Ajax boss Erik ten Hag is leading the race for the Manchester United manager job ahead of the final round of interviews
According to The Telegraph (Subscription Required), Ajax Amsterdam boss Erik ten Hag has emerged as the favourite to bag the permanent manager job at Manchester United ahead of the new season, with the English club preparing for a second and final round of interviews in due course.
Ralf Rangick, who is currently in charge of Man United on an interim basis until the summer, is expected to give up his seat in the manager’s dugout at the end of the season to allow a new head coach to come in and continue his work.
The German himself replaced the Red Devils’ last permanent manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, with the Norwegian sacked late last year after a string of poor results that saw the team slip down the Premier League table.
ten Hag’s brilliant work at Ajax has seen him become one of the candidates to be interviewed by the Red Devils’ hierarchy, although he is not the only one to be sounded out by the English giants. Paris Saint-Germain boss Mauricio Pochettino has also been interviewed, as has one other unnamed manager.
ten Hag the leading favourite
Despite the Dutchman being touted to be the leading favourite to be offered the job, the fact that the Old Trafford side are planning another round of interviews clearly suggests that they have not made a final decision on who they want as their next manager.
Furthermore, there are concerns from the Ajax coach’s camp that there are issues from within United as to whether he has experience being in charge of a big club. However, it has been pointed out to the Premier League side that after appointing big names like Louis Van Gaal and Jose Mourinho, the approach has not worked for them.
ten Hag may not be among the elite managers in world football, but that doesn’t mean that the 52-year-old has not had experience winning trophies. As it stands, he is on course to lead Ajax to a hat-trick of Eredivisie titles, all of them being won under him.
He was also in charge of their fantastic Champions League semi-final run in 2019, which saw the likes of Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt, Hakim Ziyech, and Donny van de Beek earn plaudits from across Europe and also earn them big-money moves to other clubs. In fact, the latter is currently a Man United player.
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Despite losing these stars over the space of a couple of years, ten Hag has proved that he is capable of rebuilding squads and putting together a team that can compete for all trophies. This is something that has been missing at the Theatre of Dreams in past seasons, and perhaps the Dutchman can come in and change all that.
Man United are right to have concerns about ten Hag’s abilities in the sense that he has not coached a big team outside Holland. The Red Devils are arguably one of the biggest clubs in world football, and it is no easy task to manage them – past head coaches will prove that. However, we could do a lot worse than ten Hag, and if he does end up becoming our new permanent manager, then there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful about.
