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TEN HAG'S FINAL CHANCE AS RATCLIFFE PREPARES FOR SUMMER OF CHANGE
Evening Standard
|May 24, 2024
IF LAST season’s all-Manchester FA Cup Final felt like part of a beginning for Erik ten Hag and United, tomorrow’s re-match is surely an ending.
The 2-1 defeat to City at Wembley a year ago, decided by Ilkay Gundogan’s double, was painful, but came at the end of a season of progress, in which Ten Hag’s side won the League Cup, returned to the Champions League and appeared to be gathering momentum as a force again.
Today, the outlook for the Dutchman is very different, and while the head coach will view the game as another opportunity to convince United’s new part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe that there is still life in his project, the die has surely been cast.
It has been an historically wretched campaign for United, including a lowest-ever Premier League finish, 14 defeats and a first-ever negative goal difference. Change is inevitably coming at Old Trafford, even if they spring an almighty surprise at Wembley.
This story is from the May 24, 2024 edition of Evening Standard.
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