Erik ten Hag has made Ruben Amorim’s key transfer deal difficult by securing £8 million signing

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The game of dominoes that is the transfer window has just fallen against Manchester United and former manager Erik ten Hag is at the centre of it.

Bayer Leverkusen announced Erik ten Hag as their new manager, replacing Xabi Alonso in a tough job ahead of a huge summer.

Erik ten Hag’s record in the transfer market has aged to become infamous at Man Utd, so fans are keeping an eye on what he does in Germany.

Unfortunately, the starting signs are that he’s set to make Ruben Amorim’s key transfer deal even more difficult by making an £8 million signing of his own.

Erik ten Hag’s Mark Flekken signing has a big picture

When Ten Hag joined Leverkusen, Man Utd fans were half jokingly saying that the club is set to benefit from the Dutchman’s history of buying overpriced players from his previous clubs.

It was all turning out to be somewhat true as well, since Leverkusen were linked to Garnacho and Antony, among others, after Ten Hag’s arrival.

However, Leverkusen have now made their first major signing and it’s Mark Flekken from Brentford. The Dutch goalkeeper has moved to Germany for a fee of around £8 million fee.

Fans will be reminded of Ten Hag wanting to buy players from the Dutch league, or his former players, like Andre Onana, so they won’t mind this.

What they will be wary of, however, are the repercussions of this deal for a transfer Ruben Amorim is trying to secure.

Since selling Flekken for £8 million, Brentford have already invested £18 million to sign Kelleher from Liverpool and that means bad news for Man Utd.

Man Utd’s Bryan Mbeumo deal becomes difficult

United are tracking Bryan Mbeumo as a potential signing after Matheus Cunha’s transfer but Brentford’s stance will harden after selling Flekken.

Not only have they had to spend an extra £10 million to replace their first-choice goalkeeper, but Flekken was a part of the core of the team, just like Mbeumo.

It is easy to envision a scenario where Brentford demand even more for the player having already lost one player from the spine of their team.

Kelleher might well turn out to be a good signing but they won’t be rushing to gut the spine of the team, so from United’s POV, the deal just got harder.

Mbeumo was anyway a signing that could only be made after United sold some players first, and now that mountain has become more steep.

That’s the byproduct of being poor and moving slowly in the market.