We can’t be far away from Manchester United the Musical. Oh what a circus, oh what a show. Like Evita, a West End award-winner depicting the audacious climb up life’s greasy pole of an actress, Old Trafford is a football capital not unlike Buenos Aires in mid-20th century Argentina, a metropolis humming with the promise of gold towards which every ambitious kid from near and far is drawn.
From the outside all is glamour and gain. Inside it is just like any other royal court or centre of power, a merciless scramble where the best and the worst of humanity plays out. Erik ten Hag sits atop this febrile heap tasked with maintaining order and control.
He knows his subjects, their foibles, strengths and vulnerabilities. He sees and hears all, very little of which he shares with us. His match-day commentary is pared back.
For the most part he speaks in generalisations that tell us little we don’t already know or cannot glean for ourselves. Beneath the veneer there is a different reality that reflects the full spectrum of human experience, the extreme ends of which have hit Ten Hag like a truck in recent weeks. The escalation of the Jadon Sancho tension is just one of many stress points that have tipped him over the edge.
Sancho is training with the kids. Another winger, Antony, is exiled in Brazil under investigation for alleged domestic abuse, and a third, Mason Greenwood, is siloed in Spain after a prolonged and unsatisfactory probe into domestic abuse charges that were eventually dropped. On top of all that, Ten Hag is dealing with the Harry Maguire soap.
The board is trying to reconcile Sancho with Ten Hag, adding a new dimension, and testing the emperor’s authority. Though the intervention of football director John Murtough and chief executive Richard Arnold is presented as a unified effort to seek a solution which in no way threatens Ten Hag’s position, they are essentially trying to protect an asset.
There is no future in investing £73m on a forward who isn’t on the pitch, especially when another costing £85m is sitting by a pool in Brazil, and a third is in the service of a Spanish club on wages paid by United. You could argue that neither Sancho nor Antony is deserving of a place in the team. Equally Ten Hag is entitled to believe there is a player in each of them somewhere that he might tease out, were they not immersed in personal issues.
United have lost twice already this season. They could have lost all four Premier League matches, and rushing towards them on Saturday is an upwardly mobile Brighton led by a dynamic coach whom United would be all over, were Ten Hag to sink.
Ten Hag made an impressive start a year ago, recovering from successive defeats at the start of last season, ridding the club of Cristiano Ronaldo’s corrosive influence and benching Marcus Rashford over a time-keeping infraction. Here, at last, was a manager in control of events, a leader the like of which United had not enjoyed since Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure a decade ago.
Yet, a month into his second season, the emperor’s robes are beginning to weigh heavily upon Ten Hag. He is clearly not under immediate threat but that could change rapidly, no matter how absurd that idea feels. The involvement of two board members in team affairs demonstrates that Ten Hag does not have Klopp or Pep control of his environment.
Defeat against Brighton is unthinkable but not unlikely. Then losing in Munich in the Champions League would be the biggest challenge of his short stay and by extension of his career. These are critical days, Ten Hag’s hold on power being stress-tested by the unique pressures at the court of Old Trafford.
Predictably the first questions he faced at his media conference were about Sancho and Maguire, the demand for drama insatiable. He met them with practised calm. Maguire did not deserve criticism.
It’s disrespectful, he said, reciting well-used observations. On Sancho he dissembled. He did, however, make a general point that spoke loudly enough.
“There was no good culture before,” he said. “The club asked me to set some standards.
“It’s my job to control the standards. That’s what I did. It’s never about one mistake.
“It’s a whole process before you come to a certain outcome about straight lines. If there is a structure, you have to be strong. Absolutely.”
The neutral update on Sancho allows Ten Hag at least to appear in control and the club to be seen to be supporting him. The Maguire melodrama is less a playing problem for United than England, since he was already marginalised by Ten Hag and is no longer an influential figure.
The issue is more the aggregate weight it adds to the difficulties facing Ten Hag, which, were the situation to deteriorate further on the pitch, would, as ridiculous as it may seem, chip away at his credibility off it. What a circus. What a show.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/zVoLvcJ
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