Erik ten Hag won't get Man Utd lifeline that saved Ferguson - just ask Van Gaal
Erik ten Hag would be mistaken if he thinks the FA Cup can offer him the same lifeline that once saved Sir Alex Ferguson from the sack - just ask Louis van Gaal.
It is 34 years since Ferguson famously plotted the 1-0 victory at Nottingham Forest in the third round before going on to claim Wembley salvation by beating Crystal Palace in a replay in the final.
Ferguson would have been sacked had Mark Robins not scored the goal at the City Ground to buy his boss sometime after almost four years of under-achievement. A year later, United lifted the European Cup Winners' Cup - and the rest, as they say, is history.
But while taking the FA Cup back to Old Trafford for a 13th time would give United's fans something to cherish, Ten Hag might be wise to remember what happened to Van Gaal in 2016. The Dutchman was sacked less than 24 hours after climbing the steps to Wembley's Royal Box as a Cup winner. Once again, Crystal Palace were United's vanquished opponents.
But the club's owners had already set their sights on bringing in Jose Mourinho to combat Manchester City's appointment of Pep Guardiola - and so Van Gaal was doomed.
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Van Gaal, now aged 72, still hasn't got over the humiliation. When Ten Hag was contemplating leaving Ajax to become the Reds' manager in the spring of 2022, Van Gaal warned: "Manchester United are a commercial club, so it's a difficult choice for a coach. Ten Hag would be better going to a football club. He must choose a football club and not a commercial club."
The tipping point for Van Gaal was finishing fifth in the Premier League. Rivals City claimed Champions League qualification by virtue of banning a better goal difference than their rivals. Van Gaal paid the price.
Louis van Gaal won the FA Cup with Manchester United in 2016 but was later sacked (Matthew Peters/Getty Images)United travel to Wigan Athletic in the third round on Monday night. Losing is unthinkable for Ten Hag. His team have already been beaten 14 times in all competitions this season. United are out of Europe after finishing bottom of their Champions League group and lie in eighth place in the Premier League.
Qualifying for Europe's top club competition already appears to be beyond them. And Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the local-boy-made-good billionaire who is taking charge of football operations at Old Trafford after spending £1.3billion to buy a 25 per cent share in the club he supported as a boy, will have a decision to make in the summer. Ten Hag will have just 12 months of his contract to run.
The talk last summer, after the Dutchman’s first season ended with a third-place finish and the Carabao Cup, was that an extension would be a formality. That's no longer the case. It would be tough to fathom what the future holds for Ten Hag should United be beaten by a team that lies 17th in League One.
They have beaten the Latics 17 times in 18 meetings - but their only defeat was a 1-0 loss in April 2012, when Shaun Maloney's goal gave Roberto Martinez's side a fighting chance to stay in the Premier League and blew an irreparable hole in United's hopes of beating City to the title.
Wigan have proved before that they like the taste of Mancunian blood in the FA Cup. In the 2013 final, title-winning City manager Roberto Mancini was sacked before he had left Wembley after suffering a shock 1-0 defeat at the hands of a Wigan team that would be relegated three days later.
The following season, Latics went to the Etihad to beat a City team that would lift the Premier League and EFL Cup under Manuel Pellegrini in the quarter-final. And the only time Pep Guardiola has failed to get to the semi-finals in seven seasons was in 2019, when Will Grigg’s goal gave the League One team victory in the fifth round.
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