Erik ten Hag refused to give any answers on his future as Manchester United manager after his side beat their local rivals Manchester City 2-1 to win the FA Cup. Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo scored in the first half to give United victory over an uncharacteristically poor City side but Ten Hag was unmoved when asked about his future. 'When they don't want me I will hear it,' he said after the match. 'When I took over it was a mess at United. We are on out way to constructing a team for the future and that will go with ups and downs.'

• Manchester United win FA Cup after Garnacho and Mainoo stun City

• Erik ten Hag reminds Manchester United of what could have been

Erik ten Hag may be heading for the exit, but United’s FA Cup final display was the blueprint for how they should be playing

They were still out there an hour later, catching the last few rays of evening sunshine, wringing out this moment for every last drop of joy in it. Everyone wanted a go with the trophy. Some simply hoisted it like a kettlebell. Some hugged it close like a child. There was a time when Manchester United would win these finals, pose for photos and disappear back up the M6. Not now. Everyone knows how precious these moments are, how rarely they can come along, how closely they need to be treasured.

And at the end of this Red Devil redemption, Erik ten Hag sought out the two men responsible. In fact many men had authored this triumph, from the brutal Bruno Fernandes to the indomitable Lisandro Martínez to the inspired André Onana. But Ten Hag wanted a few moments alone with Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo. Ballers; cup final scorers; Wembley heroes; teenagers. Ten Hag clasped them around the ears, ruffled their hair, beamed at them like a proud dad about to go off to war.

Guardiola picked an odd-looking team and the striker personified a hungover performance from the champions

Before kick-off at a lovely soft sunlit Wembley Stadium, Manchester City’s fans turned their backs and engaged in a mass Cup final Poznan. At the final whistle there was a strange, optical echo of that moment. Here we had an anti-Poznan, the Poznan of departures, as the backs of the blue shirts were once again turned, this time heading towards the stairs and out along the gloomy grey Wembley concourses.

Fans never stick around at the end of a losing final. Many did so here just long enough to applaud the City players after what is still a champion season. And this always was a weird, through-the-looking-glass FA Cup final. It ended with the leaky-roof billion-dollar underdogs beating the remarkably efficient government outreach project, which is some way short of culture clubs and crazy gangs but we work with what we have.

The 2-1 win over Manchester City in the FA Cup final was proof of what the Dutchman can do with a fit squad

Erik ten Hag: the manager Manchester United are poised to sack despite the same record of two trophies in two seasons as Pep Guardiola had at the start of his Manchester City tenure.

Football, bloody hell, or football, the quaintest of old games, because with a squad near to full fitness for the first time in an age, Ten Hag showed what he can do, which was a Roy of the Rovers-esque 2-1 victory that broke City hearts, claimed the FA Cup for United, and was the sweetest of ripostes to the 54-year-old’s naysayers.

Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho were stars of the show for Manchester United but Kevin De Bruyne had a day to forget

Stefan Ortega

Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo got the goals as Erik ten Hag’s side stunned their noisy neighbours and ran out deserving winners

• Read David Hytner’s match report from Wembley Stadium

If Erik ten Hag is sacked after today’s final, Manchester United fans will be gutted to learn that Wayne Rooney will not be available to replace him. Despite his disastrous 15-match spell in charge of Birmingham City earlier this season, United’s former striker and record goalscorer has just been appointed head coach at Championship club Plymouth Argyle.

“To be the first team to do the double Double … the first team to win four in a row, the first team since Manchester United to do the treble: we keep knocking down these hurdles and this is another that we need to knock down,” says the Manchester City captain. Words: Jamie Jackson.

It was, quite simply, the finest Manchester United result since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013. The bar has been lowered, the trophies drying up but this was a day for their fans to celebrate wildly – and not only because they stopped Manchester City from making yet more history.

Another Premier League and FA Cup Double had been on for Pep Guardiola and his all-conquering team to follow the one from last season and nobody gave United a prayer. The bookmakers had them at 8-1 to win. Erik ten Hag’s time as manager is up after the most traumatic of seasons; eighth in the league their lowest finish since 1989‑90, chaos at virtually every turn. And yet United refused to yield.

United’s part-owner has power and influence but getting taxpayers to up the value of his asset is hopefully beyond him

There’s an advert on TV at the moment for generically going somewhere on a train. It doesn’t matter when or to what end. Just travel on a train. Go anywhere. Just do it.

This seems a bit odd in a time of diffuse, franchised operators. But adverts for general “things” were common in the last century, when even in asset-stripped, organ-harvested Britain a lot of the things-infrastructure was still publicly controlled.

• Manager does not take success ‘for granted’ before United final
• Win would seal league and Cup Double in consecutive seasons

Pep Guardiola has warned Manchester City’s players that complacency could be their downfall if they presume the club’s success will last forever because such attitudes have cost others in the past.

City face Manchester United in the FA Cup final on Saturday with the aim of becoming the first club in history to do the league and FA Cup Double in consecutive seasons. If City defeat their most bitter rivals at Wembley it would be the 18th trophy of Guardiola’s eight-year tenure. In the same period United have won three.

Manager’s credibility has been so undermined that not even repeating the FA Cup win of 1990 could avert the sack

This isn’t 1990, but it isn’t 2016 either. Alex Ferguson may have kept his job by winning the FA Cup in 1989-90 while Louis van Gaal learned of his dismissal while celebrating on the pitch at Wembley after the 2015-16 final, but the difference in the situations wasn’t just to do with the diminishing value of the FA Cup.

Perhaps it was always a little anachronistic in 2024 to be wondering whether Erik ten Hag might be saved by victory in Saturday’s FA Cup final, but this had been a weird throwback of a campaign for Manchester United. As it is, the decision has been taken and Ten Hag at least will not face quite the indignity suffered by Van Gaal.

Manchester City will try to retain the league and FA Cup on Saturday – something 12 sides have previously failed to achieve

Caprice was furious. As were Ian Botham and Barry Norman. There was anger, too, from Tamara Beckwith and Darren Day, with Simon Weston perhaps putting it best. “Have they forgotten football is a game for the people?” said a man who sustained severe burns during the Falklands war and was now ready for another battle.

It’s important to keep a sense of perspective and sadly that was in somewhat short supply during the summer of 1999 as England lost its collective mind over Manchester United’s decision not to compete in that season’s FA Cup, captured best in the Daily Mirror’s front page of 14 July as an eclectic and, quite frankly, bizarre collection of people had their say on the matter. “I was shocked when I heard. It’s so sad,” said Frances Lawrence, the widow of the murdered headteacher Philip Lawrence. Truly, the 90s were a different time.

Manchester United have decided to sack Erik ten Hag after the FA Cup final against Manchester City. Ten Hag, who joined the club two years ago, is set to depart after enduring a fraught campaign. United finished eighth in the Premier League, their lowest league finish since 1990, and their hopes of qualifying for Europe rest on them beating City at Wembley on Saturday. A well-placed source said that even winning the Cup would not save Ten Hag. The decision to change manager will be the most significant move made by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his allies since Ineos took a minority stake and control of football operations. United have identified Thomas Tuchel, Mauricio Pochettino, Kieran McKenna, Graham Potter and Thomas Frank as potential replacements.

• Manchester United decide to sack Erik ten Hag regardless of Cup final outcome

The teenager only wanted a place in the Manchester United squad at the start of the season, now he can expect to start the FA Cup final and go to Euro 2024

Kobbie Mainoo conducts a conversation like he addresses the ball in Manchester United’s midfield: with a cool maturity that has been the calling card of a breakthrough season that may end in FA Cup glory and a place on England’s Euro 2024-bound plane.

After making his debut at 17 in a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Charlton in January 2023, Mainoo played twice more for a season’s total of 87 minutes before, inked in for a starting berth by Erik ten Hag this term, he went down in a summer friendly at Houston’s NRG Stadium when Real Madrid’s Rodrygo fell on him and caused an ankle injury that required surgery.

• Move is most significant made by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his allies
• United’s eighth-placed league finish their lowest since 1990
• Live updates as Ten Hag heads for the exit at Old Trafford

Manchester United have decided to sack Erik ten Hag after the FA Cup final against Manchester City.

Ten Hag, who joined the club two years ago, is set to depart after enduring a fraught campaign. United finished eighth in the Premier League, their lowest league finish since 1990, and their hopes of qualifying for Europe rest on them beating City at Wembley on Saturday.

More details to follow …

Showpiece is not the occasion it was for fans in countries such as Singapore and South Korea but there remains strong interest

In order to watch Liverpool beat Everton in the 1986 FA Cup final on a 100-inch screen in Singapore’s Hyatt Hotel, hundreds of fans paid around £60 in today’s money lured by the promise of pizza, hot dogs and beer as well as, weirdly, the presence of Manchester United players.

The Red Devils had arrived at Changi Airport a couple of days previously for a friendly to be greeted by more than 300 fans at the airport, with Frank Stapleton an especially big draw. The Barcelona-bound Mark Hughes was popular too and trotted out the old “I knew we had followers here but not to this extent,” line. Kevin Moran, jet-lagged and talking about the need for sleep amid questions regarding his sending-off in the previous year’s FA Cup final, may not have made the watchalong party but a good time was had by all, especially Liverpool fans, in the Hyatt and elsewhere in the city.

Manchester United striker’s career of wild peaks and troughs needs a strong display at Wembley after latest England blow

Marcus Rashford’s finger-to-the-temple, eyes-closed goal celebration is a moment of contemplative stillness. Unveiled last season, it is the Manchester United forward’s version of the shush. The noise around him might be loud but it does not matter. He will cut through it with his focus and mental strength.

There was a difference when he showed it off against Manchester City in March. On that occasion, the eyes blazed and he could not help but scream. It was the Premier League derby at the Etihad and he had just scored one of the goals of his career – a rising 25-yard drive of furious power. Was it better than his Ronaldo-esque, 40-yard knuckleball free-kick at Chelsea in a Carabao Cup tie in 2019? Maybe.

• Coach is free agent after end of Bayern Munich’s season
• United admire tactical nous, experience and temperament

Thomas Tuchel has emerged as the frontrunner to replace Erik ten Hag as Manchester United’s manager should the club decide on a change.

He is understood to have the requisite profile as an accomplished tactician with vast experience of working in major clubs. Tuchel is a free agent having just finished with Bayern Munich and has previously led clubs including Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea, the latter position meaning the German has a track record in the Premier League.

American billionaires and investment firms now control teams across Europe. Their stewardship varies wildly in quality

It might have taken the USA generations to take soccer seriously as a sport, but the country’s reach across the English and European game continues to grow, particularly when it comes to club ownership. Indeed, American entrepreneurs, moguls and general wealth-hoarders are now commonplace in boardrooms across world soccer.

No fewer than nine Premier League clubs are majority owned by Americans – and that’s without even mentioning clubs lower down the pyramid such as Birmingham City and Wrexham (although Canada could claim that one too). Across continental Europe, too, there is a current of American ownership gathering pace – Serie A has proved particularly attractive recently.

Our photo editor Jonny Weeks trawled through more than 100,000 pictures to select his favourite images and the most unforgettable moments

The Premier League season started ominously as Erling Haaland took just four minutes to get his goalscoring campaign under way when Manchester City beat Burnley in the opening match. Elsewhere, Luton’s first top-flight game for 31 years ended in defeat at Brighton and Ange Postecoglou claimed manager of the month (as he would do again in September and October) as Tottenham made a fast start to the season.

If one manager’s future is settled, the other’s hangs in the balance. Roberto De Zerbi’s departure from Brighton appears a case of parting as friends before a relationship turns sour when the two parties desire ­different things. He received a full-time guard of honour, a video ­montage celebrating “Il Capo” and the warmest applause.

“This morning, I went walking in the city thinking what we have done together and I think we gave our best, I gave my best, my players gave their best,” he told the crowd. “I’m sad but I know what I would like to do in my life.” He leaves a club where ­backroom continuity allows the loss of a manager to be only a glancing blow and his first nod was to Tony Bloom: “you are a great owner, do not forget that”.