Erik ten Hag comes to Man United with a record of success, quality football and developing youth, but still there’s an air of the unknown about him.
Erik ten Hag will be Manchester United ‘s sixth manager since Sir Alex Ferguson retired after winning the club’s most recent Premier League title in 2013. He arrives with the pressure of returning the club to the top of European football after a near-decade of mediocrity, and in hiring him, United have opted for someone who has a track record of developing youth, playing attractive football and winning titles at Ajax. Despite the apparent fit, there’s still is an element of the unknown about him. Ten Hag comes to United as a much-admired manager — someone who has worked under Pep Guardiola (at Bayern Munich), has helped nurture some of Europe’s best young players, and has a philosophy influenced as much by the Dutch “Total Football” school of thought as it is by Guardiola’s way of playing, with a dab of Germany’s ” Gegenpressing ” philosophy. I last spoke to Ten Hag back in December. Back then he was masterminding a Champions League campaign with Ajax, but was also hinting at his growing hunger to try something different. At the time, he was being linked with all manner of top jobs, and was asked about whether he pays any attention to it. “Don’t look in Google… I live by the day, and I’m very satisfied at Ajax,” he said. But then he paused; when asked whether he’d eventually be tempted by one of the European giants linked with him, he answered: “It would be great. We will see if it comes, if they want to sign me. I am looking forward for a plan, and I feel comfortable to do a job like this.” Six months on, he’s landed at Old Trafford, by far the biggest job of his career. But how did he get here? – Man United announce Ten Hag as new manager – O’Hanlon: Can Ten Hag turn United around? (E+) – Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only) – Don’t have ESPN? Get instant access Back in December, Ten Hag said he was satisfied with Ajax’s season at that stage: They were winning the league, and were still in Europe and in the KNVB Beker (Dutch Cup). But this came with a qualification. “Satisfaction is also a danger, as the moment you get satisfied, you get lazy,” he said. “Laziness is a big threat, for me as a coach — when I have that feeling, it’ll come to my players and if my players get lazy, then we’re killed.” Behind Ten Hag on the walls of his office are three black-and-white photos of ex-Ajax managers and legends Rinus Michels, Johan Cruyff and Louis van Gaal. Between them, the trio built the red-and-white castle where Ten Hag planted his flag in 2017. They are as much inspiration as they are reminders of the expectation that comes with being a Dutch coach schooled at Ajax. Dan Thomas is joined by Craig Burley, Shaka Hislop and others to bring you the latest highlights and debate the biggest storylines. Stream on ESPN+ (U.S. only). Ten Hag’s playing career was as a typical, run-of-the-mill Eredivisie central midfielder. He had three spells at FC Twente, while also playing for De Graafschap, RKC Waalwijk and Utrecht. He played alongside Hans Kraay Jr. at De Graafschap and the two have remained close friends. “When we played together, Erik’s dream was to become the manager of FC Twente,” Kraay said. “But I saw already that he was tactically brilliant. If we were playing against one striker, or two strikers, our manager always told us we had to sort it out between us. He had such an eye for detail.” Ten Hag retired from playing football at age 32 and went into coaching, working his way through the FC Twente age-grade sides before becoming assistant to Fred Rutten and Steve McClaren. In July 2009 he was reunited with Rutten at PSV, where his reputation grew, and he took charge of Dutch second-division side Go Ahead Eagles in 2012. In his sole season there, he got them promoted to the Eredivisie for the first time in 17 years. Then came the move to Bayern Munich, where he managed the reserves from 2013-15 — a spell that coincided with Guardiola’s tenure at the German giants. It was a formative experience for Ten Hag. He learned what it takes to manage and work for one of the European powerhouses, and he also witnessed Guardiola’s methods first-hand: noting how Guardiola’s team would defend and press from the front, and the intensity at which Bayern trained. Ten Hag was snapped up by his former club side FC Utrecht in 2015. There he held a dual role as sporting director and manager and steered the club into the Europa League. One of his final matches in charge was a 2-1 victory at Ajax in November 2017 and just six weeks later, Ajax sacked Marcel Keizer after his ill-fated five-month spell, appointing Ten Hag as his successor. Ajax were going through a tough spell. In July 2017, their promising attacking midfielder Abdelhak Nouri collapsed in a preseason match, having suffered a cardiac arrhythmia attack, which left him with brain damage. Nouri grew up playing in the same academy side as Matthijs de Ligt and Donny van de Beek. That had a long-lasting impact on the players and club. Mark Ogden explains why Manchester United have chosen Erik ten Hag as their next manager. On the pitch, the players were underperforming. Though they were second in the league when Ten Hag took the job, they’d already been knocked out of the Dutch Cup and Europe. It took time for Ten Hag to be accepted as he was a different sort of manager to what they were used to: he was an outsider. “[Then-director of football Marc] Overmars gave him time,” Kraay says. “He’s got a different accent from people in Amsterdam, they were laughing at him a little bit — asking how a manager from the small town in the east of Netherlands called Haaksbergen would change Ajax. Everyone, though — even those who were against him — started to see what he was doing.
