Manchester United supporters are clinging to the hope that this coming summer represents a reset at the club. It will be the first with the new ownership structure and also see the arrival of new figures in key roles around Old Trafford.
However, it is increasingly difficult to see Erik ten Hag being involved. It felt after Monday evening’s 4-0 walloping at Crystal Palace as though the point of no return has been passed for the Dutchman.
This has long been deemed a bad season for United but it is now on the verge of becoming humiliatingly poor. The FA Cup final against Manchester City is still to come at the end of the month, yet it is hard to envisage anything but a win for Pep Guardiola’s team at Wembley.
So it will, likely, be a season without a trophy and a remarkable regression in the Premier League. Ten Hag’s first season at the helm was promising as the Carabao Cup was won along with a place in the top four secured. Twelve months on and the tables have turned ugly.
United are in danger of being without European football next term as they currently sit eighth but with tricky games against Arsenal, Newcastle United and Brighton & Hove Albion to finish the league campaign. For a team looking to take the next step, this has been a horrible jolt backwards.
Never before have United lost 13 games in a Premier League season and you have to go back 34 years for the last time they finished a campaign with a negative goal difference (it currently stands at minus three).
The blips that pockmarked last season are now increasingly frequent and drawn-out, United are consistently at odds with the characteristics of a club of such stature. Even when they have won games this term — the most notable being the 4-3 FA Cup quarter-final victory over Liverpool — they have been wild and unstructured.
At times, they have shown character when rallying to come from behind, yet, reversely, they have demonstrated an ability to collapse in many matches too, with last month’s defeat at Chelsea being most apparent. The juxtaposition is astounding.
The sorry picture, which was made much darker by being outplayed by Oliver Glasner’s team at Selhurst Park, does not bode well for Ten Hag. He is the man charged with putting out a competitive side and too many times a slapstick defence and incohesive attack have undermined any plan.
United have been too easy to play against this season and the sheer lack of organisation and any semblance of a style of play raises more questions of Ten Hag. Moments have both done for and against them this term.
Injuries have been hugely disruptive during season of struggle
The manager has had many things go against him. Injuries have been a constant burden. Being without captain Bruno Fernandes against Palace represented the 63rd case of injury or illness that United have suffered this season so some sympathy is worthy.
The different variations of a back four Ten Hag has been forced to field is also numerous — it was Jonny Evans and Casemiro on Monday, a 36 and 32 year old both past their best — and the inability to pick his strongest XI should be duly noted.
Nevertheless, Ten Hag has clung to excuses a little too much, been guilty of finding positives when patently there were none and put a lot of United’s errs down to individual mistakes. Whether he has been unable to properly get his point across in his second language, or been keen to but a positive spin on things, it doesn’t entirely convince.
Like his predecessors, Ten Hag is finding it difficult to get the best out of his players, let alone improve them in any way. It is also quite damning that Jadon Sancho is experiencing such a resurgence on loan at Borussia Dortmund as soon as he moves away from the dark clouds over Carrington.
So with a squad overhaul in the offing, Omar Berrada arriving as the new club CEO and a director of football to follow, the question is whether a new manager will also be needed.
Ineos have essentially given Ten Hag until the end of the campaign as a trial but there comes a point where the incumbent is so associated with the failings of the past that it is difficult to see them as the figurehead of a new venture.
In calmer waters, with decisive football administrators around him and an upgraded squad, Ten Hag may be the right man to guide United forward — there was certainly evidence of that last season. An absence of obvious candidates to replace him and also a reluctance to add more upheaval may also play in his favour.
However, that is assuming he even wants to remain at Old Trafford. Few would blame him for feeling otherwise, especially amid suggestions in Germany that Bayern Munich are interested.
The mournful figure Ten Hag cut on the sidelines at Selhurst Park was only the latest after another abject display from his team. It’s not easy to imagine him back there with a smile on his face.