TEN A PENNY ERIK57
If new boss comes cheap, all the better for United
MANCHESTER UNITED have been adamant throughout the search that the appointment of the successor to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would not be done on the cheap.
Cost, they have briefed consistently, was not an issue, compensation or otherwise, with the only thing that mattered getting the right man and the right fit for the job in hand.
So, if as is expected, Erik ten Hag is confirmed to take over from interim manager Ralf Rangnick at the end of the season, it will be a happy by-product and nothing more that he will cost less than Mauricio Pochettino, right.
Ten Hag, who was interviewed by a panel led by football director John Murtough last month, will bring a fresh philosophy to United which should sit well with those in the stands and the boardroom.
Untainted by previous associations with other Premier League clubs, he also brings potential to the job, having not hit the ceiling yet in his club career.
Pochettino still has his supporters at Old Trafford but he has hit the bar in the Champions League with Tottenham and then missed it completely with an expensivelyassembled cast at Paris Saint-Germain this season. Ten Hag took an unsung Ajax
squad to within a minute of the
Champions League final in 2019, losing on away goals in a thriller against Spurs. And while he lost out to Benfica this time round, going down 3-2 on aggregate in the last 16, that was with a newly-constructed side having lost several of the stars of 2019 side to big-money moves – Matthijs de Ligt, Frenkie de Jong and Hakim Ziyech all having departed. That ability of the 52-year-old Dutchman to renew his squad has not been lost on United’s board, given their ingrained desire to bring young talent through the academy system. Pochettino’s second-half brain fade against Real Madrid at the same stage, with PSG conceding a hattrick to Karim Benzema to throw away a two-goal lead, was the latest in a string of failures to land a hand on silverware. And that is a record beginning to hang heavy on the Argentinian’s shoulders. Ten Hag’s potential availability has put Bundesliga clubs on alert, which has hastened United’s move.
And if both sides can agree on finer details, including backroom staff and their contracts, the Ajax manager can bring untapped potential to Old Trafford for the latest rebuild.