Krishnan Sreekumar
Tottenham Hotspur forward Steven Bergwijn could become the first signing of the Erik ten Hag revolution at Manchester United
According to the Daily Mail, Manchester United could look to snap up Tottenham Hotspur forward Steven Bergwijn in the summer transfer window, as potential incoming manager Erik ten Hag‘s first signing.
United are expected to bring in a new permanent boss at the end of the season, with Ajax Amsterdam’s ten Hag touted to be the favourite to be offered the job at Old Trafford in the coming weeks. He will succeed Ralf Rangnick, whose tenure as interim manager expires in the summer.
Although the Ajax head coach will inherit Rangnick and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team next term, he could look to bolster the squad with players that he is keen on, and Bergwijn may be one of the targets that ten Hag could look to sign.
The winger has barely been used by Antonio Conte at Spurs, given the competition in the squad. He has fallen behind the likes of Son Heung-Min, Dejan Kulusevski, and Lucas Moura since the January transfer window and has mostly managed to make only substitute appearances for the north London side.
A second chance for ten Hag
Bergwijn saw his minutes on the pitch limited, which forced him to look for opportunities elsewhere, and came close to linking up with ten Hag at Ajax in January. However, Spurs blocked his proposed transfer to Holland after the player put in brilliant displays in the role of a super-sub, including two stoppage-time goals against Leicester City.
With the arrival of Kulusevki at Tottenham, the 24-year-old saw his game time even more restricted than usual, which makes it seem certain that he may leave the Lilywhites in the upcoming summer transfer window. The player has interest from clubs in Germany and France and is likely to cost around £20m.
With ten Hag looking increasingly likely to become the new manager of United, perhaps the 52-year-old could get a second chance at signing Bergwijn ahead of the new campaign. The Ajax boss is said to long have been an admirer of the Netherlands international, and was also present to watch the player score three goals against Denmark and Germany over the international break.
Despite not getting chances at the club level, the ex-PSV Eindhoven star reminded everyone about his quality over the international break when representing Holland. Conte may also be watching, seeing that his squad player is still capable of doing a good job for the team ahead of others if needed.
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However, ten Hag could possibly hope that Bergwijn is available in the summer and could turn out to be his first signing at Old Trafford, with the Ajax boss making approaches to sign the winger in each of the last three transfer windows.
Given that the Amsterdam side’s budget could not cover the player’s wages of more than £100,000-a-week, perhaps ten Hag could use the deep pockets he has access to at Man United to finally manage to land the Tottenham star in the upcoming summer transfer window.
