Pep Guardiola reacts to Erik ten Hag’s sacking as Manchester United coach

Pep Guardiola has said he feels “sorry” for Erik ten Hag after the Dutchman’s sacking by Manchester United, while admitting the club’s results were “not good enough”.

United fired Ten Hag on Monday (28 October), with the team languishing in 14th in the Premier League after a 2-1 loss to West Ham on Sunday.

Ten Hag’s players were wasteful at West Ham and lost after a controversial penalty in the 92nd minute, but those factors were not enough to save the former Ajax coach. Neither were his two trophies in two years at United: the 2023 Carabao Cup and 2024 FA Cup.

While United overcame rivals Man City in last season’s FA Cup final, they couldn’t come close to matching Guardiola’s side in the league. In Ten Hag’s first term at United, they finished 14 points behind champions City in third, and last season they came eighth with 60 points – 31 fewer than City, who won the title again. This season, City are top of the Premier League after nine matchdays, with 23 points compared to United’s 11.

“Always I feel sorry for managers, you know?” Guardiola said at a press conference on Tuesday. “He’s lost his position, so I’m so sorry for him. I have a good, I think incredible relationship [with him]. I think he represented Manchester United at the highest level in terms of behaviours, of course.

“Our job as managers is one of the few jobs – in all the jobs in the world – where people are expecting to be sacked. People are expecting you don’t have a job.

“I don’t see architects or doctors or teachers or anything... The people deciding [their futures don’t say]: ‘Get out.’ It’s only us. It’s our job, we have to accept it.

“I wish him all the best, he and his family, and of course he’s going to come back stronger. He knows, I know, everybody knows: our job depends on the results. The results are not good enough.

“I’m saying that, and even myself, I’m not an exception. If the results are not good, there isn’t anything that can sustain it [...] Our job, unfortunately, is as simple as that: you have to get results.

“If you are [there] because you are handsome, or because you [speak well], or have good relationships with the hierarchies, forget about it. I have an incredible relationship with my hierarchy, but if I didn’t get results, I wouldn’t be here. This is a business, and when you become a manager, you have to know it.”

Ten Hag is expected to be replaced by Ruben Amorim, who is in advanced talks with United, The Independent understands.

Amorim wants to be United’s next manager and negotiations are ongoing over his coaching staff, the timing of his appointment, as well as his release fee with Sporting Lisbon.

Amorim is set to coach Sporting against Nacional in the Portuguese league cup on Tuesday.