[ NEW BOARD GAME ]
A new CEO in Omar Berrada has already been appointed and Ratcliffe has already targeted Newcastle sporting director Dan Ashworth, who has been placed on gardening leave while discussions are ongoing over his future.
But one major change would be replacing the under-pressure Ten Hag and installing a new head coach to kickstart a new era at United. The Red Devils are sixth in the Premier League table and go into Sunday’s Manchester derby as huge underdogs following a defeat in their previous league game at home to Fulham.
The Independent claim that while no decision has been made over Ten Hag’s future, he is increasingly being seen by INEOS as their own Claudio Ranieri at Chelsea before Roman Abramovic arrived and swiftly appointed Jose Mourinho to huge success.
The new chiefs have made it clear that standards must be improved across the board and every department will be analysed, with no one safe from being replaced, including Ten Hag. The Dutchman is yet to fill Ratcliffe and co with a great deal of confidence and inconsistency in displays needs to be addressed.
The situation is thought to still be salvageable, but Ten Hag will need a drastically improved end to the season to win over those now in charge at United. He will hope that can happen with the return of key players from injuries, but this most recent leak does not bode well for his future.
Some will think that the writing is already on the wall for Ten Hag and INEOS could appoint a head coach of their own choosing such as Graham Potter, Simone Inzaghi or Roberto De Zerbi, but Ten Hag wants his doubters to focus on the “bigger picture” after a spell of poor form.
When asked about the prospect of missing out on Champions League football next season, Ten Hag said: "After these two months I can't go with that approach. We have gone lately very good but now we have some setbacks.
“After one defeat you have to see the bigger picture and the bigger picture looks very good. We have to catch up in certain positions and get the injuries back, then we will be more in balance and also strengthen the squad in the transfer windows.
"You see there are many good players coming up and real high potential players, so definitely we are going in the right direction. When we have the players available, we have a very good team."
