Fabrizio Romano says Manchester United will not announce Erik ten Hag as their new manager today
According to football journalist Fabrizio Romano on Twitter, Manchester United will not announce Erik ten Hag as their new manager today. ten Hag is currently in charge of the first team at Ajax Amsterdam.
The Dutchman is inching closer to becoming the next permanent boss of United, replacing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who was in charge of the side for nearly three years. He was sacked earlier in the season after a string of poor results.
At the moment, the Red Devils are led by Ralf Rangnick, who has been appointed on an interim basis until the summer to steady the ship after Solskjaer’s dismissal and guide the team to a top-four finish in the Premier League table.
That task is far from done, with the Manchester side sitting in fifth place – three points behind Tottenham Hotspur, who currently occupy fourth spot in the points table. Not just this, United also have to battle Arsenal and West Ham United for a Champions League qualification spot, with the Gunners holding the advantage over others in the race as they have a game in hand.
Matter of time
Whatever happens with regards to the Red Devils’ league finish this term, ten Hag is looking more likely to succeed Rangnick in the summer and take over. Romano confirmed that it was only a matter of time before the club announced the appointment, with the timing of the news dependent on the final agreement with Ajax.
The journalist also revealed that the two clubs are in talks about bringing Mitchell Van der Gaag as ten Hag’s assistant in the coaching staff. While contracts are being prepared to land the 52-year-old head coach, he has a clause in his contract with the Dutch giants that allow him to depart if another club pays out €2m.
ten Hag’s imminent arrival at the Theatre of Dreams will surely excite United fans, given his stellar record in Holland while in charge of Ajax. He has led them to back-to-back league titles and multiple cup competition triumphs during his tenure in Amsterdam.
This season as well, he led them to the KNVB Cup final and is on course to win a hat-trick of Eredivisie titles, with his team sitting on top of the league table. He will be expected to replicate that success in Manchester, starting next season.
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He will be taking over a club that has not won a trophy in five years, with our last title coming in 2017 in the form of the UEFA Europa League. Meanwhile, our last league title won was in 2013, in Sir Alex Ferguson’s last season as manager of the side.
ten Hag will walk in with high expectations from him because of his impressive managerial CV, although it remains to be seen how we will get on in the Premier League. He has never managed outside of Holland apart from Bayern Munich’s B team, and the English top-flight is unforgiving of new players and coaches who fail to adapt to the physical and fast-paced nature of the game.
