Man Utd sent Erik ten Hag sacking message after dreadful start to Premier League season

Manchester United would be "crazy" to sack Erik ten Hag at the moment, simply because there is no-one to come in and replace him.

That is the view of ex-United midfielder Nicky Butt, who feels that his former club would be making a mistake should they move to get rid of their Dutch boss following two defeats in their opening three Premier League games.

A 2-1 loss at Brighton and a 3-0 defeat at home to Liverpool, when they were comprehensively outplayed by Arne Slot's Reds, has led to many openly speculating on the future of Ten Hag, who signed a new contract with the club in the summer.

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But Butt sees no need for the club to take drastic action just yet ahead of a match against Southampton after the international break.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News after playing for a United legends team in a charity match against former Celtic stars, Butt said: "There’s no point sacking somebody if there’s nobody to come in. Clubs all over the world do it, I think it’s crazy.

“They sack a manager because it’s not going well and they don’t have any reasonable targets coming in, then they bring another wrong one in and it’s a knock-on effect.

“For me, I’d give him time to get it right. It’s just the start of the season, we’ve only played three or four games and you’ve got to stand by him. If they don’t do that, they just should have let go of him in the post-season.”

Butt added that it will take time for new minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe to make changes at the club following his partial takeover earlier this year, adding that fans will have to be very patient before the club are back competing for Premier League titles.

“It’ll take time, you can’t really judge him [Ratcliffe] right now,”said Butt, who won six league titles under the tutelage of Sir Alex Ferguson. “One thing is for certain, the team has got to improve. I think everyone would say that openly.

“They’re a long way off winning the title but what Ratcliffe has done is put experts in the right positions and hopefully you’ll see the fruition of that in the next few years.”

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