Erik ten Hag’s Ming the Merciless act has given United only flashes of glory

Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos have a big decision to make but will an unlikely FA Cup final win be enough to save the manager?

Perhaps the most damning aspect of Erik ten Hag’s management is the performance of the players he had a major influence over signing

And so the real business begins. The four months since Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos bought a little over a quarter of Manchester United have been the phoney war. No transfers could be done, so little could be changed on the pitch. The task of Ratcliffe and his advisers was to watch and learn and rejig the executive tier so that when the window opens they are ready to act.

That rejig has been more dramatic than many anticipated. The chief executive, Richard Arnold, and the football director, John Murtough, are just the highest profile departures. Omar Berrada will come in as chief executive from Manchester City when his notice period expires on 13 July while Murtough has effectively been replaced by Jason Wilcox, the new technical director, and Dan Ashworth, who will come in once the terms of his severance from Newcastle have been agreed.