Some of those judgments above are looking too far ahead IMO. The job facing ten Hag at this point is the same one we gave Houllier, namely mucking the stables out, and I maintain he's made a good start on doing that: 7-0 or no 7-0, they finished above us, got a CL place and won a trophy, all of which is well ahead of where they looked like ending up before he arrived. Another parallel with Houllier may turn out to be that he won't then be the guy to take them right back to the very top, but there are foundations to be laid first and he's getting on with that well enough. It'll be interesting to see if the new owners, assuming they get any, keep him on.