Eriksen’s a perfect fit for Ten Hag’s plan
THE last time United signed a former Ajax player in his 30s on a free transfer it didn’t turn out too badly.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic joined the club in 2016 and a year later had helped secure the last two pieces of silverware to adorn the Old Trafford trophy room.
The 34-year-old was a shrewd bit of business by Jose Mourinho, scoring 28 goals in 46 games in his first season and showing leadership on and off the pitch, before a knee injury brought the story to a premature end.
Five years on United are back in the market for a free transfer with links to the Dutch giants. Christian Eriksen spent three years in Amsterdam and was back there at the beginning of the year, building up his fitness before his fairytale return to the Premier League with Brentford.
That gave Erik ten Hag an early glimpse of the 30-year-old’s form and fitness and presumably, he showed the qualities that have lit up the second half of the Premier League season.
It’s a year this month since Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest while playing for Denmark in the European Championship, but recently he’s looked as good as ever.
Those displays for Brentford have alerted some of the Premier League’s bigger clubs to his availability and United are one of them, although they will face competition from Tottenham for a creative player who was perhaps at the peak of his powers just 12 months ago.
He entered those Euros on the back of a major contribution to Inter Milan’s Scudetto and a reunion with Antonio Conte in North London would hold obvious appeal.
United’s interest in Eriksen makes sense, however. They have lost creative midfielders this summer in Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Juan Mata and the Denmark international would fill that place in the squad, offering a point of difference to Bruno Fernandes.
Eriksen would also bring plenty of experience with him and having seen Nemanja Matic and Edinson Cavani also depart this summer, United are losing plenty of know-how this month.
In his performances for Brentford, Eriksen showed he can still cut it in the Premier League and
at 30 he is no short-term fix, although he is evidently no youngster either.
For some supporters, the attraction of Ten Hag is that he built youthful sides at Ajax, but that is not strictly true.
He built around a core of young, homegrown products in Amsterdam, but he valued experience as well, as his transfer record proves.
In 2018 Ajax signed Daley Blind and Dusan Tadic, two players who are now
33 and 32 but have been outstanding for the club and remain important first-team regulars. In 2020 they signed
Davy Klaassen to play in midfield and Maarten Stekelenburg to add experience to the goalkeeping unit.
Then last summer in came Steven Berghuis, joining from fierce rivals Feyenoord at the age of 29 and making a considerable impression at the club.
In what is perhaps Ajax’s strongest team last season, Berghuis, Tadic, Klaasen and Blind all played regularly and 38-year-old Remko Pasveer was their most-used goalkeeper. Of their strongest team Sebastian
Haller was generally the only player aged between 24 and 30, which goes to show how Ten Hag built a side featuring youth and experience combining to great effect.
That would suggest he sees the value Eriksen can bring as an experienced head as well as an excellent footballer.
United might pursue more attractive signings this summer, such as Frenkie de Jong, but there is clear merit in an approach for Eriksen as well.
This is a window in which United’s budget will only stretch so far and midfield and attack are the key priorities for Ten Hag at the moment.
Picking up a player like Eriksen for nothing, to add quality and experience to the squad, would be a sensible and creative move.