Former Manchester United assistant manager René Hake has insisted they would have turned things around at Manchester United, given more time.
The coach, who was assistant manager under Erik Ten Hag this season, has been speaking to Voetbal International as part of an exclusive interview for their Christmas special.
He was brought in to Manchester United in the summer as part of a major rebuild behind the scenes by Ten Hag, who brought in the likes of Hake and Ruud van Nistelrooy to refresh his coaching team.
That, plus a new contract and some major spending in the transfer window was part of a move by the club to back Ten Hag at the club.
However, things at Old Trafford failed to improve and Ten Hag was eventually sacked at the end of October following a poor start to the season.
His final game was a 2-1 defeat to West Ham that left Manchester United 14th in the Premier League with just three wins from 14 games.
His departure saw Hake and the rest of his team also depart as Ten Hag’s replacement, Ruben Amorim, elected to hire his own coaching staff.
Some, like Van Nistelrooy, have already secured new jobs elsewhere but for Hake, they should still be in charge at Manchester United.
“Erik’s dismissal and my departure from Manchester have been crazy. Over those four months at United I can fill four VI Christmas specials,” he said.
“The fact is that we have not won enough. It’s just very sad. I also honestly think that if we had been given more time, we would have succeeded.
“Becoming champion has never been the goal, reaching the Champions League is. I think this should still work out.
“I would like to say something about that. It is often said and written that Erik spent that money and that he brought in all those players. But that doesn’t make sense.
“Manchester United has a scouting force of forty people or so. Erik did not deal with transfers on his own and you now also see that Martínez, De Ligt, Onana and Mazraoui are simply basic players. They are just good football players, that has nothing to do with an Ajax past.”
