Mark Goldbridge is ‘embarrassed’ with the way Erik ten Hag has been ‘hung up to dry’ by Manchester United.
On the eve of Saturday’s FA Cup final against Manchester City, reports broke claiming the club has already decided to part ways with the Dutch coach regardless of the result against Pep Guardiola’s men.
While the Red Devils have suffered the club’s worst season in Premier League history, finishing the campaign in eighth spot, they still have the chance to salvage some joy from the campaign against their City rivals at Wembley.
And yet their preparation for the game has been rocked by the reports swirling over Ten Hag’s future.
After reports emerged over Ten Hag’s uncertain future beyond the FA Cup final, Goldbridge took to The United Stand YouTube channel to respond.
It’s fair to say he was not happy, and he claimed staff within the club aren’t either.
“It’s Friday afternoon before an FA Cup final and I can barely speak when I say Erik ten Hag will be sacked, apparently,” he said. “There are people leaking stuff out from within the club that he will be gone no matter what.
“I tweeted ‘Parting ways’ a few hours ago because this is coming from people within the club. I’ve heard stuff, I know other people have heard stuff and clearly the mainstream media are hearing stuff as well.
“This is not leaking out from agents of managers who want the job, this is leaking out from people within Manchester United and it’s leaking out because they’re pissed off. These people are pissed off at how the club is being run, still!
“One of the big problems with Manchester United over the last decade is we have lost our identity, we have lost our morality, we have become toxic, our reputation has been muddied and we have become a laughing stock.
“I think today we have seen that again. We may well have new partial owners, but we still keep attracting ourselves to the same underhand and unappealing activities.
“I think the club from top to bottom remains toxic. I’m embarrassed and I think it’s disgusting. It’s a disgusting way to treat people.
“Ultimately player power wins again. It’s rinse and repeat. It’s the cycle again, when everything goes wrong and there’s so many people to blame, blame it on one person and everybody else gets away with it.
“I’m tired of this! You can sack Ten Hag, but what really annoys me is the pile on of blame onto him.”
Goldbridge has been a big advocate of giving Ten Hag the chance to get it right after a campaign marred by injuries to key players and off-the-field drama surrounding their ownership.
However, he admits that hope is now looking very unlikely and discussed who could replace the Dutchman in the Old Trafford dugout, amid links with axed Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino and newly-promoted Ipswich boss Keiran McKenna – who worked as a coach at United under Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Speaking on Friday, he told talkSPORT: “I’ve said many times that I really want and hope Manchester United keep Erik ten Hag, although I’m becoming less and less certain of that.
“Would I want Pochettino at Man United? I’d probably take him over Kieran McKenna because I think Pochettino is a traditional manager and McKenna is very untested.
“There seems to be an obsession clubs have at the moment with managers under 40. I must have missed the memo as to why football clubs need a manager under 40 – are Bayern Munich expecting Vincent Kompany to be their manager for the next 30 years? I don’t understand it.
“For Chelsea, I don’t think going from Pochettino to McKenna or De Zerbi is a step forward, I think it’s a step towards the owners appointing a manager who will fit in their system and they can control – and we’re seeing that more and more in football now.
“I think football is changing in front of our eyes, we’re seeing it all the time, clubs want to have a committee that runs the football side of things, transfers, the rest of it, and they want a head coach to just coach.
“We’ve seen that with Chelsea, we’re seeing that with Bayern Munich. I was surprised with Chelsea parting ways with Pochettino, but I also wasn’t that surprised because it seems to be the way this weird modern phenomenon of football by committee is going now.”
He added on The United Stand: “I would say it’s going to be McKenna, but that terrifies me for lots of reasons. He’s a good coach but it terrifies me that Manchester United are heading in this direction.
“I feel a great sympathy for Ten Hag and his team because I think they’ve been hung out to dry this season. Results haven’t been good enough, but I didn’t want this to happen.
“We are never going to succeed if we do not stick with a project and see it through. Ten hag had a good year one and a bad year two, he should be getting a year three.
“It gets harder and harder to understand the vision of Man United. I don’t like the vision of INEOS. I don’t like what I’m hearing about INEOS, I don’t like what I’m hearing about Dan Ashworth, I don’t like his obsession with Gareth Southgate and I don’t like the way he’s behaved with Newcastle.
“My question is when it all goes wrong with the next manager, what happens then?”