last few days reporting on his bosses’ plan to interchange him, a bruised, embattled however belligerent Erik ten Hag defended his document as supervisor of Manchester United.
“Two trophies in two years is just not unhealthy,” he stated. “Three finals in two years is just not unhealthy. In the event that they don’t need me, then I’m going elsewhere to win trophies as a result of that’s what I do.”
It was a very good line, price repeating, which he did. After Ten Hag’s contract was prolonged and his future settled, he sat down with MUTV in July and reiterated his “two trophies” level.
Then he stated it once more just a few days later in Trondheim after United’s first pre-season pleasant, including: “Other than (Manchester) Metropolis, that’s greater than some other membership in English soccer.”
He repeated it once more after the pleasant towards Rangers in Edinburgh.
Then once more on the tour of the USA.
That was simply pre-season. For the reason that begin of the marketing campaign correct, Ten Hag has referenced his two home cup wins in six exchanges with journalists throughout pre- and post-match press conferences, to say nothing of interviews with broadcasters.
The most recent occasion, after Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Liverpool, got here amid a tense change with one journalist who Ten Hag invited to call the “errors” his group had been accused of constructing. After the journalist rattled off a protracted record of repeated errors, Ten Hag retreated to his previous trustworthy.
“I’ve a distinct imaginative and prescient. I feel we received, after Metropolis, probably the most trophies in English soccer,” he stated. “I’m sorry for you.”
He’s proper, after all. It’s as true now because it was at Wembley. However three video games into a brand new season, an argument with which he neatly skewered his critics in Might is quick changing into a crutch to fall again on.
On Friday, having simply repeated his favorite level, Ten Hag added: “There’s just one factor in soccer and that’s on the finish of the season for those who win prizes, trophies, or not.” However as others have famous, that view is in stark distinction to that of his predecessor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
“Any cup competitors may give you a trophy however generally it’s extra of an ego factor from different managers and golf equipment to lastly win one thing,” Solskjaer stated in March 2021.
“It’s not like a trophy will say, ‘We’re again’. It’s the gradual development of being in and across the prime of the league and the consistency and the odd trophies. Generally a cup competitors can disguise the actual fact you’re nonetheless struggling a bit of bit.”
Solskjaer’s phrases are these of a supervisor who had the alternative downside to Ten Hag. Below the Norwegian, United’s league finishes steadily improved — from sixth to 3rd to second — however the trophy cupboard was naked.
Solskjaer was defending his document by claiming that the league is a real barometer of progress, simply as Ten Hag is defending his document by pointing to silverware. As to which view is right, opinions will fluctuate.
Ten Hag together with his different trophy, the Carabao Cup (Julian Finney/Getty Pictures)
As vital because it was for Solskjaer’s United to qualify for the Champions League on the ultimate weekend of the 2019-20 marketing campaign, do you bear in mind who they beat that day? Do you bear in mind the rating? Possibly you do, however that 2-0 win behind closed doorways at Leicester Metropolis is hardly a consequence that may echo via the ages.
Equally, recollections should not made by being runners-up within the league. Solskjaer’s aspect completed 12 factors adrift of champions Manchester Metropolis the 12 months they completed second, in 2021, having not topped the desk from late January.
The one trophy United got here near successful that 12 months was the Europa League. Talking earlier than the ultimate in Gdansk, Solskjaer maintained that silverware generally “hides different details”. However after United misplaced to Villarreal in a penalty shootout, he admitted he couldn’t take into account the season a hit having did not ship silverware.
Ask some who’ve identified the interior workings of Previous Trafford over time and they’d say you can not survive as United supervisor with out successful trophies. Solskjaer’s spell in cost is arguably proof of that, whereas Ten Hag’s proves the inverse: ship a trophy plus the best day of United’s post-Sir Alex Ferguson period and you may survive something, even the worst-ever Premier League end.
There was additionally the 4-3 quarter-final win over Liverpool, after all — considered one of Previous Trafford’s finest video games and atmospheres this century. Add the Carabao Cup victory on prime, and the previous two years have given supporters indelible recollections, highs to stability out the lows.
However Solskjaer’s view is way nearer to how efficiency is coldly assessed on the elite stage in trendy soccer. A league marketing campaign over 38 video games residence and away is undeniably a more true gauge of a aspect’s high quality, in addition to sometimes the gateway to profitable Champions League qualification, which impacts budgets in a approach the FA Cup can’t.
United could be the second-most profitable aspect in English soccer over the previous two years, as Ten Hag factors out, however no one would sincerely argue that they’ve been the second-best group.
Nor would anyone counsel United are nearer to difficult Metropolis for main honours than Arsenal, regardless of Mikel Arteta solely including a Group Protect to his honours record since Ten Hag’s appointment.
That’s the actuality. In a quieter second, exterior the adversarial nature and pitched battles of a press convention, even Ten Hag would agree that trophies should not sufficient. You want each pots and factors.
United’s decade-plus of underachievement will solely have ended when the membership are commonly competing for Premier League titles and reaching the latter phases of the Champions League once more.
There have been mitigating components final season — accidents, off-field turmoil, takeover uncertainty, the absence of a longtime left-back — however United had been beneath customary within the competitions that matter most.
That, regardless of home cup success, is why their supervisor is below stress to show progress has and may nonetheless be made, and why he’ll solely be capable to level to his two trophies for thus lengthy. When not staring down a room of journalists and tv cameras, even Ten Hag would settle for that.
GO DEEPER
Analysing Ashworth and Berrada’s Man Utd switch briefing – ‘Erik has our full backing’
(Prime picture: Erik ten Hag with the FA Cup; by Alex Pantling by way of Getty Pictures )
