Two years on from his dismissal, Erik ten Hag has reopened one of the quietest arguments in English football. In an interview published on 20 October 2026, the Dutchman accused Manchester United’s hierarchy of breaking every promise made to him in Ibiza before his contract extension and of pushing through a Scott McTominay sale he had been told would not happen.
“They promised me loyalty, they promised me backing, they promised communication, that we get aligned,” Ten Hag told The Athletic.
“The promises, they didn’t keep.”
The £616m that outlived him
The figures behind that complaint are not new. By the time Ten Hag was sacked on 28 October 2024, Manchester United had spent over £616m on transfers in his two-and-a-half seasons in charge, with roughly £200m of that going out the door in the summer window before his dismissal.
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The 2022 window alone, his first, cost more than £220m and brought in Tyrell Malacia, Lisandro Martinez, Casemiro and Antony. The returning side of the ledger never caught up: Manchester World calculated that only around £58m was recouped through player sales, with another £150m locked away on sidelined or loaned-out contracts.
Extended, then dismissed within three months
The accountability question flares up because of how Ten Hag’s final months were structured. Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos had taken sporting control earlier that year, run an end-of-season review, decided the FA Cup win over Manchester City was enough to keep him, and sent club officials to his holiday to confirm it.
He was handed a contract extension in July 2024. The summer that followed, built around him, brought Leny Yoro, Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs de Ligt and Manuel Ugarte. He was sacked a little over three months later with the team 14th in the Premier League.
In The Athletic interview, Ten Hag also accused Ineos of fuelling a “toxic culture” at Old Trafford, saying Ineos refused to back him when he tried to discipline Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho.
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“And so, they are continuing the toxic culture; they fuel it, they give the power to the players,” he said.
Carrick inherits the same squad and the same problem
Michael Carrick, confirmed as the permanent head coach in May 2026, has won just two of his first 10 games of the 2026-27 season, been dumped out of the League Cup by Brighton and beaten heavily by Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
After a 1-1 draw at Leeds on 18 October 2026, Manchester United sit 13th in the Premier League.
Asked this week about mounting speculation over his job, Carrick said he was not looking for a vote of confidence.
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“I don’t need any reassurance. It’s pretty clear, and I know that myself.”
Manchester United travel to Como in the Champions League with seven first-team players ruled out, among them Ten Hag’s 2022 signing Lisandro Martinez and academy graduate Kobbie Mainoo.
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