Erik ten Hag probably saved his Manchester United job with victory over Manchester City in the FA Cup final, without that it would have been difficult to see him staying in the role at Old Trafford.
Ineos and those they’ve put in place to run the Premier League club explored the market and spoke to various other options, before coming back and deciding they’d give it another whirl with the Dutchman.
One of those options was Thomas Tuchel.
The 51-year-old manager has been out of work since leaving Bayern Munich, and there’s now a claim from Germany that the Manchester United job was within his grasp this summer before he decided it probably wasn’t the right opportunity for him.
German pundit Marcel Reif told German newspaper Bild: “I would have bet a lot that Tuchel would replace Ten Hag. I recently had another conversation with someone who is very close to that. It was pretty far along, almost in agreement.”
Asked why the move then failed, Reif said: “As far as the squad is concerned, the considerations were different. Tuchel said pretty much at the finish line: ‘I’m not doing that! I won’t do that to myself again, that I go to a club and then things come from outside.'”
Manchester United wanting a change in transfer approach has been well known for some month, with it thought Ten Hag had too much influence on purchases previously.
That may be a gradual process, with this summer also looking like it could have had some strong influence from the Dutchman. Tuchel, though, isn’t keen on not having control, which may dampen some of the rumours rising at the minute.
