Manchester United are mulling over the future of manager Erik ten Hag, which is a phrase that has been uttered or written in perpetuity over the past year as the standard continues to slip at Old Trafford.
Even with a new ownership group, INEOS, coming in this summer, the bumbling Dutchman managed to keep his job by virtue of an FA Cup Final triumph over crosstown rivals Manchester City, gifting the Red Devils Europa League football despite a historically poor eighth-placed finish.
Currently in the 2024/25 season at the October international pause, Manchester United are 14th in the Premier League. Ten Hag managed to keep his job after lengthy internal meetings, but the club continues to actively monitor replacements.
Former Mainz, Dortmund, PSG, Chelsea, and Bayern Munich manager Thomas Tuchel is at the top of the wishlist and is seemingly a dream candidate to replace ten Hag as a two-time Champions League finalists.
But Manchester United also reached out to a more underrated name from the German coaching pool in Stuttgart’s Sebastian Hoeneß, who took Die Schwaben from near-relegation to the Champions League, even finishing ahead of Tuchel’s Bayern Munich in the 2023/24 season.
However, the 42-year-old coaching phenom is off the table, because, per a report from German paper BILD, he declined an approach from Manchester United this past summer.
Hoeneß was happy to receive the interest from Man United, but he rejected the Premier League giants because he wants to continue building his project at Stuttgart, similar to Xabi Alonso’s decision to reject Liverpool last summer and stay at Bayer Leverkusen.
Stuttgart continue to perform well and are in the Champions League right now, whereas Manchester United are in the Europa League. It’s unfair to call going from Stuttgart to Man United a downgrade, but why would Hoeneß leave his current club when things are going so well?
Perhaps Man United can circle back to him next summer if ten Hag keeps his job through the season, but, even then, it appears Tuchel is the more popular and likely option; he remains without a job after Bayern parted ways with him at the end of the 2023/24 campaign.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. His work has been featured in ESPN, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, and other major outlets. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.