Gary Neville was recently asked to name the best manager in the world right now. "I'd say Jurgen Klopp," the former Manchester United defender told The Daily Ketchup podcast. "Jurgen Klopp works with a budget which is far less than that of Pep Guardiola. Pep Guardiola is a genius, and he'll be the one who's remembered forever more.
"But Jurgen Klopp, for me, is an amazing manager. If you said to me which manager could I bring to Manchester United tomorrow, it would be Jurgen Klopp." Coming from Neville, it was quite the compliment for the Liverpool boss - but also a damning indictment of the current incumbent of the Old Trafford hotseat.
Neville has, of course, repeatedly claimed that the primary problem at United is not the manager - but the owners, arguing with some justification that the club is rotting from the top down. Consequently, the retired right-back has a huge degree of sympathy for Ten Hag, who is experiencing many of the same problems as his predecessors. The former Ajax coach even admitted that many people warned him against moving to Manchester because they considered putting United back on their perch to be an "impossible" job.
However, as the Red Devils and Liverpool prepare to face off at Anfield on Sunday in wildly contrasting condition, it's hard not to think that Klopp would be making a better fist of it than Ten Hag, with the German perfectly well-placed to prove precisely why Neville and so many others believe him to be the best manager in the game today.