Erik ten Hag of Manchester United: Struggling to Escape Sir Alex Ferguson's Shadow

Even though Alex Ferguson has been relieved of his Manchester United ambassadorial duties, his managerial legacy continues to cast a formidable shadow over those who have attempted to replicate his success.

Results under Erik ten Hag were disappointing from the start, and the temporary lifts gained from winning the League and FA Cups were never going to satisfy the modern cohort of fans or the club’s new co-owners.

Ferguson’s extraordinary 26-year tenure enabled United fans to gorge on trophies – an incredible 39 of them.

But it is often conveniently overlooked that the Scot’s first four years were totally barren. However, he was given far more time to turn things around than any of those who succeeded him.

United, who had last won the league in 1967, finished 11th, second, 11th, 13th and sixth in Ferguson’s first five seasons and did not get their hands on the title until 1993 after he had been trying and failing for seven years.

But their subsequent total domestic dominance and two Champions League triumphs utterly changed the expectations of supporters who grew to know only success.

Few could have predicted when Ferguson finally stepped down in 2013, having won the Premier League for an incredible 13th time, that 11 years later United would not only not have won it again but barely been in the mix.

Ferguson pretty much personally anointed fellow Scot David Moyes as his successor but the gritty realism that kept Everton hovering in the top half of the table did not transfer to a squad of superstars and he was kicked out after a year, having overseen a seventh-placed finish, United’s worst for 24 years.

Dutchman Louis van Gaal was a distant figure the fans did not take to and lasted 22 largely forgettable months, opening the door for the “Special One” Jose Mourinho.

Finally, supporters felt, they had got a manager with a swaggering ego perfectly matched for their perceived top-dog status even as on the pitch they were again falling behind Liverpool and, most unbearably, Manchester City.

Mourinho did bring European glory back but the Europa League was not where United felt they should be and he too lasted only just over two seasons.

Next up was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who provided probably the most dramatic moment in the club’s rich history with his stoppage-time winner in the 1999 Champions League final to clinch the treble.

Despite a bottomless well of goodwill that did not work either and the short-term appointment of Ralf Rangnick merely seemed to underline the mess the club had got itself into.

Ten Hag took over in 2022, but from the start he seemed an uncomfortable fit.

The Dutchman was not, of course, helped by the often-wretched displays of the biggest names at the club, some whom he inherited but many he brought in via a two-year, half-billion pounds spending spree.

Antony, Manuel Ugarte, Matthijs de Ligt, Leny Yoro, Joshua Zirkzee, Mason Mount, Casemiro and Rasmus Hojlund all cost big fees, but it is hard to imagine any of them getting in the Aston Villa first team let alone City’s.

With every defeat, ten Hag’s deadpan analysis and seemingly bottomless collection of excuses left the fans ever-more angry and crying out for some passion.

That instead came from former players-turned-pundits such as Roy Keane and Gary Neville, who rained down opprobrium on the players and manager almost on a weekly basis.

They have become the voice of Ferguson, who has publicly kept his counsel through each management failure but whose shadow – metaphorically and literally from his place high in the stands – remains the silver-plated yardstick by which each successor is measured.

Being the manager of England has long been described as football’s impossible job but sitting in the Old Trafford dugout in the post-Ferguson era could well have supplanted it.

The added frustration for United is that if they made the decision to sack ten Hag a month ago then respected German coach Thomas Tuchel could well have been getting stuck into the United job, rather than preparing to take over the national team.