This has a lot to do with his past. He comes from the east of the Netherlands, where there is a very down-to-earth mentality and where people speak with a very strong accent. There is a little less flash there and they are looking at those from Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, the places where the big offices, the industry and the parliament are located. But despite this background – and it has a strong accent – Ten Hague’s situation is different. Financially there is no motivation and he does not need to do big jobs at any stage of his career because he comes from a very rich family and his father and siblings are multimillionaires. They have a real estate company and other financial companies. His father wanted to join the company, but from a young age Erik was such a brilliant footballer – he was a star for FC Twente as a defender – that he made it clear that he had no interest in pursuing the job. However, this family wealth means that he does not need big jobs. He knows that football does not need him to survive, so he can follow his own principles, where other coaches can compromise to stay in their jobs. His football philosophy has always been like that of Pep Guardiola and Johan Cruyff. He likes to attack, to create things on the field. I followed PSV Eindhoven for a while when he was assistant coach there, as was Steve McClaren’s assistant at FC Twente. He was decisive in these clubs. He never tried to push, but the coaches relied so much on him because he was regularly so strong. It was a joy for those who had him and that says a lot about him. When he was in Bayern Munich as the boss of his team, he liked it. It was almost like a dream come true for him to have a coach under Guardiola who worked the same way he wanted to work. He once told me that he liked spending time with Guardiola, he liked talking to him. He had to get players ready for the first team as a backup manager, so the whole setup worked for him. Players can have a hard time with him because, like Guardiola, he seems a bit obsessive. To get a style like you at Ajax – Dutch Total Football, basically – it takes a lot of work and a lot of attacking players. It leaves a lot of space and you want your defenders to play very high. It involves a lot of risk and you have to be a little manic to blow on your players that every pass must be correct, that there can be no mistakes. But the man’s management is excellent and all the players say they have learned so much from him. While many coaches focus on the top eleven, Ten Hag will have an incredible time on the pitch. At Manchester United, he will not only pay attention to star players such as Cristiano Ronaldo or Harry Maguire, but will also go to the 19th or 20th most important player. He has taken on players with different characters and he does not care how many hours he has to spend with them, he will give them all his time. There he gets the respect from the players because they see the effort he makes to improve them individually. Even those with the most difficult background – some sort of luggage, perhaps – if they think the talent is there, will make sure they match. He is not afraid to take over the job of Manchester United. But he will want to be in tracksuit many hours a day. He does not consider himself an office worker – if he did, he would have gone to his dad’s company. He would not like to be constantly on the phone with agents, and I feel it is one of the main points of discussion about his possible appointment. There he will want a sports director or an assistant with the ability to do that. For me, it would be wrong to follow the path of thinking that part of his job fits the traditional English way of governing. He will not want to go there thinking he has to face the whole of Manchester United. He will want to focus on re-identifying the club – and he will do so better by wearing a uniform. Another possible issue is that Ten Hag has never felt so comfortable in front of the camera. This will be a challenge and he may find it difficult to get his message across. If he went to a German club – and there is serious interest there – he would be completely in his comfort zone, because the place he stays is on the German border. Everyone in this area has German as their second language. The level of media control at Manchester United could be a challenge for Ten Hague English, however, is anything but his comfort zone and in my opinion a coach who takes over the reins of one of the biggest clubs in the world based in the UK, with all the publicity and media around him, should be able to command the English language. very well. It will not stop him from being successful, but it would help him a lot if he improved. I understand that he practices his English a lot. At the beginning of his time with Ajax my newspaper was very critical of him due to some regular selections and the players found it difficult to get used to his very long training sessions and his long discussions on the pitch. Yes, he built a good team, but by Dutch standards they gave him good players. Immediate success was required of him, but what drew the world was how Ajax played in the Champions League 2018-19 against Real Madrid, winning 4-1 at the Bernabeu to eliminate them and against Juventus in the quarterfinals. But perhaps what impressed me most was that when Ajax sold their best players, Matthijs de Ligt to Juve and Frenkie de Jong to Barcelona, ​​he had given the club and the team such an identity that it was easy to fit new players. If the United fans want to know about his approach, then a reflection from the man himself can be enlightening. His idol was the Dutch international Epi Drost, who came from the same area and the same club as Ten Hague and was his coach at FC Twente. “Epi was a pleasant position for me because I was by far the youngest on the team,” recalls Ten Hag. “He let me play for U23 as a 15-year-old. He was a big fan of skillful and adventurous football. It will stimulate creativity because that was the most important aspect of the game. I learned so much from him.” If I had to compare him to anyone, I would compare him to Ronald Koeman. Both played as central defenders, leaders in the backcourt overseeing the game and the team from this position. As coaches, they are both huge Total Football fans, but Kuman never wanted to be as adventurous as Guardiola. If there is one big difference between the Manchester City coach and Ten Hague, it is that the Dutchman has the same slightly more realistic approach that Kuman takes. They have one more eye on defense than Guardiola. If he goes to Manchester United, then the people he works with will quickly learn that he is a very loyal person – that is one of his key characteristics. When he started at FC Twente academy at the age of about 14, he quickly climbed the U18 and played for many years with the same kids, most of whom stayed with him and still are. But while he was there, two of his best friends died, one in a plane crash in Suriname. Andy Scharmin, a boy destined to play for the Netherlands, was selected for an exhibition game by Suriname, who had no official national team, and chose to go. The plane he was on crashed and killed a large number of the group. He was one of Ten Hague’s closest friends – they did everything together. This was a huge upset in his life. Another friend committed suicide and a third was horribly injured. All three seemed destined for an international career. This influenced him a lot and was inspired by the desire to succeed where his friends never had the chance. Many came from the grief he lost his friends. That leads him even now.