As Ineos weighed up the future of Erik ten Hag during their end-of-season review at Manchester United they considered several factors. There were positives for Ten Hag and there was mitigation, reasons for a desperate Premier League campaign that can be rectified next season.
Those focused primarily on injury issues, but also a sense that the business done in the 2023 summer transfer window was with an eye on long-term results. There was an acceptance that Andre Onana and Rasmus Hojlund took time to settle and that Mason Mount’s season was wrecked through injury.
Ineos expect that there is more to come from the £163m trio and that the full benefit of that investment is yet to be felt. Onana certainly improved as the campaign went on and Hojlund had a couple of spells where it looked like he was ready to lead the line.
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The greatest disappointment will be reserved for Mount, who started the season slowly after his £55m move from Chelsea, lost his place in the team and then struggled with his fitness. If there are reasons for Onana and Hojlund to take time to settle into a new league and a new country, it was expected that the England international would hit the ground running in midfield.
Instead, he managed just 20 appearances and eight starts for the club, contributing a solitary goal and assist. His only start after November 1 came in the 4-0 defeat to Crystal Palace towards the end of the season and he only came on in the 89th minute in the FA Cup final at Wembley.
The midfield didn’t exactly thrive without him, but that was down to structural issues as much as personnel. The role he was signed for has now been filled by Kobbie Mainoo, a definite positive for Ten Hag, and Mount has a challenge to get back into the team.
Mainoo has become an updrobbale presence in the centre of the pitch and Bruno Fernandes is a guaranteed starter. A new holding midfielder is likely to arrive this summer. That means Mount’s role for now is likely to be off the bench.
There is no way Ineos will give up on a £55m signing however and if he does flop again for a second successive season then it will reflect poorly on Ten Hag’s judgement. The manager pushed hard to sign him having followed him since a loan spell in the Eredivisie seven years ago.
In a way, Mount has become a key figure during the end-of-season review. When Sir Jim Ratcliffe met Thomas Tuchel the former Chelsea boss pointed to the success he had in getting the best out of Mount at Stamford Bridge and said he could repeat that trick at Old Trafford. Mount played the best football of his career under Tuchel and created the winning goal in the 2021 Champions League final.
The promise of extracting more from a key signing wasn’t enough to land Tuchel the job, but the mention of Mount as a factor in the mitigation for last season’s performance levels still feels telling. It is now on Ten Hag to get the most out of the 25-year-old.
As a player still yet to reach his theoretical prime and an England international signed for big money, there is pressure on Mount to deliver value. Ten Hag signed him to knit his midfield together and although his first season ended up as a write-off, it’s clear there is now a demand to make this deal a success in season two.