United’s fortunes at Villa Park – where Bayern Munich fell 1-0 in the Champions League on Wednesday – should prove crucial, with a blockbuster meeting set to take place just 48 hours after.
According to The Athletic, the entire United hierarchy will be present at a long-planned summit in London on Tuesday.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who owns 28 per cent of the club, and Ineos director of sport Sir Dave Brailsford will be present.
United co-chairman Joel Glazer is pencilled in to make a rare journey from the United States to take part. He will also stop in Manchester for further talks.
The club’s chief financial officer, Roger Bell, and chief operating officer, Collette Roche, are other members of the executive committee set to join them.
The report adds that United’s hierarchy has aimed to meet once a month since the overhaul prompted by Ratcliffe’s £1.3billion investment in February.
It’s claimed that whether the first team’s continued below-par performance will be addressed remains to be seen.
However, Ratcliffe’s sporting appointments – chief executive Omar Berrada, sporting director Dan Ashworth and technical director Jason Wilcox – will also be in attendance.
And while the three-person committee of Ratcliffe, Glazer and Brailsford will have the final say on Ten Hag’s future, it will come from the recommendation of that trio.
So the pressure is on for the Dutchman to inspire his players to avoid what has transpired into an expected defeat at the hands of Unai Emery’s high-flying side.
Anything less than three points at Villa Park would extend United’s winless run to five matches in all competitions.
It would also leave them as many as nine points adrift of the top four after just seven matches.
That would darken the looming shadow of the financial consequences of missing out on Champions League football and potentially make Ten Hag’s position untenable.