Alan Shearer Exclusive: Man United ownership made it impossible for Erik Ten Hag to succeed | OneFootball

Alan Shearer

Alan says Erik ten Hag has an impossible job at Manchester United

Alan Shearer on Erik ten Hag's impossible situation at Manchester United, why his signings are not up to speed in the Premier League, how much Cole Palmer is now worth after showing 'balls' to join Chelsea, Kieran Trippier at Newcastle & more.

Man United cannot be humiliated again

It's another pivotal week for Manchester United, but we seem to be saying that most weeks, and they cannot get out of the slump they're in.

They are 13th in the league which for Man United, and the money they've spent, I don't care what you say, is not acceptable and not good enough.

All games are must-win games but when you look at what's happened to them in the last week or so, these next few games are ones they cannot afford to be humiliated like they were against Tottenham.

You either win games or you're out the job

When you look at who Man United have signed, a lot of them are Erik ten Hag's players because a lot of them have come from the Eredivisie; clearly, they haven't worked yet.

I understand every manager says they need time but you're not going to get time, not in in the Premier League. Teams want and need success now, particularly when they're shelling out millions and millions for players.

You must go and get results but that's no different to any football club. Every manager will plead for time and patience, but you know the rules when you go into management; you either win games or you're out of a job, it's simple.

That is the harsh reality of being the manager at any football club, let alone one of the biggest in the world, and to be sat in 13th position and drawing your first Europa League game, you must be better than that.

Erik Ten Hag needs to win games and perform better than what Man United are doing.

It's not difficult to understand.

Man United snookered themselves by talking to other managers

I hate talking about someone else going into a job whilst there's someone there - it's a difficult thing to do and I don't really want to do that. What I would say is that the ownership made it almost impossible for Ten Hag to succeed whilst talking to other managers over the summer.

Once it came out that they were talking to several other managers, which they are well within their right to do, but once that was leaked, it basically said to me that they had to give him a contract extension because of the way it came out.

They put him in a really, difficult position.

If there was someone else that fit the bill, then I suspect he may not be in this position now which is a horrible way to be talking, but the club put him in that situation after backing him when they won the FA Cup.

It's a tough situation to be in and they find themselves in 13th position which for any club is tough, but for Man United, it's hard to take.

In terms of the top managers and top football clubs, they want the very best and Man United obviously thought it was well within their right to go and test the water and look at other options.

If they were happy with Ten Hag, they wouldn't do that and once it was leaked it was an impossible situation for the manager to go forward, irrespective of whether they gave him a new contract or not.

I'd understand Eddie How taking the England job, but not Man United role

I wouldn't be worried at all about Eddie Howe moving to Manchester United with the current situation at the club. I know Dan Ashworth left Newcastle for Man United, but I'd be amazed if Eddie Howe left to take the Man United job, should it come up.

If the England job was there, I'd understand, and I know Man United are one of the biggest clubs in the world, but I'd be absolutely amazed if anything happened there.

Ten Hag signings are not up to Premier League speed

A lot of the players Man United have signed aren't up to speed with the Premier League.

Go back to one of his first signings in Antony, he's hardly anywhere to be seen. When you're spending that amount of money on a player and he can barely get a kick, that shows.

It's a difficult job in recruitment, but you must get that right when spending that amount of money.

I don't know what they are, I don't know what system they're trying to play, or what their identity is, I just see something different every week.

No blame at Bruno's door

It was a terrible decision to send Bruno Fernandes off against Spurs. The referee got it completely wrong, and it was vindicated with the red card having been rescinded. I thought it was a foul at most.

I understand he may not have had the view he wanted but then for the assistant referee and the VAR choosing not to overturn it at the time is a poor mark on the referees again.

I can't fault Bruno; It was an unfortunate slip, and it can happen to anyone so I wouldn't blame him at all for what happened on Sunday.

Cole Palmer could be worth close to £150m

We seem to be talking about Cole Palmer quite often these days, which is great for him and for Chelsea because he's a phenomenal talent and takes everything in his stride.

Nothing seems to affect both his ability or his attitude. He uses that arrogance in a brilliant way, the confidence and the belief in himself, but then for him to pull it all off is superb.

When he scores the number of goals he has done at Chelsea, and to become the first player ever to score four goals in the first half of a Premier League game, it just shows the heights he could reach.

I thought he was going to join the list of players to score five goals and perhaps he should've but he's an incredible talent.

It looks as if Chelsea have got him for a snip as well. There were eyebrows raised when they paid that amount of money for him but now it looks to be incredible business because if he were to be put on the market now, you can imagine that price tag being north of £130million-£140million.

It's hard to argue with Jamie Carragher who said Cole Palmer has been the best player in the Premier League over the last 12/13 months, but then Phil Foden won Player of the Season last year, so he did something special as well.

Having said that, Phil hasn't had a run of games yet this season so I wouldn't argue with what Jamie Carragher said necessarily, but there are several other contenders.

Cole has been phenomenal and outstanding.

Palmer bravery to leave City sums up his personality on the pitch

Did Man City make a mistake in selling Palmer? It's a really difficult question to get the right answer to because he probably wouldn't be anywhere near as involved as he is at Chelsea.

When you look at who's available at Man City with De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Foden and the rest, he wouldn't have had the game time at City as he has done at Chelsea.

He's thrived with having that time on the pitch.

You must admire Cole Palmer for having the balls to say 'no, I want to go out and play and I want to leave this giant of a football club' in Man City, when you look at the number of trophies they've wn compared to Chelsea in recent years.

For him to walk away and say I want to play on a regular basis, it's Cole who's created that opportunity for himself.

It's a brave decision but when you look at his personality on the pitch, you understand why he made that decision; that's who and what he is, and you must admire that.

I hope that more players do what he has and don't take the easy option to say, 'well I may get the odd minutes here', rather than say they want to go out and play first-team football. I really, really admire that.

Palmer decision reminds me of leaving Newcastle for Southampton

I remember making a similar decision to Palmer when I was just 15, to leave Newcastle and go 330 miles down the motorway to Southampton in the hope that I was good enough to be given a chance.

It's not easy at all, it takes courage and Cole Palmer has shown that. It's worked out for him, and I'm delighted.

Trippier still has so much to offer Eddie Howe

I'm delighted Kieran Trippier is still at Newcastle because he still has so much to offer.

It's great for the team that you have two great right-backs both fit and available. It'll work well for Eddie Howe and Newcastle that he's got two players of great ability. Kieran will play a big part because of his experience.

He got done for Man City's goal at the weekend when he dived in against Jack Grealish and in hindsight, he shouldn't have done that, but the rest of his performance was really good, as was Newcastle's.

It was the best performance of the season with the energy Newcastle showed.

I'm delighted Trippier is one of two great options at right-back and that he decided to stay.

Kieran must be at it every day with Tino pushing him all the way

I've been through what Kieran's endured this season. He lost his starting place at the beginning and the armband was given to Bruno. When you get into your thirties and certainly your mid-thirties, you must prove something all the time.

When I was younger, I was pushing the experienced players because I was scoring goals in the reserves, and you want that opportunity. Kieran's at that point in his career where he has someone in Tino Livramento who has real talent, and is pushing him, so he must be at it every single day.

You also must realise that the other player may be best suited in some games and that isn't always easy as an individual because for most of the time, you're a regular.

You probably don't understand it until you finish, you look back and realise perhaps the manager was right but for the team and the manager, it's a healthy situation to have.

40 years this season since Aberdeen last won the league

When you look at the start to the season Aberdeen have had, winning all 12 games under a new manager, the longer it goes on you'd have to think they're serious contenders to upset Celtic and Rangers this season.

Everyone's talking about them and that can only be a good thing. I hope it continues because it'd be great if someone upset the apple cart up in Scotland.

It would be great for the Scottish Premiership if they could win the title. They've had an amazing start.

When you look at what happened to Celtic in Dortmund earlier this week, the result, the travel and everything else then that can only help Aberdeen, there's no doubt about that.

It's great that Celtic are in the Champions League but in terms of what Aberdeen are trying to achieve, the heavy defeat as well as the extra games in Europe can only help them achieve what seems like the impossible and win the top-flight title.

Arsenal taught PSG a lesson

Speaking of the Champions League, I was really impressed with Arsenal on Tuesday, particularly in the first half. They did all the good work in the opening 45 minutes, and they protected the lead which is what they had to do. They taught PSG a lesson.

I know PSG are a completely different unit now to what they were in previous years, they're more together rather than relying on superstars, but it's still a football club that expects to be in the latter stages of the Champions League, so for Arsenal to dismantle PSG in the way they did is a positive sign for Mikel Arteta.

I was nothing but impressed with the way Arsenal went about their business.

Gunners showing that can go deep in Champions League

If Arsenal can keep the majority of the back four fit, then with Mikel's attitude and with the belief they've got, they can go deep in the competition.

They will be looking to finish in the top eight, so they avoid the two qualifiers before the last 16, and they've had a positive start.

They've got Shakhtar Donetsk next time out in the Champions League and you'd expect them to take three points again.