Varane’s Ten Hag comments should strike fear into every Man Utd fan

Robin Bairner

• 19 Feb 2025 18:00 GMT
• 2 min read

Raphael Varane’s criticism of Erik ten Hag should come as little surprise, but what the former Manchester United star said of the Old Trafford club should come as a stark warning to supporters.

Man Utd find themselves in their toughest period in modern history. Sitting 14th in the Premier League table, they are closer to the relegation zone than Europe.

The prospect of rapid change is limited. Head coach Ruben Amorim has said that United will have to sell before they buy in the summer, and with a squad already of limited quality, player trading is a task fraught with difficulty.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS have been handed the challenge having taken over more than 25% of the club little over a year ago.

Ratcliffe’s arrival was meant to be a positive break from the era of the Glazers, who were portrayed as stingy and unwilling or unable to make the correct calls in both the transfer market and in the backroom.

It hasn’t been.

Varane criticised INEOS’ Ten Hag decision

Varane has underlined this with the decision to retain Ten Hag following the 2023/24 campaign.

“I was surprised he stayed. The connection with the group no longer existed,” the former Real Madrid defender said.

The centre-back did make a concession that the club had been a mess for a long time prior to INEOS’ arrival.

“Even from the inside as a player, there wasn’t a clear structure on how things were going to work. There hasn’t been a fixed methodology for years. At Madrid, they have a defined way of doing things at every level of the club,” he said.

“At Man Utd, it was not clear or defined enough to know how to recruit, how to play, how to communicate. There weren’t the same procedures, processes, structure.”

INEOS only seem to have added to the confusion, though.

It took an internal review that lasted more than a fortnight to determine that Ten Hag’s second full season in charge was adequate to keep him in the managerial post. Two weeks during arguably the most vital time of the year when it comes to preparing a team for the season ahead!

Worse still, INEOS came to the wrong conclusion, which became self-evident when they had to sack Ten Hag in October. This came at a cost of €17.5m but more importantly denied the new manager, in this case Amorim, the opportunity to start shaping the team last summer.

What’s been left is an absolute mess of a campaign – the worst that most Man Utd supporters can remember and, potentially, the worst they will ever live through.

The only positive is that United surely cannot get any worse, but judging by Varane’s assessment and what has followed, it might not get much better either.