Ralf Rangnick's famous Manchester United rant explains why Erik ten Hag still has a job

Manchester United have made innumerable errors in the years after Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement.

Here's a good a game to play with your mates down the pub: list them all in order. The first one is obvious – they didn't hire a director of football in 2013 to assist in the transition period after Ferguson's exit.

That United didn't hire Ralf Rangnick as their director of football when he was literally presented to them in 2022 was another catastrophic error. Thankfully INEOS are finally in the process of resolving it with the pillar appointments of Jason Wilcox and Dan Ashworth.

But make no mistake, United's misuse of Rangnick was criminal. Here was one of the game's top sporting directors, yet United used him as a babysitter. The German regularly displayed the extent of his footballing expertise during his interim spell as manager and, ultimately, delivered one too many home truths for the Glazers to keep him on as a consultant, as per the initial plan. Perhaps most famous (or should it be infamous?) Rangnick diatribe was his "open heart surgery" rant of April 2022, days after a 4-1 defeat at Liverpool.

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Amid a desperate run of results – although United have already lost more games this season than they did in 2021/2022 and are set to finish two positions lower – Rangnick told United exactly how to get back to the top.

"It’s not enough to do some minor amendments – cosmetic things. In medicine you would say that this is an operation of the open heart," he said. "If this happens and everyone has realised this has to happen and if people