Ineos have stripped Erik ten Hag of his power at Manchester United - what happens next is inevitable

A week ago Erik ten Hag's stock was on the rise at Manchester United. Now there is a rush to sell again as the Dutchman teeters once more at Old Trafford.

We're not even at the end of September and already Ten Hag has been through the cycles of a United manager this term. Two successive defeats had him staring down the barrel. Two convincing victories in a row had him back on track. Now two successive draws leave him back to square one.

It's worth asking the question: is there any point to this any more? Every performance, every result, every run of form is being framed around the future of a manager who came as close as possible to being sacked this summer, without actually being sacked.

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But while Ten Hag might have survived Ineos' end-of-season review, the slapdash nature of a public search for a replacement before backtracking and keeping faith with the man you had lost faith in fatally undermined him. He has been a dead man walking ever since and at some point Ineos will almost certainly need to hold their hands up, admit their mistakes and move on.

This isn't to say Ten Hag couldn't be the right man for United. Just that the conditions for him to succeed are now borderline impossible. The entire world knows his bosses wanted to sack him. They didn't because they lost their nerve. Every poor run - or every good run if you view this stretch as United being four unbeaten - is going to result in pressure building on the manager.

The players know it, the staff know it, the security personnel at Carrington know it, the people working in the canteen know it. Every member of