Where are they now? The managers Man Utd have sacked since 2014
After two seasons in the dugout, Erik ten Hag’s time as Manchester United manager looks to be coming to an end, off the back of the club’s worst season in Premier League history.
Despite having his squad decimated by injuries and reaching the FA Cup final for a second successive season, the cons have outweighed the pros in the 2023-24 season for Ten Hag’s United, who regressed significantly from 2022-23, where they finished third, won the Carabao Cup and reached the FA Cup final, but were beaten by Manchester City.
The Red Devils finished eighth this season on a lowly 60 points, losing 14 Premier League games while also finishing bottom of their Champions League group, with the Dutch coach unable to sustain a style of play that consistently hurt opponents.
The Guardian reported on the eve of the 2024 FA Cup final – again against City – that Ten Hag would be dismissed regardless of the result at Wembley, with INEOS keen to reset United properly and get a new head coach in for a fresh beginning under the minority owners.
Ten Hag looks set to become the fifth permanent manager sacked by the club since 2014. We’ve taken a look at what happened next for each sacked manager, and where they are now.
David Moyes
Infamously cherry-picked by Sir Alex Ferguson as his successor for the 2013-14 season, Moyes was sacked just nine months into a six-year deal and left United with his tail between his legs, his reputation taking a serious hit as a result of the job.
He returned to the touchline in November 2014, being bold and heading to La Liga to manage Real Sociedad. He lasted a year in Spain before being sacked again and endured a rough spell at Sunderland before eventually getting his mojo back across two spells with West Ham, the second of which has seen him win the Europa Conference League with the club.
It’s fair to say that while Moyes was never really the man for the United job, the sacking was hardly a reflection on him, with just about every manager at the club since falling to the same fate in the end.
Louis van Gaal
An esteemed Dutch manager, brought in to establish a more defined style of play, being sacked after the FA Cup final following a disappointing second season, after promising signs in the first season. Rings a bell, doesn’t it?
There are no doubt parallels between Ten Hag and Van Gaal’s tenure, but a closer look at United under the former Barcelona and Dutch national team manager will reveal some more ugly truths. He never quite got who he wanted in the transfer market despite United spending a lot of money in his first summer and the football was a chore to say the least.
Van Gaal signed off by winning the FA Cup, leaving the Red Devils in a relatively healthy spot regarding the young players he’d established, namely Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial.
He went on a sabbatical after leaving United, but returned to the game in 2021 to manage the Netherlands for the third time in his career, courageously battling – and beating – prostate cancer while helping the Oranje qualify for the 2022 World Cup, where they reached the last 16. He left following their exit.
READ NEXT: The Premier League table since Man Utd appointed Erik ten Hag
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Jose Mourinho
Having tried Ferguson’s recommendation and a manager with a clear – but different – style of play, United then turned to a serial winner to replace Van Gaal in 2016, finally appointing Mourinho as their new boss after years of speculation.
As with every Mourinho spell ever, everything started brilliantly. Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were flying, United lifted the League Cup and the Europa League in his first season, and finished runners-up in the Premier League in 2017-18 for the first time since 2011-12, before it all fell off a cliff in season three.
Mourinho left United in an ugly breakup in late 2018 and tried to bounce back the following year by taking the Tottenham job, but was sacked in 2021 just days before the League Cup final. He’s currently available for hire after another textbook Mourinho spell in Italy with Roma.
READ: Where are they now? The bookmaker’s favourites for the Man Utd job in 2022
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
With the mood through the floor at United and things feeling more hopeless than ever, club legend Solskjaer was brought in on caretaker basis in December 2018 for the rest of the season.
United scored five goals in a game for the first time since Ferguson’s final match in what was Solskjaer’s first game in charge and embarked on a stunning unbeaten run in the Premier League through to March, while also completing that Champions League comeback in Paris to knock out PSG in the last 16.
He was given the job on a permanent basis after that and managed a third-place finish in 2019-20 and a second-place finish in 2020-21 – their title charge only coming away in early 2021 – while also losing the Europa League final in an agonising penalty shootout.
Solskjaer eventually fell to the same fate as the rest in November 2021, a tough start to the 2021-22 season resulting in his sacking. He wasn’t without his faults, but most United fans will comfortably tell you that the time under Solskjaer was the best it’s been at the club since Ferguson retired.