Collymore’s column: Ten Hag isn’t right for United, brilliant Emery, Newcastle were robbed, no sin bins please and expect a quiet January

In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Liverpool attacker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including why Erik ten Hag isn’t right for Man United, how good Unai Emery has been for Aston Villa, why Newcastle were robbed in the Champions League plus much more.

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Onana hire shows that Erik ten Hag is the wrong manager for Man United

In terms of Man United’s record under Erik ten Hag, it’s poor. It’s all about winning, that’s the most important thing, performances don’t need to be cavalier.

Do I think he’s the long term man for the club? I don’t. You’ve got to have the character or the personality of a Pep or a Klopp to be able to really assert influence over the club, something ten Hag has struggled to do.

When you are a Manchester United manager and you run a football club that brings in Andre Onana, who is arguably worse than the outgoing goalkeeper, then that has to be on the manager.

If you look at Klopp’s signings from when he had a real say over transfers, ditto Man City, virtually every player in the early days, were seven, eight or nine out of ten players. You can’t say that about Onana. That tells me everything I need to know about the recruitment at Old Trafford and the panic buying.

Rasmus Hojlund at £70m is another. United were basically under pressure because Liverpool had got Gakpo, Man City had Haaland, Aston Villa had tied down Ollie Watkins… so all of a sudden Man United are like ‘we need a striker.’

Their recruitment has been absolutely dreadful and ultimately the manager has given the thumbs up to some of the players coming in when some of them are blatantly not ready to play for Manchester United week in and week out.

The only way ten Hag turns the corner is if he hangs his reputation on the next four or five signings doing the business for the club. If he does that and they become a success, then he gets the kind of power and gravitas at the football club that fans would expect him to have, and everybody goes ‘he’s got this.’

Newcastle handball decision was one of the worst I’ve ever seen

Let’s go back to the very basics of what handball is meant to be. In the spirit of Association Football, it’s if a player deliberately uses his arm unnaturally to gain an advantage, or stops the ball crossing the line. So in other words something that’s obvious. It’s a no brainer.

We all watched the game and we’ve all watched enough football from pretty much the age…