I’ll be honest, I was shocked he wasn’t let go in the summer. Not because I’m desperate to see anyone lose their job, but because Old Trafford has form for making big decisions that feel like they’re taken in a boardroom mood swing rather than after a proper football review.

And yet, when this season started to look a bit more coherent for them, it was almost surprising. A slightly improved version of them still isn’t exactly inspiring, but you could at least see the outline of a plan, or at minimum a team that wasn’t constantly falling apart in the same predictable moments.

Improvement only buys you so much there

The thing is, “better than last year” has never been a safe place to stand at that club. They’ve binned managers even after finishing second in the league. That’s not me praising anyone, it’s just pointing out the reality: progress is only good enough if it matches whatever the hierarchy have decided the club should look like.

So if the improvements weren’t deemed good enough, it doesn’t exactly shock me. At Old Trafford, the bar shifts depending on who’s speaking and what day of the week it is. One minute they want a rebuild, the next they want instant dominance. That’s how you end up with a merry-go-round.

Tension with the hierarchy always tells

It also feels like there’s been tension between the manager and the suits for a while. You don’t need inside info to clock it sometimes. When comments start getting pointed, when interviews carry that edge, you can usually sense a relationship fraying.

And if you’re looking back to late last season and then the more recent remarks, it’s not hard to imagine a situation where it’s not just about the football. Clubs like that don’t only sack you because the press is a yard off, they sack you because you’ve become inconvenient.

Stubbornness is a dangerous trait

I’m generally critical of the whole “sack him now” culture, because it’s lazy. But there is a point where stubbornness becomes self-sabotage. When the football is clearly suffering and the manager looks unwilling to adapt, you can see why people reach for the big red button.

That applies anywhere, even at Liverpool under Arne if it ever got to that stage. No one wants a manager who treats the match like a lecture rather than a living thing that needs reacting to.

As for the timing, that’s the peculiar part. Marked improvement, then out the door. It does make you wonder whether the final straw was less about results and more about what was said behind a microphone. Some even reckon he wanted it that way. I’m not sure I’d go that far, but with that lot, nothing ever feels purely football.

Written by chewysuarez7: 14 January 2026

Tags: efl