If, as seems ever more likely, Erik ten Hag is indeed about to be announced as the club’s new manager, then those of us currently suffering as Manchester United fans are right to be excited.
According to a poll conducted by Gary Neville, more than 80 per cent of those who responded wished to see the Dutchman appointed ahead of Mauricio Pochettino. And you can understand why. After years of dithering, of appointing the superannuated, the past-it and the never will be, at last the club’s hierarchy appeared to have found someone with ideas, with purpose, someone for the future. For us fans battered by corporate incompetence and institutional decline, finally a glimmer of optimism. Or at least that is what we hope.
Ten Hag, we are telling ourselves, will bring ideas, definition and cohesion to the job. A workaholic obsessive, he likes to conduct training himself, likes to plan and prepare. At Ajax he has developed a generation of young talent in a way that followers of United have long reckoned to be part of their way of doing things. Homegrown talent in every matchday squad since 1936: when City and Liverpool are winning everything that is the kind of statistic you cling to. And it might be hoped he will bring some of the players he nurtured with him, not least the centre-back Jurrien Timber, whose many attributes include an ability to pass out of defence in a manner seemingly beyond any of United’s expensive roster of stoppers.
But while Ten Hag might well offer excitement and possibility, the fact is he also comes with risk. The fear gripping the Stretford End is this: what we do not know about him is whether the success he has brought to Amsterdam, building two entirely different eye-catching teams within the space of five years, was down to him or whether it was simply part of the Ajax way. Was it the man or was it the structure? Now stripped of the Ajax support system, how will he cope in an institution that is fraying at the edges?
After constructing a side around the hungry and the ambitious, how will he be able to deal with one filled with entitled prima donnas? How long before dressing room leaks start emerging on social media that he lacks charisma and his training is over-regimented? We are about to find out. And, given that among United fans the pessimist has long been in the ascendant, any excitement is immediately chastened by the burden of reality.
Ten Hag clearly has been warned about what faces him and is thinking of how he might construct a workable managerial infrastructure where none exists. Rumour spinning round the fanbase suggests he is keen to surround himself with those who know United. The former club coach Rene Muelensteen and star players Robin van Persie and Jaap Stam have all been mooted as potential members of his staff. All have intimate knowledge of the club and importantly are able to communicate with Ten Hag in his own language. Or the case of Steve McClaren, who has also been reckoned to be heading back to Old Trafford once more as assistant manager, at least thinks he can speak Dutch.
