The Premier League season is over, and while my team came 7th (more on this later), I wanted to tip my hat to one person who has been receiving a gut full of hate, Erik ten Hag.
Erik, or EtH as he is known on-the-lines, is the manager (aka head coach) of Manchester United, arguably the biggest soccer team in the world. When I was a kid, and Sir Alex Ferguson was running the show, they were also the best. Year after year, they won pretty much just about everything, but since Fergie left, it has been nothing short of a shit-show, at least by their standards. In the period between 2013 to today, Manchester United have won 4 trophies, in that same amount of time, they won 14 trophies leading up to 2013.
Well, 4 until last weekend, when Manchester United won their fifth trophy, the FA Cup. As a Newcastle fan, this meant that they were kicked out of competing in Europe, but despite that disappointment, I have to applaud EtH. For the past two seasons, he has been hounded, online and offline, saying he needs to be sacked, that he isn’t good enough, that he has to go. The week before the cup game, Manchester United finished 8th, their lowest ever in the Premier League era. The day BEFORE the match, the Guardian newspaper published an article leaking internal information that Erik would be given the flick, regardless of outcomes. Talk about pressure.
But the team managed to win, and when ten Hag was asked whether he had a future at Old Trafford, his response was “I win trophies”. I might not like it under the circumstances, but I sure do respect it.
Leave a Reply