MANCHESTER UNITED sacking Erik ten Hag, at last, was the easy part.
Sunday’s 2-1 defeat to West Ham – leaving the Red Devils FOURTEENTH in the Premier League, with just 11 points from nine games – proved to be the final straw.
Ten Hag’s United didn’t just lose consistently, they were thrashed consistently.
Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, Brighton and Brentford are among the teams to have demolished his outfit.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s most famous three-word team talk — “Lads, it’s Tottenham” — could now be turned on its head by Ange Postecoglou or several other Premier League bosses.
“Lads, it’s Man United.”
Facing United hasn’t held a fear factor for many years.
Now, it is a fixture openly relished by many — a big-name scalp which is relatively easy to come by.
There has been a regular cycle of doom around Old Trafford for the last 11 years, under six different managers.
United are trounced on a Sunday afternoon, Gary Neville and Roy Keane rant on the telly, everyone speculates on the manager’s future on a Monday.
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Managers come and go, many players linger for too long, and United continue to be largely terrible.
Yet under Ten Hag — who offered little as a coach or man-manager — the bad days got even worse.
It was the wrong decision for Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his Ineos crew to keep faith with the former Ajax boss after last season’s FA Cup win.
And then to have signed another tranche of overpriced Dutch players.
At last, Ratcliffe and his fellow Old Trafford chiefs have seen sense.
So now for the hard part. Who, realistically, takes over?
And, more pertinently, who would want to?
This is a mid-table squad at an underachieving club, with a lot of unwanted players on big money.
Emery wouldn’t take United job – he’s not stark raving mad
And Ratcliffe is an instinctive cost-cutter who may not pay top dollar to the next manager.
If this club wasn’t called ‘Manchester United’, it wouldn’t be an especially desirable job.
The good news for United is that their new sporting director, Dan Ashworth, is a very decent judge of a manager.
He has been instrumental in three previous managerial appointments — Gareth Southgate for England, Graham Potter for Brighton and Eddie Howe for Newcastle.
None were wildly popular at the time, all were conspicuous successes.
Interestingly, Ashworth’s No 1 choice for the Newcastle job was Unai Emery, who turned him down to stay at Villarreal but has since proved that judgment right by excelling at Aston Villa.
Emery would be an excellent fit for United — yet there is next to no chance that he would abandon Villa’s Champions League campaign to take the Old Trafford job, not least because he isn’t a stark raving madman.
Howe would be another good candidate to succeed Ten Hag but, although he has become frustrated on Tyneside, the Saudis would surely not allow Ratcliffe to poach Howe, as they reluctantly did with Ashworth.
Potter is available but his Chelsea experience and lack of charisma would make him a tough sell.
Which brings us to Southgate, who remains close with Ashworth and is an excellent man-manager who was seriously considered by United last spring.
Yet, despite having led England to two of their three major finals, Southgate’s reputation for over-caution was only enhanced during the Euros.
Mauricio Pochettino, passed over twice by United, is out of the equation having taken the United States job.
Thomas Tuchel was talked about at United’s top target, and would have been a popular and gettable option, but the FA have already beaten United to the German.
Despite having led England to two of their three major finals, Southgate’s reputation for over-caution was only enhanced during the Euros.
Likewise, Roberto De Zerbi, now at Marseille after his brief Brighton stint sparkled then fizzled out.
Kieran McKenna — a gifted former United coach who has won back-to-back promotions with Ipswich Town — is an intriguing candidate but the imminent vacancy may come a year or so too soon.
Marco Silva, the extremely under-rated Fulham boss, has been on United’s radar and should not be discounted.
Sporting Lisbon’s Ruben Amorim, last season’s ‘next big thing’, was passed over by West Ham as well as Liverpool this summer and is not an easy man to pin down.
Zinedine Zidane, who has taken over from Alan Curbishley as a 20-1 shot for every Premier League job, is a “figurehead” manager and not an Ashworth type.
Ruud van Nistelrooy, the former United goal machine who joined Ten Hag’s coaching team in the summer, will take the reins at interim boss, but surely lacks the experience to take the job full-time.
And United would be wise to avoid another Ole Gunnar Solskjaer situation.
So, yes, getting rid of Ten Hag was the easy part.
For Ratcliffe, Ashworth and the rest of United’s new management structure, the hard part is what happens next.
And it is a decision they desperately need to nail.
