Despite the curtain potentially closing on Erik ten Hag's reign at Manchester United amid a collapsing 2023/24 campaign, the club's strikers coach Benni McCarthy could walk away as the only winner regardless of his fate at the end of the season, writes KickOff's Lukhanyo Mtuta.
A lot seems to have gone amiss at Old Trafford this season, with the side have fallen far below expectations in 2023/24, especially on the back of ending their six-year trophy drought last year when they won the Carabao Cup.
Read: Defiant Ten Hag makes shock claim after Man Utd's 4-0 drubbing
Failure to progress past the UEFA Champions League group stage in November 2023, as well as a run of underwhelming results and performances have seen Ten Hag come under immense pressure at the helm. Some believe the shambolic 4-0 defeat to Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Monday could be the final nail in the coffin of the Dutch boss' tenure.
The 54-year-old's future is said to be on the agenda for the decision-makers at United, and so is that of McCarthy, whose contract is set to expire next month. The Bafana Bafana legend was roped in by Ten Hag in July 2022, with his appointment as the forwards coach coming just three months after he parted ways with AmaZulu.
The South African tactician enjoyed a successful first season at Manchester, playing an instrumental role in Marcus Rashford's personal-best season as the Englishman registered 30 goals and 10 assists in 56 appearances to clinch his first-ever Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year award. In fact, Rashford's omission from the 2023 Ballon d'Or 30-man shortlist sparked widespread debate in the press and online, with many arguing he deserved a nomination for his stellar season.
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The 26-year-old, who has had frustrating periods at the club over the years, has been quite clear about the profound way in which McCarthy helped him last season, a sentiment that was shared by Ten Hag too.
Although the Cape Town-born icon has had a relatively short career in coaching, having started as an assistant manager at Sint-Truidense in Belgium in 2015, his glittering nomadic career as a player has been a weapon in his artillery. In 2023, he revealed that his fluency in various languages has helped a lot when conversing with a diverse group of stars at United.
"I've conversed with David de Gea, Lisandro Martinez, Alejandro Garnacho and Facundo Pellistri – so that's my Spanish crew," the 46-year-old said, per British outlet The Express. "Then my Portuguese crew is Fred, Casemiro, Bruno [Fernades], Diogo Dalot and Victor Lindelof. Then there is the Dutch crew, which is Wout Weghorst, the manager, Mitchell van der Gaag, the assistant manager, and Tyrell Malacia. And then obviously we've got the English boys. Unfortunately, there's no Afrikaans [laughs]."
While it's unfortunate that not many players in Europe don't speak his home language of Afrikaans, McCarthy's multilingualism certainly opens him up to more opportunities in the countries he has played in, such as Spain, Portugal, Holland, and England.
What's more, regardless of the decision that is made by the club at the end of the season, being a member of United's technical team holds significant weight on one's CV. One of McCarthy's former coaching colleagues under Ten Hag, Eric Ramsay, was appointed as Minnesota United's newest head coach earlier this year, the same club Bafana Bafana star Bongokuhle Hlongwane plays for in the United States.
Other examples of the almost undeniable benefits of having worked at Carrington as a coach include Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna, who recently guided the club to Premier League promotion. McKenna worked as an assistant coach under Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and Ralf Rangnick, and has, ironically, even been loosely linked with the Red Devils job!
Another United coaching staff alumni who has gone on to make a name for himself as a manager after leaving the Theatre of Dreams in Michael Carrick, who has been in charge of Championship side Middlesbrough since October 2022.
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It seems more likely than not that Benni will go on to make greater strides in his coaching career, whether or not the Red Devils retain his services beyond this season. It is without argument that, regardless of what happens in the near future, he will walk away a better man than the one who arrived at Old Trafford on the back of a stressful stint at Usuthu.
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