Erik ten Hag was told he’d be sacked before the Arsenal game in Premier League | OneFootball

The timing is not ideal, far from it, in fact, but the new that many Manchester United fans thought was a matter of when, and not if, seems to have come.

On the eve of the FA Cup final against Manchester City, the decision to sack Ten Hag after the game has reportedly been made.

While the timing is bad, further details have emerged which, if believed, point at this information being confirmed a while back but the leaks were controlled.

Jan Aage Fjortoft reports that Ten Hag was informed the week before the Arsenal game that his time at Old Trafford is over.

The week before the Arsenal game, coincidentally, was the fallout after that horrendous 4-0 defeat at Crystal Palace which seemed like the beginning of the end.

The performances improved after that as United managed to keep the damage to a minimum against Arsenal before winning their last two league games.

However, that Palace result clearly finished any chances of the manager keeping his job long-term as despite the injury crisis, the team showed a lack of cohesion and belief on the pitch.

The club have maintained throughout that no decision has been made and it would be public only after the end-of-season review post-FA Cup final.

The likes of Kieran McKenna, Mauricio Pochettino, Roberto de Zerbi, and many more have been consistently linked to the club in the meantime.

Ultimately, it seems like they failed to keep under wraps a decision they had made more than two weeks ago.

It leaves the manager in a thankless position ahead of the biggest game of the season and is reminiscent of the last Dutch coach who managed United in an FA Cup final.

At this point, Ten Hag would hope the similarities continue and he can win the final as Louis van Gaal did but his opposition is much tougher.

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