Erik ten Hag will know the drill: 90 minutes to save his job.
Whatever happened at Porto overnight, you would assume the Manchester United boss’s future hangs on Sunday’s visit to Aston Villa.
After the horror show against Spurs, the club hierarchy said he would stay – “for now.”
But another bad defeat could see them fast-forward their decision – especially with an international break to follow.
Villa fans will already be rehearsing their “You’re going to be sacked in the morning” chants.
Buoyed by a Champions League win over Bayern Munich, Unai Emery’s high-flyers will feel United could be there for the taking.
But Ten Hag has faced the firing squad before – and survived.
Famously, Manchester City were tasked with delivering the fatal shot in May’s FA Cup final.
But he dodged the bullet as United produced their best performance of the season to lift the trophy.
And what a costly stay of execution it turned out to be!
They gave him a new contract and spent £180m on players of his choice. So far, none have set Old Trafford alight.
Making that Cup final display seem like an aberration, United have reverted to mediocrity – and they’re inconsistent at that.
Three defeats in the first six EPL games and, before Porto, one win in their last nine in Europe; players not appearing to care and no discernible style of play after more than two years…
It’s why they seem further away than ever from being the fearsome United of old.
One-time minnows Brentford and Brighton – so recently in the lower tiers – go to Old Trafford sensing they can win – and they often do.
Ten Hag goes on about having personally won eight trophies in six years but, even after he clinched the FA Cup, United still looked at alternatives.
Many believe it was only the absence of an outstanding candidate to replace him as much as the trophy that kept the Dutchman in his job.
The cupboard of proven, high-calibre coaches was bare as it is now.
Neither Mauricio Pochettino nor Thomas Tuchel impressed enough; nor did Graham Potter.
Arne Slot went to Liverpool and Gareth Southgate was leading England in the Euros.
Southgate has left now and is widely rumoured to be a man the Ratcliffe regime regards highly. But not the United fans – some 93% giving him the thumbs down in a straw poll.
Any high-profile manager worth his salt is going to be costly and demand a long contract. And then there’s his entourage.
Which is why the odds have shifted towards someone already in the building.
Sitting next to Ten Hag this season has been the familiar face – when he takes his specs off – of Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Co-head coach alongside Rene Hake, Van Nistelrooy ticks boxes for United the way he used to scored goals – in abundance.
A late Fergie-era legend, he knows the club inside-out and in a 10-year coaching career he has won minor trophies and brought on young talents.
Among them are Jarrad Branthwaite, Johan Bakayoko, Noni Madueke, Xavi Simmons and Cody Gakpo.
He also enjoyed a win over Arne Slot when his PSV side beat Slot’s Feyenoord to the Johan Cruyff Shield.
He might even be able to persuade Branthwaite to come from Everton if he gets the job.
Known for being a straight talker with a fiery temper, he might bring a touch of Fergie’s hairdryer to proceedings.
It has been conspicuously lacking of late and Benni McCarthy, who worked for Ten Hag for two seasons, doubts if his former boss can provide it.
He says: “Tactically, I feel that Erik is at the top. But he lacks a bit of that fire, that passion.”
Indeed, even from television, the body language of the players is not difficult to decipher: they don’t look a unit and they’re not playing for the manager.
So Ratcliffe got his first major decision badly wrong.
If United sack Ten Hag now, it will cost them “£17.5m for the rest of his new contract.
If they’d done it in the summer, he would have walked away with around half that.
For what it’s worth, United recently made 250 staff redundant for a saving of £35m.
At a club now advised by the marginal gains’ guru, David Brailsford, these figures should resonate.
It may surprise some people but last season United sailed close to the chill wind of Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.
It was why they had to offload home-grown players such as Scott McTominay, fees for whom go straight into the book.
Overpaying for duds and being out of the Big Boys’ tournament had finally caught up with them.
But the real loss is their aura.
Commercially bullet-proof for so long, a generation is now growing up resistant to the pull of the Old Trafford magnetic force.
Companies, too, want to be associated with winners while in the United States, the sudden ‘soccer awakening’ has come since United have become ordinary.
Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea all appear more attractive clubs to follow.
So, given that no new Klopp, young Mourinho or Guardiola is yet to emerge, Ratcliffe will want to act but not spend a fortune.
It is why Van Nistelrooy seems the sensible choice as a stopgap until the end of the season.
He will be much cheaper than an outsider and is ideally placed to know what’s needed.
It shouldn’t take the hierarchy – top-heavy with highly-paid directors of this and that – any more embarrassments to see that another Dutchman is the obvious choice – for now.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.