‘Ten Hag sack?’ becomes ‘Ten Hag divorce?’ as ex-Man Utd coach lauds ‘one of the hardest working managers’

Former Manchester United coach Benni McCarthy has joked that Erik ten Hag’s wife “must be on the verge of divorcing him” due to how hard he works.

Manager Ten Hag is under huge pressure again after the club’s poor start to the season.

The Dutchman has come under immense scrutiny but still believes he has the backing of the Man Utd board after winning the FA Cup last term.

Co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe was at Old Trafford last Monday for a scheduled visit, with Joel Glazer also present to attend the quarterly Fans’ Advisory Board meeting.

The writing appeared to be on the wall for Ten Hag after the 3-0 home defeat to Tottenham but subsequent draws at FC Porto and Aston Villa have kept him in the job.

Despite the poor results and lack of philosophy on the pitch, McCarthy – who left his role as assistant coach at the end of 2023/24 – has praised Ten Hag’s dedication, revealing that he “works tirelessly”.

“I can imagine how frustrating it is for Erik because he’s probably one of the hardest-working managers I’ve come across,” McCarthy said.

“His attention to detail, that man goes to sleep at 3am, 4am in the morning. The analysts get it at all angles, even if he thinks of something at 2am.

“I’m sure his wife must be on the verge of divorcing him because that’s his life. It’s non-stop.

“He works tirelessly and when you put that much work in, you expect things to go well, but that’s why I’m saying there’s something [that’s not right].”

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Thomas Tuchel is the bookmakers’ favourite to replace Ten Hag at Old Trafford, though the former Chelsea head coach has also been linked with the England job .

Another manager being targeted by the FA is Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola, who is the only person McCarthy would swap Ten Hag, with making a change in the dugout not the way forward.

“People are always looking for answers like replacing the coach, but who is better than what they have?,” he asked.

“Unless Pep decides to change from Man City to go to United then maybe you will have a change in fortunes, but other than that, mate, I can’t see if there’s better than Ten Hag, man.”

Plenty of Man Utd players have been criticised for their lack of effort and McCarthy singled out Portuguese duo Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot as players on the other end of the spectrum.

“If some of the Manchester United players had what Bruno and Diogo have, it would have been easier to achieve good results.

“They both trained with incredible concentration, giving everything they had. Some of the others didn’t do the same.

“This ended up limiting United’s progress, because some players weren’t training to the best of their ability. Even in games, the data showed us that some players were at their peak performance and others a little below.”