Man United manager Erik ten Hag is starting to show the ruthless streak that the club had been missing for far too long.
‘No. 1’ will have a new owner at Manchester United this next season after being inscribed on David de Gea’s shirt for 12 seasons.
De Gea announced his resignation from Old Trafford on social media soon after 2:30 p.m. on Saturday after having lengthy discussions with the team about the possibility of signing a new contract. It was the end of an era for M16, and it will take some time for United supporters to get used to seeing a different face start in goal each week.
Despite the fact that United did not give him the proper send-off he deserved after more than ten years of service, it feels like the right time for all sides to part ways. Despite all he accomplished while wearing a United jersey, Erik ten Hag never quite seemed to find the right long-term partner in him.
The Dutchman wants to be able to rely on a goalkeeper who is an exceptional distributor and is comfortable in possession because of the way he wants to develop his side. Sadly for De Gea, those are not his strengths, which is why the Reds are currently trying to negotiate a move for Inter Milan’s Andre Onana.
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United aim to capitalize on the success they achieved last season and add more talent to the squad at this point in their revival under Ten Hag. They started their rebuild last summer with the help of five permanent additions they drafted, and they now want to further it.
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These additions demonstrated why the team needed to support Ten Hag and give him the freedom to make the choices that he feels will help the Reds moving ahead, despite the criticism they received at the time. This summer, he had brought in Mason Mount, another acquisition that raised some eyebrows. Now, he wants to bring in Onana, another player he is familiar with from his time at Ajax.
Even though the circumstances were different, he treated De Gea the same way. He was brutal enough to fire the Spaniard because he thought the goalkeeping position needed improvement.
In the past, United has been guilty of both failing to offload players at the appropriate moment and accumulating players, which causes the team to swell. Ralf Rangnick, a former interim manager, realized the error more than two years before he took over at Old Trafford in November 2021.
Rangnick stated, “Since Sir Alex [Ferguson] left, they were underperforming, in a 2019 interview. Since he left, they haven’t been crowned champions.
“At any club, if you can’t sign the right players, at least don’t sign the wrong ones,” said the coach. If you do that in one, two, or three consecutive transfer windows, you’re in danger.
“Club building is about putting together the proper team by moving the right players out and bringing in the right players with a greater than 50% success rate. To develop these talents, you must have the greatest coaches imaginable.
Rangnick’s final sentence makes reference to what United is currently beginning to accomplish and should keep doing this summer. In actuality, a number of Ten Hag’s team members have outgrown Old Trafford and must be replaced, both for the good of the team and their individual careers.
Ten Hag intended to be brutal in his player unloading this summer, and De Gea’s departure may be about to set the tone. Those at risk of being shown the door include people like Harry Maguire, Eric Bailly, Alex Telles, Brandon Williams, Donny van de Beek, and Anthony Martial, to name just a few.
However, as neighbors Manchester City and numerous other teams have demonstrated, you cannot keep adding players without releasing others. It is a never-ending cycle, and Ten Hag is now pressuring United to act as recruitment guru Rangnick advised they ought to have done several years ago.
