If Erik ten Hag really is a dead man walking at Manchester United, then he is giving very little away.
It is not like he or any under-pressure manager would exactly bring a cardboard box of his office belongings to an April press conference, but following reports he is resigned to the sack this summer, for now he is not talking as though he is doomed – instead talking, almost admirably but equally blindly, of “perfect” conditions at the club.
“I’ve worked with the new ownership well and closely together,” he said on Friday, addressing the departure of football director John Murtough as part of Ineos’ restructure. “That will not change. It doesn’t impact on the way I work here.
“The conditions are perfect and still are perfect and I’m happy for that. We want to set the right conditions to be successful.”
His head is in the sand, but it is no real surprise that this and repeated talk of the “new season” defies a report from The Sun, which claimed United players can see a change in Ten Hag’s mood, one that suggests the Dutchman knows his fate as the new owners line up Graham Potter to replace him.
With i reporting last week that Ten Hag’s job remains safe for now, albeit in part down to a lack of interested alternatives, the latest rumours could therefore be viewed as just another week at Manchester United.
A manager putting on a brave front, meanwhile, is nothing new, and though it is something Ten Hag does with near-nauseating monotony – namely when praising a performance everyone could see was sub-par – in reality it will not be his words but the actions of his players on the pitch that seal his fate.
So whether there has been an attitude shift in Ten Hag may actually be more visible through the prism of his players at Bournemouth on Saturday, where United face a side that humiliated them 3-0 at Old Trafford in December.
The expertise of Andoni Iraola, who on Friday was named the Premier League’s manager of the month for March, have Bournemouth comfortably on 41 points with seven games to go, blissfully above the FFP-induced chaos that is unfolding below them.
Sitting 12th, the Cherries are in fact closer in points to United in sixth than they are to the relegation zone, further proof within this league that clubs can punch above their weight providing they are a well-drilled, cohesive unit.
Which takes us back to United, dubbed the latest “billion pound bottle jobs” by Jamie Carragher after their 4-3 defeat to Chelsea, and on a run of just one Premier League win in their last six, which has Champions League football next season almost certainly out of the question.
For a club with such an immense net spend – which tops a billion since 2013 and is more than Chelsea’s – there is little excuse when clubs like Aston Villa are above them, and instead it is further proof that United are mismanaged.
Ten Hag would though have you believe injuries to their defenders are behind the bad results.
“It’s very difficult,” he said. “Everyone who has a little bit of knowledge about football, they know it will affect your performance and your result, so the back four is always the foundation to get results. We didn’t have that but still we have to win.”
That is all well and good, but for one Villa have been without Tyrone Mings all season, while Tottenham have also battled their way through an injury crisis, going without centre-back Micky van de Ven for nine straight games in the winter amid a spate of problems further up field.
Spurs have come out the other side looking rosy in the fight for the fourth, and with United floundering, all that is left is the memory of hampering Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool farewell and a date or two at Wembley in the FA Cup. There Ten Hag will be expected to oversee a simple dismissal of Coventry in the semi-finals, while should they get to the final either Chelsea or Manchester City await.
Assuming it is the latter, and assuming Ten Hag is then gone, it could well be that his final game in charge is a repeat of last year’s final, one that could prove United merely in circles for 12 wasted months.