Neville urges Man Utd not to sack Ten Hag

Manchester United legend Gary Neville
Manchester United legend Gary Neville. Photo by Shutterstock.

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has said the idea of sacking manager Erik ten Hag is “absolute nonsense”.

Ten Hag is under increased pressure at Old Trafford after suffering their 11th defeat of the season in all competitions on Saturday as they lost 3-0 at home to Bournemouth.

But Neville , who is also host of one of the best football podcasts out there, The Gary Neville podcast, insists there is “no way” United should sack Ten Hag this season.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Neville said of Ten Hag: “I fear for him generally, not really just because of this week (when United play Bayern Munich and Liverpool). Just more generally around the way in which a cycle is repeating itself again.

“I hope that somehow Erik ten Hag can turn it around this season and that ultimately he can improve what’s happening at the moment – or else he will be in trouble, it’s just inevitable. We’ve seen it with (previous United managers) Ole (Gunnar Solskjaer), Jose (Mourinho) and Louis van Gaal.

“There’s no way they should change him this season, this idea of sacking him is absolute nonsense. I wouldn’t be in favour of that.

“The lack of leadership and structure above him…I know people say you can’t blame the Glazers – yeah you can. You can because 10 years of failure, of miserable recruitment comes down to the fact they have not got a sporting director, a proper head of recruitment in place.

“That is why this happens. Ultimately managers look above them and think ‘I haven’t got anyone there to help me so I might as well just try and do it myself’.

“This is all down to the leadership. If it happened once, fair enough, if it happened twice you would ask a question, but this is five times, five times in 10 years.”