Erik ten Hag certainly didn’t sound like a man concerned when the subject of Dan Ashworth – seemingly set to be confirmed as Manchester United’s first-ever director of football – was brought up during his Thursday press conference.
Quite the opposite, in fact. “In a club as Manchester United you can’t do everything alone,” Ten Hag tells the Manchester Evening News. “It is impossible. You need very good people around you.”
With Ashworth potentially joining Omar Berrada, Jean-Claude Blanc and Sir Dave Brailsford at Old Trafford, Ten Hag will certainly not be short of ‘very good people’ working alongside him to make Manchester United great again.
But for a head coach who has operated in something of a vacuum during the last two years – given almost unprecedented control over recruitment since taking over from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – the arrival of an elite-club builder in Ashworth, and potentially Southampton talentspotter Jason Wilcox too, will bring about fresh challenges as well as long-overdue changes for Ten Hag.
Ten Hag role to change in Ineos era
As ESPN explain, Ten Hag has had the power to veto all transfers in his year-and-a-half at the helm. But with Brailsford, Ratcliffe’s long-standing right-hand man, planning to ‘revamp’ United’s recruitment strategy, Ten Hag may have to accept a smaller role in a more collaborative, data-driven approach.
It’s staggering really, when you look at it, just how many of Ten Hag’s signings as Man United boss are player who have worked under the manager before (Lisandro Martinez, Antony, Andre Onana, Sofyan Amrabat) or players who he knows from his time in Dutch football (Wout Weghorst, Tyrell Malacia, ex-Vitesse Arnhem loanee Mason Mount).
United also looked at the likes of Jurrien Timber, formerly of Ajax and now of Arsenal, and FC Utrecht’s Taylor Booth, amongst others.
Dan Ashworth and Jason Wilcox could join
And with the common consensus that Ten Hag’s record is patchy at best when it comes to bringing players in to Old Trafford – Martinez probably the only one who can be considered a definite success as things stand – reports indicating that the Red Devils boss is driving the pursuit of his former Ajax skipper Matthijs de Ligt will likely have raised a few eyebrows and incurred a few scoffs and sighs amongst the United fanbase.
According to Football Transfers, United have opened talks with De Ligt’s camp. The £68 million Dutch international is unhappy with life on the bench at Bayern Munich.
But if Ten Hag has his heart set on a reunion with De Ligt in England’s north west, he may be disappointed.
If, as assumed, he will no longer be calling the shots – iNews believe that Ineos may prefer a strategy underpinned by data and a pursuit of homegrown talents such as Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite – then United’s strategy could shift rather dramatically from a ‘who you know’ approach to a ‘what you know’ model. One relying less on Ten Hag’s contact book, and more upon the conclusions of football’s brightest directors and recruitment chiefs.
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