Erik Ten Hag was bad, but Manchester United and their now vacant coaching position are even worse

Erik Ten Hag is out of action at Manchester United and for the sixth time in just over a decade, England's biggest football club is looking for a new head coach.

Ten Hag is out because he wasn't very good. He had won just one of his last eight games in all competitions. With a defeat at West Ham on Sunday, United slipped to 14th, a season after finishing eighth, lower than at any time in the Premier League era. Substandard results and performance had become a pattern that felt increasingly irreversible over the last two months.

However, there is also a broader pattern to consider that should not necessarily absolve Ten Hag, but should serve as a deterrent to potential successors.

Since Sir Alex Ferguson's resignation in 2013, no United manager has stayed in charge for three years.

Five different men – six if you count Ralf Rangnick's six-month interim – were tasked with maintaining or restoring United's pre-eminence. They were recruited for different reasons, come from different countries and have different levels of experience and influence. David Moyes was a Brit who enjoyed success at smaller English clubs. Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho were big names and proven winners. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was a Man United legend. Ten Hag was a trendy signing from Ajax in the Netherlands.

Everyone had a plan to form Manchester United. Everyone had their own appearance and style. Everyone came with their own tactical ideas, their own list of target players and their own ideals. There are very few commonalities that connect all five.

And yet everyone has failed because of a seat that feels more and more toxic with each passing year.

Their only similarity is their shared experience at a run-down club that, aside from money and prestige, has done nothing to earn a place among England's elite over the past decade.

In some ways, Ten Hag was among the best of the five. His win rate was better than Solskjaer, Van Gaal, Rangnick and Moyes. His two trophies – the 2024 FA Cup and 2023 League Cup – matched Mourinho's. The circumstances he had to contend with – numerous injuries, turmoil and uncertainty at management and ownership levels – were arguably more adverse.

So it's silly to paint him as the problem, the clueless coach who is dragging a once-proud club to new depths.

He was the latest punching bag, the face of United's many problems; However, this is by no means the main reason why these problems persist.

The problems over the years have been outdated structures, unqualified management and poor player recruitment. The byproduct is an incoherent group of second-rate players who don't seem to fit together on paper and on the field.

This is what the next manager of United – Gareth Southgate? Zinedine Zidane? Xavi? Ruud van Nistelrooy, the interim? – will inherit. There are still high expectations and a backroom structure that still seems to be in flux.

The job is not impossible. But it requires reforms that go far beyond the duties of a coach. These will go to new co-owner Jim Ratcliffe; and his top sports deputy Dave Brailsford; and CEO Omar Berrada, who was poached by Manchester City; and athletic director Dan Ashworth.

The reforms are reportedly underway. But until the changes prove significant…why would any coach want this job other than a lucrative salary?

Van Nistelrooy, a former United striker and most recently assistant to Ten Haag, will take charge until United's management team finds someone confident (or insane) enough to take on the challenge.

And now the 2024/25 season, like some before it, already seems lost.