Paul Merson, a famous Arsenal player from the past, wasn’t surprised when Manchester United fired their manager, Erik ten Hag.
Merson feels that ten Hag had a lot of time to fix things at Old Trafford, which is Manchester United’s home stadium, but things didn’t improve as expected.
Manchester United decided to let ten Hag go after they lost 2-1 in a match against West Ham United. This happened on a Sunday, and the next day, they made a big decision to change managers.
After ten Hag was gone, Manchester United called upon Ruud Van Nistelrooy to be their temporary manager. He was another famous player in the football world, hoping to help the team do better.
In his writings for Sky Sports, Merson explained why this change wasn’t a big surprise for him. He said, “I’m not shocked. Manchester United has reached a point where even not scoring any goals and just drawing a game with Aston Villa feels like a good result.”
According to Merson, Manchester United is not as strong as they used to be. There is now a big difference between how good they were before and how they are now.
Merson added, “Ten Hag had his chance to make the team better. He spent a lot of time with the team, more than enough to bring positive changes. But instead of catching up with the top teams, the gap between them got bigger. I think it was the right decision to make this change.”