Erik ten Hag has “no doubt” he will be in the Old Trafford dugout next season after reports suggested he was set to be sacked as the Manchester United boss after the FA Cup final
Erik ten Hag has admitted Manchester United season was a mess – but he has no doubt he’s staying.
The Dutchman led the Red Devils to their second cup success in two seasons, after wrapping up the Carabao Cup last campaign. And Ten Hag’s side then won the FA Cup this season – claiming the scalp of bitter rivals and heavy favourites Manchester City in the final.
And when asked, after the full-time whistle, if he will be the boss next season, Ten Hag said: “I don’t have a doubt, but it is of course not up to me. But, I am in the project.
“When we came we were absolutely on a low. We performed and improved the squad last season. We got to two finals, won the Carabao Cup and third in the league. This season was a mess, it’s true, but the reasons are there.
“But in the end, we won the next trophy. Underneath you see the team is developing. Underneath you see players developing. There is high potential, but it needs time.”
Reports ahead of the final suggested that Ten Hag is set to be sacked even if he claimed the FA Cup crown. Speaking about the win, Ten Hag added: “It is not about me, it is about the fans, the staff and especially this team.
“We had a very complicated season, we had a lot of setbacks and the team had to deal with it every time. Every time we are criticised, we had bad performances and we were unhappy with ourselves as well, every time we had to get up and we did.
“Today was a good performance but we had players on board. We had some luxury problems to make, and then this team can play football. We are going in the right direction, but we are far from where we want to be.”
He added: “We want to be consistent first, but we need players available. That is because in this tough league, you can’t compete when you don’t have, you don’t need all of your players available, but we missed some strong players today like Luke Shaw, Harry Maguire and Casemiro.
“But, for us it was crazy. We had 15 partnerships at centre-half. We used eight centre-halfs. We didn’t have a full-back and for some of the season we did not have a number six. Our striker was injured three times, Rasmus Hojlund and we only had one.
“If we want to be consistent, you need the players to be available and then you need competition. The players then have a need to perform.”