After the loss against Tottenham, Erik ten Hag’s future at Manchester United is in jeopardy.

The Red Devils’ 3-0 loss against the Spurs on Sunday was a terrible performance. It was deemed the worst performance in thirty-five years because it was that terrible.

It caps off an extremely dismal season debut for Manchester United, who have won just three of their first eight games in all competitions.

It has put a great deal of strain on Erik ten Hag, the manager, who, to be honest, is only still employed due of the FA Cup victory over Manchester City the previous year.

As they considered replacing Ten Hag, Ineos spoke with Thomas Tuchel and a number of other managers during the summer, but in the end, they gave the Dutchman a one-year contract extension.

But people’s tolerance is already wearing thin after the season got off to a poor start.

Ten Hag’s contract was extended by Ineos instead of being terminated in the summer, which may have been a costly error on the part of United’s ownership.

If Ineos decides to fire Ten Hag, Adam Williams, a football finance expert, told United in Focus how much it will cost.

Williams stated, “There are several reports speculating on Ten Hag’s income.”

“His base pay looks to have been around £9 million annually, with a 25% reduction if United didn’t make it into the Champions League.”

Since they failed to place in the top four in 2023–24, we may estimate that his salary for this season is approximately £6.75 million.

Prior to initiating the one-year extension that binds Ten Hag to the team until 2026, Ratcliffe and Ineos conducted an interview with him last summer in order to keep him in his previous position.

In addition to being a really strange strategic choice, it implies that, should they terminate him today, they will be responsible for paying roughly £13.5 million—at least that is what the headline figures imply.

This is in contrast to £6.75 million if it had occurred during the summertime prior to them initiating the extension.

It is important to note that, for the three-year monitoring period ending on June 30, 2024, United seems to have barely fallen below the PSR level.

“Even though giving them an additional £6.75 million might have put them over the brink, nothing would have stopped them from doing so on May 1st.

The only other thing to think about is if his contract contains a condition that would partially offset the additional expenses incurred by his signing a new contract.

“United is not required to disclose the specifics of its contracts, but if they do decide to proceed, we will review the potential costs in their upcoming annual report.”

Manchester United’s position on firing Erik ten Hag

Despite the 3-0 loss to Tottenham, Sir Jim Ratcliffe is still in favour of firing Ten Hag, but this week’s away matches against Porto and Aston Villa will be very important.

Ten Hag will probably get his marching orders from Ineos if he can’t provide victories and strong performances.

In his third season as manager, Ten Hag has still failed to instill a distinct playing philosophy or sense of self in the group.

Although there had been encouraging hints earlier in the season, a poor performance against Tottenham completely destroyed that.

Still, it is a bad look for Ineos because if they had decided in the summer, they could have let go of Ten Hag for a fraction of the cost.

It has been expensive to stay with the Dutchman, and this would be Ineos’s first significant misstep since taking over at Old Trafford.