Man United could sack Erik ten Hag, but three executives would still have made the right decision

Two years can feel like a lifetime in football. It is a few days over two years since Erik ten Hag was appointed as Manchester United manager and those 24 months have passed by in a blur of hope, triumph, despair and desperation. The 54-year-old has lived the full Old Trafford experience in a pretty short timeframe.

The debate being had in the corridors of power at Old Trafford now is whether Ten Hag should get the chance to lead United into a third season, but when you rewind to those months when the club were considering who to appoint as manager, Ten Hag is arguably the great survivor and the key player from that period who has the greatest job prospects going forward.

The then-Ajax manager saw off a challenge from Mauricio Pochettino to land the United job and now could outlast the Argentine in the Premier League as well. Ten Hag enjoyed success in his first season in England and while this campaign has been a nightmare, it has delivered another FA Cup final.

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Pochettino's year at Chelsea involved a bruising Carabao Cup final defeat and after being thrashed by Arsenal in midweek, his job prospects are hanging by a thread. Ten Hag's time at United has been far more successful than Pochettino's at Stamford Bridge.

That would suggest that the correct decision was made during the thorough interview process in the early months of 2022 when it quickly became a two-horse race to replace the sacked Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, while United limped to the end of the season with Ralf Rangnick in charge.

But if Ineos opts for change again this summer, the three people most keenly involved in the process that led to Ten Hag's appointment won't have a say this time around. Back then, it was football director John Murtough and technical director Darren Fletcher who led the interviews, before chief executive Richard Arnold met Ten Hag, who emerged as the preferred candidate.

Arnold was first to fall on his sword when Ineos' minority investment into United was confirmed, with Omar Berrada set to begin work as his replacement this summer. Murtough has since accepted his fate, with Ineos overhauling the football structure. That included appointing Jason Wilcox as technical director.

While that role was being filled by Fletcher, it was probably an inaccurate title. He will remain in situ as a training ground link between the first team and the academy but his responsibilities will be changed. If it comes down to appointing a new manager this summer, Berrada and Wilcox will have a significant say, even more so if a compensation package hasn't been agreed with Newcastle for sporting director Dan Ashworth.

It's a decision they would have to get right, but it doesn't feel like Murtough, Fletcher and Arnold got it wrong two years ago, however the next month or so pans out. They sensed a detailed, disciplined manager who could restore order in the dressing room and bring success to the club.

The litany of disciplinary incidents on Ten Hag's watch has demonstrated the power he has wielded when it comes to controlling that squad, with the departures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho front and centre of that approach. Player power was an accepted issue when Ten Hag was appointed and he has certainly quelled it.

He also delivered a first trophy in six years last summer and while his transfer record is mixed, Lisandro Martinez would be a major asset to any manager, Rasmus Hojlund has real potential and Andre Onana is a modern goalkeeper who had been improving as the season went on, until his blemish against Sheffield United on Wednesday.

There are more positives for Ten Hag than Pochettino, who has been jeered by his own fans from relatively early on in his tenure. In the most simple metric available for assessing managers, Ten Hag's United win rate is 58 per cent and Pochettino's at Chelsea is 46%. It might not be enough to save either yet.

The irony in all of this is that the man Ten Hag and Pochettino were fighting to take over from - Rangnick - might have the best job of the lot of them next season, having been approached by Bayern Munich. It truly is a funny old game.