Manchester United flew straight to London from Istanbul for Sunday's clash with West Ham where Erik ten Hag finds himself in familiar territory.
Back in the capital, back in trouble, and with his back once again exposed to the men who will decide his future.
News that the club’s co-owners Ineos are again weighing up their options and sounding out potential candidates should come as no surprise to Ten Hag considering the poor start to the season and his close shave in the summer.
He arrived in London for the FA Cup final in May amid intense speculation over his job and reports that Ineos were speaking to a number of other managers about replacing him.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe met with Thomas Tuchel in Monaco. Thomas Frank, Kieran McKenna and Marco Silva held talks. Gareth Southgate and Graham Potter were linked. Ten Hag survived but he was about the only one at United who did.
Erik ten Hag's job at Manchester United continues to be under threat amid the Red Devils' struggles
Ruud van Nistelrooy (left) joined Ten Hag's backroom staff that has been completely overhauled in the summer
His coaching staff was completely overhauled and so was United’s executive team. A total of 250 staff have lost their jobs. Even Sir Alex Ferguson wasn’t safe from the Ineos axe. Ratcliffe’s reputation for being ruthless is well deserved.
So Ten Hag has every reason to feel vulnerable as he returns to London after Thursday night’s draw against Fenerbahce with his future once again up in the air after it emerged that United have spoken to former Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez and put Ruben Amorim, Edin Terzic and Frank, again, among a list of possible targets.
His team are in the bottom half of the Premier League and 21st in a 36-team Europa League that has Bodo/Glimt and FC Midtjylland in the top 10. This is not the improvement United were hoping for when they allowed Ten Hag to keep his job during a summit at his Ibiza holiday home and backed him with another £200million in the transfer market this summer.
It feels as though the Dutchman has reached another crossroads in his career at United. He is unbeaten in four games since the defeat by Tottenham plunged him back into trouble. A win over Brentford and away draws to Fenerbahce, Aston Villa and Porto is a respectable run of results.
Win on Sunday and United will be looking up again, towards the top half of the table and a run at the top four should still not be beyond them. Lose, and it will be one win in eight games.
Mail Sport revealed that Manchester United have spoken to former Barcelona manager Xavi
Man United CEO Omar Berrada led a four-man delegation to Barcelona to speak to Xavi
United have four home games in a row — against Chelsea and Leicester in the Premier League, Leicester again in the Carabao Cup and PAOK Salonika in Europe — before an international break that will once again give Ineos the opportunity to make a change.
They decided against it during the last break earlier this month following a much-anticipated board meeting.
However, it now appears that a decision was made to start exploring other options, which is how chief executive Omar Berrada ended up leading a four-man delegation to Barcelona to speak to Xavi, and feelers went out to other candidates. Ten Hag maintains he is on the same page as the executive team, even though what happened in the summer should at the very least make him wary of what the top brass are doing behind his back. It is a lesson that other United managers learned the hard way.
David Moyes was convinced that a six-year contract gave him some degree of protection until he woke up one morning in April 2014 to headlines that he was being sacked by United chief Ed Woodward just 10 months into the job.
Louis van Gaal didn’t heed warnings from his wife Truus that he was in trouble until she alerted him to reports that he was being axed on the day he won the FA Cup. Unlike Ten Hag, success at Wembley was no salvation.
Jose Mourinho thought he was meeting Woodward to discuss January transfer targets when he got the bullet in December 2018.
Ten Hag can only hope that a win at West Ham on Sunday can quieten the latest noise and take away the temptation for Ineos to change manager over the next few weeks.
Ten Hag maintains he is on the same page as the executive team. Pictured: Sir Jim Ratcliffe (left) Sir Dave Brailsford (right)
United have confirmed that Antony has a sprained ankle,
allaying fears the Brazil winger suffered a more serious injury after he was carried off in the Europa League draw with Fenerbahce. Antony missed United’s training session at Leyton Orient on Saturday but Jonny Evans was fit to take part.