'It's not about turning the lights on, it's not just a question of a new coach, it's not a simple solution, it's not a short-term solution. We have to choose the right solution, not run to the wrong one. Sir Ratcliffe said after his stake in Manchester United was confirmed in February.
It's not the clear trust and support Ten Hag wants, but it's an acknowledgment that during the 11 years that Sir Alex Ferguson has retired and the Glazer family has been in charge, all managers have faced enormous challenges at United.
Ratcliffe spoke of "organisational and environmental challenges" rather than imagining that the club's fortunes would change immediately as a result of a change of manager. It's time to evaluate and evaluate everything, to be on the right path, not to run on the wrong path.
But football doesn't always allow you to take your time. Sometimes, the pressure of grades can be overwhelming. Sometimes, the problem is right in front of you, and the very appealing idea of finding a solution on your own terms, in your own time, disappears.
Is Manchester United's Manchester United already at this point? Now I'm starting to feel that way. In his first year in charge, the Reds achieved impressive results – third in the Premier League, League Cup titles, FA Cup finals and Europa League quarter-finals. But it was followed by a poor second year, which raised doubts about whether anyone at Old Trafford, including Ten Hag himself, would have the interest and energy to let him do it for another three.
Desire and energy are important factors here. Does Ten Hag have enough energy to revive a group of players who look as hopeless as they did before he took charge two years ago? Do Ratcliffe and his staff have the energy to find a new head coach in the coming weeks?
Ratcliffe's comments on the subject reflect his recognition that United's problems over the past decade are far more serious than the manager himself.
Like David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Rangnick, Ten Hag has reason to claim that he has been influenced by a culture of complacency and mediocrity in the dressing room and at the top.
Ratcliffe has already set out to change that, making a series of appointments, such as poaching Omar Berada from Manchester City to become chief executive this summer and Jason Wilcox from Southampton as technical director.
Plans to appoint Ashworth as director of football have been shelved by disagreements with Newcastle United over compensation costs, but as Ratcliffe puts it, it is another fundamental move to "get all the right people to do the right things in the right roles and create an elite environment in sport".
This season, Ten Hag says he has been heartened by the winds of change blowing at Old Trafford and the "very positive" conversations he had with Ratcliffe and INEOS sporting director Sir Dave Brailsford.
Their initial impression is that many of the problems faced by Ten Hag and his predecessors are related to structural and cultural deficiencies within the club, rather than a complete failure of management and coaching.
Manchester United fans and the media have largely reflected this tacit position.
But the longer this miserable season drags on, the more untenable this position becomes.
No one would think Ten Hag is at the root of United's problems, but he may have reached a point where Van Gaal got to that point in two years, and Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer soon after two years – that he is no longer a viable solution.
Two years ago, when United sleepwalked at the end of the season under Rangnick – sixth in the Premier League with just 58 points and conceded the same number of goals scored (57) – it felt like hitting rock bottom, almost the lowest point a club of their size and financial resources could reach in modern times.
Last season, Ten Hag's first season under the club, saw a clear improvement, with more aggressive performances and a more solid defensive system. While the "aggressive, brave, and risky" style of play he promised when he first arrived didn't emerge, it seems to have laid the groundwork. The expectation is that stylistic improvements will follow, with a steady stream of goals in Year 2.
The performance of the second year was dismal. They finished bottom of the Champions League group stage and struggled domestically. In the Premier League, they are in 8th place with just 54 points from 35 games. They still need five points to tie their lowest point two seasons ago. Monday's shocking 4-0 defeat at Crystal Palace turned their goal difference into a negative one. Even worse than Louis van Gaal's second season, who reached the FA Cup final but suffered a serious regression overall.
While the results are worrying, Manchester United tend to be worse off. A dismal result like Monday's game at Selhurst Park is a must-have been sooner or later – United had drawn with Brentford, Liverpool and Bournemouth in the previous five weeks and had been beaten to the brink in every game.
In the Premier League this season, Manchester United have been shot at goal 611 times, an average of 17.4 per game. (For comparison, only relegation teams Sheffield United have more than them). Opta's expected goals (xG) data suggests that Ten Hag's side should be 15th on 42 points and in 11th place on goal difference. While goalkeeper Onana has made some glaring mistakes, he has reason to claim that he has saved Ten Hag's side from even greater shame this season. Is he even likely to be the best player of the season?
What's worse than results and data is performance and perception. They were often pressed down by their opponents in midfield, which first happened at home to Wolves in the opening round of the season and has barely stopped since. Opponent after opponent has carved a path through United's midfield and defence, with an astounding ease and regularity.
Midfield is a serious problem. At the beginning of his tenure, Ten Hag wanted to build Manchester United around the elegant Frenkie de Jong. It wasn't his fault that United didn't make the deal in the summer of 2022, but from the moment they made Casemiro a backup option, Ten Hag's original vision of the team seemed to have been abandoned.
What emerged last season was a pragmatic, practical team, not what he called a "positive, brave, risk-taking" team. This season, the midfield is very leaky and disorganized overall. High pressing? In Ratcliffe's words, they have some players who will walk in front of the right opponents, while others run to the wrong opponents.
The team's lack of work ethic is one of the reasons why the decision to expel Sancho is so difficult to accept. Ahead of the game against Arsenal in early September, Ten Hag removed the winger from the squad based on his 'performance' in training, before expelling him for firing on social media and refusing to apologize.
Rightly or wrongly, Sancho's resurgence on loan at Borussia Dortmund has been uncomfortable for Ten Ha at best. This also highlights what Ratcliffe calls the need for the right "environment."
Injuries have clearly been a reason for United's struggles this season, especially in recent weeks, with so many defenders absent and Casemiro looking even more out of place with 36-year-old Evans in central defence.
However, no matter how the personnel changes, the same problems will arise. The most regrettable is the absence of Lisandro Martinez, who has played just 758 minutes in all competitions this season, but even in his limited playing time, United have conceded 17 goals.
Some would like to portray the Reds as a free-spirited spectator team, but that label is too much for them. In the Premier League, the seven teams ahead of them have all scored at least 69 goals and Manchester United have scored 52. The other three teams (Bournemouth, Brentford and Everton) also have higher xGs than Manchester United.
The Reds have had their fair share of crazy and unpredictable basketball scorelines this season (3-4 defeats to Bayern, Copenhagen and Chelsea, 3-3 draws with Galatasaray, Coventry City, 3-2 wins over Aston Villa, 4-3 wins over Wolves and Liverpool, 2-2 draws against Liverpool), but other games have been more like a game of chess and played between passionate amateurs rather than grandmasters.
Worryingly, Ten Hag's United don't know what they're playing or what they're supposed to be playing. In his second season, when he was expected to give the team a clearer technical and tactical imprint, their characteristics became almost unrecognizable. What he called "the best conversion team in the world" in his pre-season warm-up game? Apparently not. What he called "one of the most dynamic and spectator teams in England" last week? Neither is it.
Last week, Ten Hag said his favourite goal of the season was McTominay's strike at Galatasaray in the Champions League – followed by a cross from Wan-Bissaka. He told the club's official website that it was a "very good, simple [fit-in] that showed the style of play we wanted" – all the more interesting when you consider that United rarely have such attacking numbers, with a wing-back and a midfielder darting outside the front four.
Why is it so hard for Ten Hag to achieve the style of play he wants? Is it because his thinking is not clear enough? Is his philosophy out of touch with the club's transfer policy? His philosophy is incompatible with some of the players he's taken over? Having trouble conveying his thoughts in the 2nd language? Lack of authority? Boycott of the players? Decaying culture in the locker room? Whatever the reason, looking at the game, it's hard to justify Ten Hag.
In an ideal world, the overhaul that Old Trafford has embarked on does not include a manager. This is a headache that is unlikely to be avoided by any new management, especially as the new CEO has yet to take office, the future director of football has been suspended by Newcastle, and other clubs (notably Liverpool and Bayern) have already taken the lead in the coaching market.
Some people are pleased to point out that Liverpool's introduction of Slote means that there is one more bald Dutch in the Premier League who has proven himself. But in terms of United's position, what is more important is that Bayern have been in talks with Rangnick (who has been happy with the Austrian national team after a painful transition in Manchester) and have also seriously considered Ten Hag. Ten Hag spent two years in charge of Bayern B's team before managing Utrecht, Ajax and Manchester United.
On the flip side of the equation, Thomas Tuchel – who announced his departure at the end of the season in February, but who could still lead Bayern Munich to the last four of the Champions League – could also be one of the contenders for the vacant position at Manchester United. This tells us that either the reserves of top coaches have never been so low, or that in this age of analysis and blue-sky thinking, the imagination of the top brass of Europe's major giants has somehow become impoverished.
However, perhaps the biggest revelation of Bayern's interest in Rangnick and Ten Hag is the assessment of Manchester United: "You may have failed there, but that doesn't mean you're a bad manager. "It's a sign that United are already a mess, either unmanageable or close to collapse – and in some ways that may be a reflection of how Ratcliffe, Braitford, Bralda and Ashworth feel about the challenge.
That's the culture they're desperate to change. Ratcliffe and Brailsford said the same thing to Ten Hag in January. They have spoken several times about the "elite sports environment". In their opinion, based on the impressions gained from the outside and the reinforcement that has been received internally in the last few months, the current Manchester United is far from it.
If they had arrived 12 months earlier, they would almost certainly have seen Ten Hag share their ambitions, ideas, spirit and energy and are a person who can stick together, allow him to come up with his ideas and give him the freedom to implement them.
However, towards the end of his 3rd season, it will not be so easy to prove it. Even if United can beat Manchester City in the FA Cup final on 25 May, it could be a happy ending rather than a fresh start.
With the Glazer family in control, the club is languishing and it seems that another manager has been affected and dragged down. New energy and new ideas never seem to last.
This must change. Too skinny hopes that this transformation will happen in time to save him and reinvigorate his already troubled tenure.
But the fear is that, like his predecessors, he may have been worn out and defeated by the culture that Ratcliffe was determined to change. Because there is no short-term solution here, there is no simple switch that will restore United to its former glory.
Ten Hag's struggles this season have proven everything Ratcliffe has said about the need to go the right way and not the wrong way.
But it also highlights the difficulties that any club's head coach faces in a situation of disharmony, disconnection and dysfunction. He can come here with a solution, but over time, he will be bothered by problems. It won't be long before he will be swallowed up by problems. Then, he became part of the problem. This needs to change more than anything.