Pressing Issues

• A breakdown of the peaks and troughs for each of Manchester United’s six managers since Sir Alex Ferguson left Old Trafford.
• Identifying where each has manager gained and lost hope amongst fans since 2013.

Since thirteen time Premier League winner Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, Manchester United have churned through six managers over eleven unsuccessful years. Transitioning from Beckham, Ronaldo and Rooney to Rashford, Garnacho and notorious fidget-spinner Antony has undoubtedly played a part in this decline, but each manager has brought hope to United fans, just to be found out of a job shortly afterwards.

David Moyes: ‘Seventh’ Season Syndrome

United’s first bid to replace the highly successful Fergie, was a younger and less successful countryman in David Moyes. At the time, Moyes had enjoyed eleven years in charge of Everton and his form there was enough to gain him the Manchester United job. He signed a six year contract, and fans were largely happy to welcome him in with optimism and open arms.

He got off on the right track, winning the Community Shield 2-0 against Wigan in his first game in charge. He then proceeded to draw 0-0 at home to Chelsea and then lose to Liverpool and the subsequent few weeks. But his ‘reign was young’, and ‘he needed time’ was the argument of the still optimistic United fans.

The Red Devils then went on a six game winning streak in December which is without doubt the peak of his time in charge. Manchester United were surely back, and Moyes echoed the fans’ belief that “we can be in the mix and challenge whoever is at the top” after they came from 2-0 down to beat Hull 3-2.

They then stumbled into February with an array of uninspiring results, and it is this point which can be identified as the moment Red Devils’ fans realised that replacing a Scotsman with another Scotsman didn’t guarantee success, and hope was lost. Over the course of four weeks, they lost 2-0 away at Olympiacos in the Champions League, and then suffered 3-0 defeats at home to both Liverpool and Manchester City in the Premier League. It was the defeat in Greece that led to alarm bells ringing for executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward and the higher ups at the club, according to The Guardian.

Moyes was then sacked in April 2014 after 10 months in charge, following a 2-0 league defeat to his former club Everton, which left United struggling to finish the season in Europe – they would finish the 2013-14 season in seventh place.

Louis Van Gaal: Cup But No Cigar

Over his two seasons at Old Trafford, Louis Van Gaal divided opinions amongst fans, pundits and players. He returned them to the Champions League in his first season, but was sacked due to “poor quality football”.

As a result, picking a moment of hope and the point of no return for the Dutchman’s tenure at Carrington is tricky, given that he won the FA Cup two days before being sacked in May 2016.

Having said that, the end of the 2014-15 season is probably the most optimistic Manchester United fans felt during Van Gaal’s time in charge. They finished the season in fourth, showed impressive form with big wins over Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham, and enjoyed a highly eventual summer transfer window, which included the hiring of various young hotshots – Anthony Martial and Memphis Depay among them. The start of the 2015/16 season saw Martial kick off his Manchester United career in style, scoring a brace away at West Ham in his second game.

Having said that, United would lose this game, and glimmers of hope mixed in with unattractive football and mediocrity, would see the Red Devils finish the Premier League season in fifth.

Van Gaal’s sacking over a “lack of attacking play” (United scored just 49 league goals in 2015-16) means that there is no identifiable point where the board said ‘that’s enough’. The reason for his sacking becomes increasingly puzzling given the man who replaced him.

Jose Mourinho: The Not So Special One

As a proven winner, highly-charismatic and expert coach, Jose Mourinho is by some distance the most prestigious name on this list. Ed Woodward claimed that Mourinho was the “best manager in the game” at the time of his appointment in May 2016, and United would win the Europa League and EFL Cup during 2016/17, despite a disappointing sixth place finish in the Premier League.. The following season was trophyless but did involve a second place league finish to rivals Manchester City.

The moment of ‘hope’ for Mourinho’s side was without doubt their Europa League triumph in 2017. He was always awash with controversies, and two trophies in his first season seemed to justify difficulties off the pitch.

‘The Special One’ saw no trophies in his second season, but finishing second to Manchester City is an achievement which Mourinho considers “one of the best jobs of my career” – as a result of people not knowing “what was going on behind the scenes”.

Over time, higher-ups at United started to question whether the arguments were worth the rewards. And then, when United lost 3-1 to Liverpool and were sat in sixth in December 2018, they realised that the rewards weren’t going to arrive under Mourinho’s guidance. Thus, he got the sack. Having said that, the point of no return for Mourinho can be said to be the end of the 2017/18 season, as despite finishing second Jose’s constant disagreements with players and staff at the club left patience running very thin.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer: A Familiar Face

The only manager on this list who was initially appointed as an interim coach, Solskjaer’s first 19 games in charge were on the basis that someone else would be awarded the full-time role. As a familiar Manchester United man, fans were keen to see familiarity at Old Trafford, which Solskjaer provided. He also won his first eight games playing mostly an attacking 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 style of football which fans could get behind.

He was officially handed the full-time role in March 2019, at which point he won just six of his first 18 games as full-time head coach – one of which was via a penalty shoot-out against Rochdale AFC in the FA Cup. They did pummel Chelsea 4-0 during this run, but failed to really get going. Most fans would probably agree that unfortunately for Solskjaer, his best moments came prior to him being hired as the full-time Manchester United manager.

The Norwegian did stay in the job almost three years – the longest of anyone on this list – and provided glimmers of hope throughout his tenure: doing the league double over Manchester City in the 2019/20 season, courtesy of a smash-and-grab 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium and a more assured 2-0 victory at Old Trafford. They would beat the Blues 2-0 again the following season, this time away from home.

Yet nothing ever lived up to the promise of Solskjaer’s interim management, and he was relieved of his duties after losing 4-1 to Watford in November 2021. Solskjaer was the man the club needed for a period of time – providing positive football and always operating with optimism. He just outstayed his welcome, probably by a year or two.

The moment of ‘I can’t do this anymore’ for fans was probably the Europa League final in 2021, which saw United go toe-to-toe with Unai Emery’s Villareal, but lose 12-11 on penalties. It would have been the first trophy of Solskjaer’s reign, they just came up short.

Ralph Rangnick: Short But Definitely Not Sweet

Then came Ralph Rangnick: a tactically-astute, talented German credited partly with ideas around the ‘gegenpress’ style of football. He was given a caretaker role until the end of the 2021/22 season, with the promise that he would take up an advisory role at the club after that. After beating Crystal Palace 1-0 in his first game, Rio Ferdinand praised United’s “structure… the way they pressed”.

Fans then endured a grueling five months, with consistently poor results: losing to Middlesborough in the FA Cup, a 4-1 defeat away at Manchester City, and three consecutive away defeats to Everton, Liverpool and Arsenal – which is probably the ‘I can’t do this anymore’ moment fans will look back at. It is difficult to identify a moment of hope amongst United fans during Rangnick’s tenure, because his appointment was met with such expectation – this was a man who new modern football inside-out, and would instill a clear style of play at Old Trafford. He guided United to their lowest points total in Premier League history, ending on fifty-eight and a sixth place finish. He never even took up the consultancy role, and left as probably the worst manager of the post-Fergie era.

What is concerning to Manchester United is that Rangnick has enjoyed success as manager of the Austria national team since leaving the role.

Erik Ten Hag: It can’t get any worse can it?

It can. The wise words of Mick McCarthy perfectly encapsulate how Manchester United fans must be feeling now that Ruben Amorim is set to arrive. No matter how promising, how optimistic a new manager seems, there always seems to be something that goes awry. This was equally the case for Erik Ten Hag, who joined as head coach before the 2022/23 season, as someone who had experienced success at Ajax in years prior.

Ten Hag’s first two games in charge were a 2-1 home defeat to Brighton, and a 4-0 away defeat to Brentford. This can be considered as the point where Manchester United fans lost much of the hope they had built up at the idea of their new manager. Yet the rest of the season was fairly promising in comparison to the years prior. They would finish third in the league, win the EFL Cup, and reach the FA Cup final.

On top of that, the football was convincing compared to what the theatre of dreams had grown used to. Yet there were two absolutely enormous hiccups: a 6-3 defeat in the Manchester derby, and a 7-0 undressing at Anfield which will long haunt United fans. Unfortunately, it is these that will be remembered more vividly by United fans, more so than anything else under Erik Ten Hag. Despite lasting over a season after the 7-0 defeat in March 2023, it is this point that fans truly started to turn on Ten Hag: calls for him to be sacked become more common, and there was real anger amongst fans that such an event could even happen at Manchester United – after all ‘this is Manchester United we’re talking about here’ (hopefully read in Roy Keane’s accent).

After the Liverpool defeat, the feeling at Old Trafford was one of waiting for Ten Hag to slip up, like a lion waiting for a circus performer to fall off a tightrope. Whenever United lost there was outrage, anger over the lack of identity, how by this point Ten Hag had been at the club for a year and there hadn’t been any change. The whole of last season can be seen to be the byproduct of that. His eventual sacking at the end of October felt like a mercy.

Conclusion

With Sporting boss Ruben Amorim set to takeover the club, questions will again be raised about how the new boss can ensure he doesn’t become just another failed Manchester United coach. Over eleven years, fans are yet to see a coach persist with a forward-thinking, proactive style of play, and for most of that time they have seen a team lack desire. With more recognition over the state the Red Devils are in, and less ambition for immediate trophy success, Amorim does look best positioned to succeed at England’s biggest club.