Erik ten Hag sacked by Manchester United – newest updates

Erik ten Hag has been sacked as Manchester United manager. The club confirmed the news in a statement on their official website on Monday morning.

Ruud van Nistelrooy, who was appointed as one of Ten Hag’s assistants in the summer, has been placed in temporary charge as interim head coach until a permanent replacement is found.

Ten Hag’s dismissal comes just 115 days since United opted to extend his contract by 12 months after the club’s hierarchy decided against sacking him in the wake of a two-and-a-half internal review and conversations with at least six other managers.

Despite United finishing eighth in the Premier League the previous season, the Dutchman was effectively saved by United winning the FA Cup with an impressive 2-1 win over Manchester City.

But United have endured a wretched start to the season with Sunday’s controversial 2-1 loss at West Ham the club’s fourth defeat in nine Premier League games. It left United 14th in the Premier League with a negative goal difference.

United’s new Ineos led executive had been keen to give Ten Hag a chance to work within a new sporting structure and backed the manager heavily in the transfer market with a £200 million outlay taking spending under the manager to more than £600m during his two and a half years in charge.

Yet sources indicated that neither results nor performances across last season and into this one had been good enough to justify continuing with Ten Hag and that there were “no excuses” for the current performance level.

It is understood that the decision was an unanimous one and that, while they wanted to have continuity at a time of significant change for the club, they concluded that they were not seeing the momentum and progress to believe they were on the “right path” under Ten Hag.

A United source said: “We have put everything we can in place to develop and we are not seeing an improvement.”

Source: telegraph.co.uk