Mauricio Pochettino, Kieran McKenna or Thomas Tuchel? The top candidates to replace Erik ten Hag - ranked

Try as he might, Erik ten Hag cannot stop the speculation about his Manchester United future from spiralling. The manager would have loved to just concentrate on the match against Manchester City in his pre-FA Cup final press conference, but inevitably the attention turned to whether he would be in charge next season.

The manager faced seven questions about his future, including how his time at the club would be judged. Despite his insistence that he was "just focusing on the job and continuing with the project", it sure felt like it might be the last time he would be previewing a game at United's Carrington training ground.

And just a few hours later multiple reports emerged that United have been selecting potential candidates in the event that he does get sacked. They were followed by another report on Friday suggesting that Ten Hag will get his marching orders after the final, regardless of the result.

Ten Hag, however, can hardly argue about the speculation as his position has become untenable due to the team's horrendous results in his second campaign. Just how can Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford justify keeping him after he presided over the club's lowest finish in the Premier League while losing a record number of games?

GOAL ranks the candidates to succeed Ten Hag if, as expected, he is relieved of his duties after the FA Cup final.