PROBLEMS NOT ALL DOWN TO TEN HAG

UNITED Boss UN WIT TINGLY UNDERMINED

- SAMUEL LUCKHURST

A HANDFUL of Manchester United fans were waiting outside the Old Trafford directors' box entrance in the Munich tunnel 90 minutes after full-time on Sunday.

The likelihood is the club's dignitaries exited via the Stretford End tunnel. A car pulls up as close as possible to its jaws to chaperone Sir Alex Ferguson to and from home games.

Erik ten Hag is happier to run the gauntlet and walk a minute or so to the car park. He will often linger, whatever the weather, to sign autographs and pose for selfies as journalists are filing past.

After we had filed our copy on Sunday, the tunnel exit was sparse. The rain will have been a deterrent but neither players nor supporters will have been in the mood to mix.

There is still the occasional rendition of "We want Glazers out" from the Stretford End. But even Gary Neville has stopped apportioning blame at their door.

Under the incumbent manager, United have invested £625.43million in signings in less than three years. It has yielded England's two domestic trophies and the FA Cup was invaluable hand luggage to accompany the club on their pre-season tour of the United States.

Nobody of a United persuasion should need reminding of their Premier League form last season or how their Champions League participation ended. It is those two competitions that United should be judged on.

That made the belated call to keep Ten Hag a failing of the new hierarchy. As inevitable as the intense attention fixed on Ten Hag is, any objective observer knew long ago he had passed the point of no return as far as making United a credible force was concerned.

Ten Hag is the story and yet he isn't. It was the Ineos cabal that sought out every Tom, Dick and Harry to replace him, were impressionably swayed by supporter sentiment in the wake of the sweetest FA Cup final triumph, interrupted Ten Hag's holiday to inform him of their decision and then extended his contract.