MANCHESTER UNITED is now the toughest job in football after Erik ten Hag became their latest big-name casualty.

The Dutchman was dismissed after just more than two seasons following Sunday’s disastrous defeat at West Ham.

6

6

Advertisement

6

Ten Hag, who led the club to success in the Carabao and FA Cups, had won just four of his 14 games at the helm this term.

And with United also struggling to impress in Europe, Sir Jim Ratcliffe felt the time was right to wield the axe for real change.

Ruud van Nistelrooy is now interim boss at Old Trafford.

While the likes of Gareth Southgate and Xavi Hernandez have been tipped as candidates for the role.

But Ten Hag is not the first hyped-up manager to fail at United.

Following Sir Alex Ferguson’s exit in 2013, the Red Devils have now worked their way through SIX big-name bosses.

The first to follow in Fergie’s steps was David Moyes, who was widely heralded as his ideal successor after 11 years at Everton.

However, the Scot lasted just 10 months into his six-year deal as United missed out on Champions League football for the first time since 1995.

FOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS

Next up was Dutch master Louis van Gaal, once a top name in European dugouts.

He led United to FA Cup glory in his second season but was immediately sacked after the final due to his dull style and fifth-place finish in the league.

6

6

6

Jose Mourinho then took charge before bagging a Carabao Cup and Europa League double, as well as second spot in the table.

Yet his abrasive style led to clashes with stars like Paul Pogba, and the Special One was given his marching orders after two-and-a-half seasons.

A softer approach with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was then favoured, with the former United striker initially getting off to a flyer.

But with results souring following a Europa League final defeat to Sevilla, Solskjaer received the boot after three years.

All Manchester United bosses since Sir Alex Ferguson

Advertisement

• David Moyes (June 2013-April 2014): P51 W27 D9 L15, 0 Trophies

• Louis van Gaal (May 2014-May 2016): P103 W54 D25 L24, 1 Trophy

• Jose Mourinho (May 2016-Dec 2018): P144 W84 D32 L28, 2 Trophies

• Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Dec 2018-Nov 2021): P168 W91 D37 L40, 0 Trophies

• Ralf Rangnick (Dec 2021-May 2022): P29 W11 D10 L8, 0 Trophies

• Erik ten Hag (July 2022-Oct 2024): P128 W70 D23 L35, 2 Trophies

Ralf Rangnick was quickly drafted in as interim boss with the view to a permanent consultancy role.

Yet his tenure resulted in just 11 wins, leading him to reject his future position and become Austria boss.

It now remains to be seen who comes in for Ten Hag, with Van Nistelrooy in the dugout for Wednesday’s Carabao Cup clash with Leicester.

There is also the small matter of the weekend league clash against a resurgent Chelsea.

But the Premier League title winner has had some managerial experience in his homeland with PSV Eindhoven.

And should Van Nistelrooy enjoy some success as interim, he could yet end up getting the gig on a full-time basis.

Why NOBODY is the right man to replace Erik ten Hag at Man Utd

SunSport’s DAVE KIDD says Erik ten Hag’s time at Man Utd is up… and explains what’s wrong with all the potential candidates to replace him.

THIS is a mid-table squad at an underachieving club, with a lot of unwanted players on big money.

And Ratcliffe is an instinctive cost-cutter who may not pay top dollar to the next manager.

Advertisement

If this club wasn’t called ‘Manchester United’, it wouldn’t be an especially desirable job.

The good news for United is that their new sporting director, Dan Ashworth, is a very decent judge of a manager.

He has been instrumental in three previous managerial appointments — Gareth Southgate for England, Graham Potter for Brighton and Eddie Howe for Newcastle.

None were wildly popular at the time, all were conspicuous successes.

Advertisement

Interestingly, Ashworth’s No 1 choice for the Newcastle job was Unai Emery, who turned him down to stay at Villarreal but has since proved that judgment right by excelling at Aston Villa.

And the Spaniard would be an excellent fit for United — yet there is next to no chance that he would abandon Villa’s Champions League campaign to take the Old Trafford job, not least because he isn’t a stark raving madman.

Howe would be another good candidate to succeed Ten Hag but, although he has become frustrated on Tyneside, the Saudis would surely not allow Ratcliffe to poach Howe, as they reluctantly did with Ashworth.

Potter is available but his Chelsea experience and lack of charisma would make him a tough sell.

Advertisement

Which brings us to Southgate, who remains close with Ashworth and is an excellent man-manager who was seriously considered by United last spring.

Yet, despite having led England to two of their three major finals, Southgate’s reputation for over-caution was only enhanced during the Euros.

Mauricio Pochettino, passed over twice by United, is out of the equation having taken the United States job.

Thomas Tuchel would also have been a popular and gettable option – but England got in there first.

Advertisement

Likewise, Roberto De Zerbi, now at Marseille after his brief Brighton stint sparkled then fizzled out.

Kieran McKenna — a gifted former United coach who has won back-to-back promotions with Ipswich Town — is an intriguing candidate but the imminent vacancy may come a year or so too soon.

Marco Silva, the extremely under-rated Fulham boss, has been on United’s radar and should not be discounted.

Sporting Lisbon’s Ruben Amorim, last season’s ‘next big thing’, was passed over by West Ham as well as Liverpool this summer and is not an easy man to pin down.

Advertisement

Zinedine Zidane, who has taken over from Alan Curbishley as a 20-1 shot for every Premier League job, is a ‘figurehead’ manager and not an Ashworth type.

Ruud van Nistelrooy, the former United goal machine who joined Ten Hag’s coaching team in the summer is the bookies’ favourite. Simply because he’s in the building and he’s Dutch.

So, yes, getting rid of Ten Hag is the easy part.

Welcome to the latest update to the MMA Fighting pound-for-pound rankings, where every month our esteemed panel sort through the noise to answer one question: Who are the best overall male and female MMA fighters in the world?

Ilia Topuria and Khamzat Chimaev defeated a pair of legendary opponents in unexpected ways at UFC 308, plus Bellator champion Cris Cyborg shined in her PFL debut, so let’s take a look at how the charts were shaken up at the end of October.

Advertisement

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Advertisement

Ilia Topuria just turned the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world debate into a three-horse race.

For much of the past year, Islam Makhachev has been the man to beat with the ever-active Alex Pereira breathing down his neck. Few expected Topuria to put on such a commanding performance against Max Holloway that he would have to be mentioned alongside those names. When Topuria blew the doors off at UFC 308, becoming the first fighter ever to score a knockout of Holloway, it’s now inconceivable to have the discussion without him.

Topuria leaps over Pereira to claim the No. 2 spot on the list, with one panelist going as far as to mark him down at No. 1. The case for Topuria? How about an undefeated record with finishes of two of the greatest fighters of all time? He was the first to defeat Alexander Volkanovski in a 145-pound bout and, as mentioned, the only fighter to put Holloway away with strikes.

Keep in mind, Holloway has been in there with Conor McGregor, Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, Yair Rodriguez, Jose Aldo, Anthony Pettis, and Jeremy Stephens, a list of opponents who have authored some of the most devastating knockouts in MMA history. None of them could do what Topuria did.

Add in featherweight being an absurdly deep division and you can see how Topuria’s resounding title defense has him leading Fighter of the Year talk—and possibly the Pound-for-Pound list next year.

Also of note, you may have noticed the return of one Mr. Khamzat Chimaev to our rankings. Not only does Chimaev have a number next to his name again, he flies in at No. 13 ahead of former UFC champions Sean Strickland, Sean O’Malley, and Charles Oliveira. Chimaev is still yet to even book a title shot, but when you force a frantic tap from Robert Whittaker—who had only been submitted once before—you’re going to get people’s attention again.

And let’s not forget Francis Ngannou is also back, though his knockout of PFL heavyweight tournament champion Renan Ferreira didn’t convince everyone he deserves to be back on the pound-for-pound list. We were all over the place here, with one panelist having “The Predator” as high as No. 6 and two others leaving him off completely. It might not be fair, but if he can’t work with PFL to bring in at least a couple of big-name opponents to face him, we might not see Ngannou get close to the top of the charts again.

Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 4 Ilia Topuria vs. No. 9 (tied) Max Holloway

Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 4 Alexandre Pantoja vs. Kai Asakura (UFC 310, Dec. 7), No. 5 Belal Muhammad vs. No. 18 Shavkat Rakhmonov (UFC 310, Dec. 7), No. 17 Charles Oliveira vs. Michael Chandler (UFC, 309, Nov. 16), No. 19 (tied) Aljamain Sterling vs. Movsar Evloev (UFC 310, Dec. 7)

Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Israel Adesanya (4), Anatoly Malykhin (3), Kyoji Horiguchi (2), Patricio Pitbull (2), Robert Whittaker (2), Magomed Ankalaev (1), Johnny Eblen (1), Usman Nurmagomedov (1), Kamaru Usman (1)

Falling out of the rankings (previous ranking shown): No. 19 Israel Adesanya, No. 20 Patricio Pitbull (20)

Cris Cyborg has nothing left to prove to anyone. That didn’t stop her from reminding everyone she’s still as good as any woman alive when it comes to cagefighting.

In her PFL debut, Cyborg went five hard rounds with league darling Larissa Pacheco and came out on top with a convincing decision win, putting to rest the notion it was time for her to pass the torch. There may come a day when Cyborg and Pacheco square off again with Pacheco getting the upper hand next time, but that day is yet to arrive.

Cyborg snapped Pacheco’s three-year, 10-fight win streak, and improved her own ridiculous record to 28-2 (1 NC). One of her losses was to Amanda Nunes, and even if Cyborg never surpasses Nunes on the all-time list, the fact she’s still racking up wins and claiming a top-5 Pound-for-Pound spot well after Nunes’ retirement is a unique accomplishment on its own.

When people talk about an athlete being one of one, they’re talking about Cyborg.

Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 7 Cris Cyborg def. No. 6 Larissa Pacheco

Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 8 Erin Blanchfield vs. No. 10 Rose Namajunas (UFC Edmonton, Nov. 2), No. 11 Yan Xiaonan vs. Tabatha Ricci (UFC Macau, Nov. 23), No. 15 (tied) Taila Santos vs. Dakota Ditcheva (PFL 2024 Championships, Nov. 29)

Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Maycee Barber (2), Irene Aldana (1), Macy Chiasson (1), Dakota Ditcheva (1), Norma Dumont (1), Amanda Lemos (1), Marina Rodriguez (1), Mayra Bueno Silva (1), Ketlen Vieira (1)

Lastly, a refresher on some ground rules:

• The six-person voting panel consists of MMA Fighting staffers Alexander K. Lee, Guilherme Cruz, Mike Heck, E. Casey Leydon, Damon Martin and Jed Meshew.
• Updates to the rankings will be completed following every UFC pay-per-view. Fighters will be removed from the rankings if they do not compete within 18 months of their most recent bout.
• Should a fighter announce their retirement, our panel will decide whether that fighter should immediately be removed from the rankings or maintain their position until further notice (let’s put it this way: we’d have taken Khabib Nurmagomedov out of our rankings a lot quicker than the UFC did).

As a reminder, the notion of pound-for-pound supremacy is always going to inherently be subjective. When you’re debating whether someone like Sean Strickland should be ranked above someone like Charles Oliveira, there is no true right answer. In other words: It’s not serious business, folks.

Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? Make your voice heard in the comments below.

Reflecting on the game at Easter Road, Gray thought both teams played “with a fear not to lose” given their early season woes.

“It was a bit scrappy, there was a lack of quality,” he said. “But every time we did show a bit of quality, we created chances, so that’s a real positive.

“To lose the goal and drop points is a huge frustration, but there were questions asked after we got pegged back and the boys stood up to that.”

Hearts levelled in the 87th minute and conceding late goals has become a recurring theme for Hibs.

Gray’s side visit Ross County on Wednesday, having shipped late goals in a 2-1 defeat and a 2-2 draw in Dingwall last term.

“It seems we are always falling short at the last hurdle,” midfielder Nectarios Triantis said. “We’re trying our best to fix that.

“I think we created more than enough opportunities to win the game [against Hearts], but sometimes that’s how the dice rolls and we just need to keep going.”

ABU DHABI – Ibo Aslan beat Rafael Cerqueira with a first-round TKO Saturday to close out the preliminary card at UFC 308 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.

Take a look inside the fight with Aslan, who despite one of the fastest finishes in the UFC this year was denied recognition with a post-fight bonus award.

Ibo Aslan def. Rafael Cerqueira

Ibo Aslan def. Rafael Cerqueira, UFC 308 (via UFC)

Result: Ibo Aslan def. Rafael Cerqueira via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 0:51
Updated records: Aslan (14-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC), Cerqueira (11-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC)
Key stats: All 14 of Aslan’s wins have been by knockout.

Aslan on the fight’s key moment

Ibo Aslan def. Rafael Cerqueira, UFC 308 (©Craig Kidwell, special to MMA Junkie)

“Like always, I go inside the cage, I knock my opponent out, and I come out. This is, for me, something normal – not special. ”

Aslan on his family being there to see him fight

“I was in the camp for three months. I didn’t see my family. As soon as my mother (got to the airport), she hugged me. She gave me the energy. She gave me the motivation. If there was an ox in front of me, I would take it down. It doesn’t matter to me. My mother came to watch me fight for the first time in 10 years. She was very motivated, so I was very confident.”

Aslan on what he wants next

Ibo Aslan def. Rafael Cerqueira, UFC 308 (©Craig Kidwell, special to MMA Junkie)

Advertisement

“The UFC knows already I am the future rising star. This is just the beginning. I don’t want to rush. Every opponent, everything has its time and step, step, step – then become champion. (Alex Pereira) is a great champion. I like him. I wish him all the best. I don’t know (if I hit harder than him). I don’t know. We must see this in the cage.

“I am ready (to fight often). I have no injuries, nothing. I don’t feel like I fought tonight. My warmup was longer than my fight. I’ll take tomorrow rest, and Monday I start again with training.”

To hear more from Aslan, check out the video of the full post-fight interview above.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 308.

Marc Marquez is adamant he would have come away with a second MotoGP win in eight days but for the costly crash that ended his hopes in a wet Thailand Grand Prix.

The Gresini Ducati rider endured a low-speed fall coming around turn nine on lap 12 while fighting for the lead in tricky wet conditions against Francesco Bagnaia.

Though he would go on to remount and claw back ground to score points for 11th place, Marquez was frustrated by another race day error had cost him a shot at back-to-back victories, claiming he had the measure of Bagnaia in terms of pace.

“We were the fastest today but now after the race, maybe we weren’t patient enough in that moment of the race,” he declared after the race.

“It’s true that it was super-tricky because I wasn’t able to overtake in a clear way against Bagnaia. I was always planning a very clear overtake, because I had the speed and I said ‘We will have more chances’.

“Always, I was trying to push, attack; then, when it was not possible, to cool down the front tyre, [then] attack again. 

“I was doing always a bit the ‘elastic’ during the race, and on that second attack I saw that I was much faster.

“I tried to not give up and I tried to follow him, and just one-and-a-half degrees more in that corner [turn eight] and I lost the front and I couldn’t save — it was very close.

“We are humans, we make mistakes, and today it was my turn.”

Despite the lower returns on his weekend, Marquez continues to hold down third place in the overall standings ahead of Enea Bastianini with two rounds of the season remaining.