Paul Scholes believes Man United have made the correct decision over Erik ten Hag | OneFootball

Paul Scholes believes Manchester United have made a positive decision by choosing to keep faith with Erik ten Hag as it shows a break from the past.

Speaking to Sky Sports News, the former United midfielder was asked whether the one-year contract extension the Dutch manager signed in June was a “positive” for the club.

Scholes replied, “Yeah I think so”, before going on to reference how “many times” United have “changed manager” as a negative pattern of behaviour at Old Trafford over the past decade.

Ten Hag is the fifth permanent manager United have appointed since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, with three additional interim managers also taking the reigns following the dismissal of the other four permanent appointees.

Scholes believes it’s impossible to “get a real feel” for how these managers without having given them the backing “over three or four, five years”.

Now that Ten Hag has been given the assurance of the next two years in charge at United, Scholes is optimistic this faith will be rewarded by performances on the pitch. “Hopefully he’s been given the time to get it right,” the 49-year-old pundit concluded.

Towards the end of last season it felt like Ten Hag was a dead man walking.

Embarrassing early exits from the Champions League and Carabao Cup were proceeded by an abysmal showing in the league. United finished in 8th place with a negative goal difference, nine points away from fourth place.

However, a late resurgence saw Ten Hag oversee back-to-back wins against Newcastle and Brighton & Hove Albion in the league, before the fantastic FA Cup triumph over bitter local rivals Manchester City at Wembley.

The spirit of this performance in the capital, as well as United’s perfect execution of the Dutchman’s game plan, undoubtedly played a strong role in convincing INEOS of the merits of sticking with their manager as the club’s new rulers conducted a comprehensive ‘end-of-season’ review to decide their next move.

While INEOS executives spoke to a number of managers about prospectively taking the reigns at Old Trafford, they ultimately decided they already had the best option at the club already. A one-year extension for Ten Hag promptly followed.

The former Ajax man will now be given the chance to recapture the positivity he was able to bring back to Old Trafford in his debut season in English football; but The Peoples Person imagines INEOS’ patience will prove as short as the Glazers had in the past, should performances and results not improve next season.

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