- United sacked Erik Ten Hag on Monday. Their sixth manager in 11 years since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement
- Former United captain Keane has regularly been critical of United’s players in recent seasons
- Keane won 13 major honours at Old Trafford, including seven Premier League titles
While the consensus among many fans and pundits was that Manchester United’s decision to part ways with manager Erik Ten Hag was the correct one, there are still plenty of prominent figures who want to focus attention on the players who have been underperforming over the last few years. One figure in question is former United captain and Premier League Hall of Famer, Roy Keane.
The Irishman, who lifted seven Premier League titles with United (four as captain), has regularly been outspoken about the performances and attitudes of the Red Devils squad, whether it was under Ten Hag’s recent stewardship or previous managers such as Ole Gunar Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick and Jose Mourinho.
A Premier League trophy has not graced the trophy room of Old Trafford since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 and does not look likely to any time soon, with haphazard recruitment, injuries and disillusioned, underperforming star players leaving the 20 time champions of England bereft of any signs of life when it comes to threatening the monopoly their State backed neighbours in the east of Manchester have over the league title.
And while likely incoming manager Rúben Amorim (who I expertly predicted was ‘highly unlikely’ to arrive at Old Trafford. What do I know?) could bring about the often seen ‘new manager bounce’ and instil some life into a season that already looks as if it is on life support after barely three months, it is hard to see how the current Sporting CP manager could do too much with so little between now and the end of the 2024/25 campaign.
Over on Keane’s must-follow Instagram account (in a world of meticulously PR team driven feeds, Keane’s Insta is an oasis of banger posts and outrageous caption work), the former United skipper shared a typically foreboding snap alongside the caption, “In good teams, coaches hold players accountable. In great teams, players hold players accountable.”
That the post came in the minutes after Ten Hag’s departure had been announced is no coincidence. Keane was making a statement that this United squad have not been pulling their weight. Not only that, but the players have too often been exerting their own influence to bring managers down rather than looking among themselves to get to the root of the problem.
Of course, the likes of Ten Hag, Solskjaer and Mourinho all had their obvious shortcomings and, when the axe finally fell on them, it felt like the right time to call it quits (if anything, on each occasion it was actually too late) but too many of United’s players have failed to scale the heights that have so often been expected at Old Trafford. As rivals continue to rise, United have once again retreated after a brief flourish of promise.
During Ten Hag’s first campaign, a post-World Cup run of just one defeat in 22 games briefly saw the Dutchman’s charges flirt with a Premier League title challenge. The Carabao Cup was won (a first piece of silverware in six years), Barcelona were eliminated from Europe, Manchester City were dispatched at home and the football being played was probably the most effective since the glory, trophy laden days of Fergie.
A final third place finish in the league, meaning a return to the Champions League, as well as a losing appearance in the FA Cup final finished off an impressive debut campaign for Ten Hag. Then everything went rapidly downhill. United may have come away with a famous FA Cup final victory over neighbours City at the end of last season, but an eighth place finish was their worst in Premier League history and the less said about the Champions League campaign, the better. That Ten Hag survived for another campaign was not much short of a miracle.
But Keane’s words are impossible to ignore. They are pretty impossible to disagree with. Player power has been too prominent at Old Trafford for too long. Key figures are too keen to down tools when the going gets tough and stories of ‘dressing room unrest’ are exhaustingly commonplace. With Rúben Amorim set to arrive this week to begin yet another new era in the Old Trafford dugout, a new one needs to begin in the changing room as well. How many of the current squad can become great?
