Sir Jim Ratcliffe breaks silence on Erik ten Hag after Manchester United's poor start to season

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has described Erik ten Hag as a 'very good coach' but admitted that he won't be involved with the decision to potentially sack him as manager of Manchester United.

United were hammered 3-0 by Tottenham in the Premier League last weekend and surrendered a 2-0 advantage against FC Porto on Thursday, with that game ending 3-3.

Sporting director Dan Ashworth, CEO Omar Berrada and technical director Jason Wilcox travelled to Portugal to watch that chaotic match.

Ratcliffe put a new football structure in place after becoming co-owner of United and has delegated responsibility at board room level at Old Trafford, although the British billionaire is expected to attend this weekend's game against Aston Villa and will want to see a positive performance.

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Ratcliffe has been in Barcelona this week to watch Ineos Britannia's boat race and he was stopped by the BBC, who asked him about Ten Hag's future and whether he could be sacked.

"I don’t want to answer that question. I like Erik," said Ratcliffe. "I think he’s a very good coach but at the end of the day it’s not my call, it’s the management team that’s running Manchester United that have to decide how we best run the team in many different respects.

"But that team that’s running United has only been together since June or July. They weren’t there in January, February, March or April – Omar [Berrada] and Dan Ashworth, they only arrived in July.

"They’ve only been there, you can count it in weeks almost. They’ve not been there a long time so they need to take stock and make some sensible decisions. Our objective is very clear.

"We want to take Manchester United back to where it should be, and it’s not there yet, obviously. That’s very clear.”

United have won just three games in all competitions this season and defeat to Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon would mean they've lost four of seven league fixtures.

Ashworth and Wilcox were understood to be present late in the evening at Carrington at the beginning of the week ahead of what was billed as a huge few days for Ten Hag.

United officials flew to Portugal on Wednesday and dined with officials from Porto.