Erik ten Hag will be wary of the ‘graveyard’ Manchester United could be for his reputation, warns Gary Neville.
Neville told Sky Sports he believes Ten Hag will have been in touch with his former Ajax player Donny van de Beek, who he sold to Manchester United in 2020.
Van de Beek has had a tough time at Old Trafford and Neville feels this will not exactly count in United’s favour.
Ten Hag is the favourite for the Manchester United job, ESPN Netherlands report, but no deal has been announced.
‘A graveyard for reputations’
Neville told Sky Sports he understands if Ten Hag is wary and has not signed on the dotted line at Manchester United yet.
He said: “There isn’t a player which has grown, really. Look at what they did to Van de Beek.
“If you are Ten Hag you will be on the phone to Van de Beek and saying whats it like there Donny? He ain’t going to be saying anything good is he.
“So I suspect that Ten Hag’s demands, not financial demands, control, structure, youth, I suspect he wants to come in and not be exposed to what other managers are exposed to.
“He must be very careful at this point about going to Manchester United. It can be a graveyard for reputations.”
Van de Beek is currently out on loan at Everton, and while he has had a pretty terrible experience at United since joining the club, part of that is simply being down to not being rated or understood enough by his managers, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick.
He is probably desperate for Ten Hag to come in and potentially rejuvenate his career, it might be his only hope of making it at United, so from that perspective, he should be encouraging the Ajax boss to come to Old Trafford.
Neville is right that managers have seen their reputations sunk at United, with Jose Mourinho no longer considered one of the game’s elite bosses by time he left, while David Moyes’ promising managerial career was ridiculed and he took years to recover.
Ten Hag is the golden boy of management right now due to his success at Ajax. But there will be those in the press who will be desperate to bring him down a peg or two, who will doubt whether his methods will translate to English football.
It won’t be easy, and the manager deserves all the help he can get. So it is perfectly within reason he wants to be backed and supported by the club. His countryman Louis van Gaal certainly did not feel he got the players and support he wanted during his stint in charge.
- Erik Ten Hag’s managerial record and style of play
- Erik Ten Hag’s five most expensive transfers
- Ajax’s last five managers before Ten Hag and where they are now
- Five Ajax players Ten Hag could sign for Manchester United
- Ten Hag’s comments when Van de Beek left Ajax for Old Trafford
- Six key issues for Manchester United’s next boss
- The three biggest wins of Ten Hag’s managerial career
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