Can Ten Hag Thrive At Manchester United Without Ajax Safety Net?

After a long search that saw multiple big names linked to them, Manchester United appear to have finally decided who will permanently replace Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

The news that Erik Ten Hag is close to making the switch to Old Trafford has been met with a largely positive response by United fans. The fact that Ten Hag has a record largely unblemished by failure works in his favor – his five years at Ajax have resulted in two league titles and a memorable run to the Champions League semi-finals in 2019. He has also shown himself to be capable of an effective rebuild. His 2019 side was stripped of its best stars by the likes of FC Barcelona, Juventus and Chelsea but Ten Hag still managed to rebuild and win the title within two years.

It is perhaps the latter aspect of his portfolio that makes him so attractive to Manchester United. Ten Hag has already shown himself capable of a rebuild while United are in desperate need of a good one. They have resembled a work in progress, ever since Sir Alex Ferguson retired almost nine years ago. David Moyes, Louis Van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Solskjaer have all come in with differing visions as to what the new United should look like. The more negative side of the fanbase would argue that each of them has only succeeded in digging up the foundation laid by their predecessor, a natural consequence of hiring managers with such contrasting visions.

It is here that Ten Hag must somehow succeed as he did with Ajax. The obvious argument against him would be that whatever he did in the Eredivisie cannot be readily transplanted to the boiling cauldron that is the Premier
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League. The expectations, the intensity and the standard of football are all a few notches higher than what he is used to at Ajax. But arguably, the bigger challenge that Ten Hag faces would be to thrive without the structure that aided him at Ajax.

The Dutch club is arguably one of the best-run clubs in Europe with general director Edwin Van Der Sar and disgraced former sporting director Marc Overmars reconciling a modern footballing structure with Ajax’s vaunted tradition. United’s scattergun approach to recruitment, the influence that their high-profile stars wield and their philosophy that fluctuates with each manager are all the antithesis of what Ajax stands for. They do have a footballing director in John Murtough while the much-maligned Ed Woodward has been replaced by Richard Arnold. But while they may yet build one in the future, the current setup at United can only be described as inferior to most successful European clubs.

Ten Hag only needs to look at a manager who left Ajax just over a year before he came in, for a cautionary tale. Frank de Boer spent four straight league titles in his six years at Ajax but his next two stints at Inter Milan and Crystal Palace lasted 85 and 77 days respectively. De Boer himself would later admit that his Inter stint was doomed to fail because he was not allowed to overhaul the club’s footballing structure and get rid of certain influential players. A couple of years before this doomed stint, De Boer was thought to be a candidate to revive the fortunes of another failing yet historically successful English institution. In the end, Liverpool went with Jurgen Klopp.

What Ten Hag has done at Ajax is not to be disrespected and he has certainly shown himself to be a fine manager with great tactical nous. However, United would do well to temper their expectations. The manager, even at their worst, has only been a part of the problems at United. Hiring a good one would only be a part of the solution.