If Sunday’s whirlwind Premier League collision between Liverpool and Manchester City did not tell us which of the two will win the title, it did confirm just how far they are ahead of the rest.
This is the environment Erik ten Hag will walk into when, as expected, he joins Manchester United this summer.
As Liverpool and City have broken new ground in excellence recently, United have withered almost to the point of competitive irrelevance. With this in mind, the task ahead of United’s fifth full-time manager since Sir Alex Ferguson is huge.
Manchester United have taken a step closer to appointing Erik ten Hag as their new manager
Therefore, he could potentially take over the team that lost to relegation strugglers Everton
Ten Hag’s appointment, which moved another step closer on Tuesday, represents a significant moment but no longer can United look to a new coach to fix all of their problems on his own. Those days have gone.
The malaise at Old Trafford — from the dressing-room culture to the manner in which they recruit new players — runs so deep that the arrival of a respected and innovative Dutch coach is only the first step on what looks like a very long road to recovery. His appointment merely represents the first piece of a very large jigsaw.
Ten Hag, 52, is known to have undertaken exhaustive research about his prospective new employers. He wanted to know why England’s biggest club has spat respected coaches out like gum over the last decade. Such attention to detail is in his nature.
But the truth is he will not have had to look too deep to see the problems.
He will face both of Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola’s sides in the Premier League next term
This, for example, is a club who do not have a reliable centre forward on their books. It is a club at which the trajectories of talented young footballers have been allowed to stall.
It’s a place where the link between a glorious past and the present day has been allowed to fracture, a club where the owners rarely come to town to see exactly what their years of financial ruination have created.
Ten Hag’s reputation is greater than his record. This move represents a huge step up for him from the relatively calmer waters of Dutch football.
Nevertheless, when he told United’s king-makers Darren Fletcher and John Murtough in their first meeting that the club’s incoming manager must be allowed to lead from the front, it is to be hoped they were listening.
United must now be allowed to regrow and reshape from the ground up. This will take time. They have tried the policy of parachuting in impact managers since Ferguson’s departure and it has failed. They have trodden the path of galactico signings with even less success.
United are struggling in the Premier League and could miss out on a Champions League spot
Meanwhile, Ten Hag has impressed at Ajax and his side have been successful in Europe
Now it is time to move forward with a clear, long-term plan. It is time to re-establish some kind of identity, one that is moulded around their manager.
United are seventh in the Premier League. It could be argued that a better coach than the disappointing interim Ralf Rangnick could have them in fourth or fifth.
But that is not the statistic that matters. What is more relevant is the 23-point gap between United and City, who are top. Last season United were 12 points off the top, but that was an outlier.
The year before it was 33 and in the season before that it was 32. The fault lines in United’s structure go desperately deep and cannot be repaired simply by changing the manager.
As they peer through the murk their recurrent failings have created, United will look for signs of movement at the Etihad and at Anfield. Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp will not stay in English football for ever.
However, Manchester United can not look to their new manager to fix all of their problems
Nevertheless, their form under interim manager Ralf Rangnick has been disappointing
Change will come to those clubs, too, and with it maybe some regression.
This is what United must hold in their minds now. For when that change comes, they need to be in better shape than they are now from top to bottom.
In the short term United need to furnish Ten Hag with a centre forward, a holding midfielder and possibly a central defender. They also must solve the Cristiano Ronaldo problem.
In doing all this, they must keep front and central the need to change a dressing-room culture that is so toxic it embarrasses a great football club.
The appointment of Ten Hag is a gamble by Manchester United. The job may be too big for him. Equally, United must show themselves to be worthy of him too.
Before saying yes to this task, Ten Hag is known to have scanned the horizon for alternatives. At the very least, that was entirely understandable.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk