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Erik ten Hag must feel like the old man in the Monty Python sketch who complains “I’m not dead yet” as he is thrown onto a cart of bodies during the bubonic plague.
Just about everyone is assuming the Manchester United manager will be fired, possibly this week, after a depressing start to the new season.
His new assistant, Ruud van Nistelrooy, has been widely touted as a potential interim manager when or if the dirty deed is done.
And according to The Mirror, Ruud does not want to play the role of “bring out your dead” Eric Idle, clubbing him over the head to put him out of his misery and sending him on his way.
Reporter Simon Mullock claims that Van Nistelrooy “does not want to be portrayed as an opportunist who took up a position on Ten Hag’s backroom staff in the summer to give the club a temporary solution should the Dutchman fail to improve his team’s wretched form.”
Indeed, there were reports at the time of his appointment claiming that Ineos had recruited him for precisely that reason, before it later was counter-claimed that he was very much a Ten Hag appointment and decision.
And having endured an acrimonious exit from his role as head coach of PSV Einhoven, amidst claims that the players and directors had plotted to undermine him, the Dutch legend can empathise with his countryman and will not be the man who “betrayed” Ten Hag.
Mullock cites “a source in Holland” as saying “Van Nistelrooy is a principled guy. He felt betrayed at Eindhoven – and he will not want to be viewed as the man who went behind Erik ten Hag’s back.”
There have already been reports of friction between the pair as the former striker appears to have little authority. Rene Hake, a close friend of Ten Hag, was also brought in as assistant this summer and suggested he was his second-in-command in an interview, saying:
“I give all my views on football matters to Erik and I am the one responsible for the planning of training sessions, both physically and tactically.
“Erik has the final say, but we are working intensively together on the bigger picture.
“Ruud is very big here – and you can tell that all the time because people recognise him everywhere and they show respect. But for me, he is a colleague.”
Whether the issue becomes a real one or not could be decided today, with many believing that a loss against Aston Villa this afternoon will be the final nail in Ten Hag’s coffin.
He will certainly hope that the outcome is much better for him than it was for the poor old man in Python’s plague.
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