The French have a term for it: plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose – “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
So, the influx of Dutch players and staff linked to Erik ten Hag that regime change at Manchester United was supposed to halt, appears to be ticking along as it did before.
The addition to the coaching staff of Ten Hag’s close friend Rene Hake, with whom he worked at FC Twente, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Jelle ten Rouwelaar, not to mention Joshua Zirkzee should United push a deal through for the Bologna striker before kick-off, should make for an interesting dynamic at Carrington ahead of England’s Euro 2024 semi-final against the Netherlands in Dortmund.
The arrival of the above, plus interest in defender Matthijs de Ligt and striker Brian Brobbey, both of whom worked with Ten Hag at Ajax, might be coincidental, or it could be a consequence of the new pragmatism that kept the Dutchman in his post when United were interested in alternatives Thomas Tuchel and Roberto De Zerbi during the post-season review.
United minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe went to the trouble of meeting with Tuchel in Monaco. Tuchel later withdrew from consideration.
Reports suggested Tuchel was uncertain about Ratcliffe’s intentions. Perhaps he did not appreciate being part of a beauty contest. Or maybe the money on offer from United, purportedly scaled back under the club’s new leadership structure, did not meet with Tuchel’s understanding of what a United salary should be.
The beginning of a new accounting year has escalated transfer activity across the Premier League, especially at Carrington, where United began the week with a recruitment meeting to identify targets, including Jarrad Branthwaite. A second improved bid of £45m plus a further £5m conditional on targets being met was rejected by Everton, who know a golden egg when they see one.
Branthwaite is clearly a test case for a club determined to end the old habit of paying a “United tax” on players at inflated prices. Everton want £70m.
Given United’s need at centre-back, they obviously rate their chances of getting it. Raphael Varane has left the club, Victor Lindelof and Harry Maguire are on the market if they can find a club to buy them, while Jonny Evans is retained for one more year as cover alongside 20-year-old Willy Kambwala. Beyond that United are left with the excellent but injury-prone Lisandro Martinez.
Branthwaite is clearly United’s preferred target at centre-back but the associated interest in De Ligt, who has struggled at Bayern Munich and Juventus before that, demonstrates the influence of Ten Hag in a transfer process in which he was supposed to play a minimal part.
In this frenzied period, it is way too soon to determine the efficacy of United’s new management structure, led by chief executive Omar Berrada, sporting director Dan Ashworth, technical director Jason Wilcox and temporary director of recruitment Christopher Vivell. Yet it was for this very purpose that they were assembled. Though Berrada and Ashworth assumed their new roles only last week, unless they have both been gardening during their long periods of leave, their to-do lists ought to converge appropriately.
United’s priority is to offload the undesirables to fund their transfer activity. To that end negotiations to flog Mason Greenwood to Marseille for £27m and Jadon Sancho to Juventus are advancing. Sancho’s deal is more complex involving a loan deal with a commitment to buy.
The forgotten Donny van de Beek is reportedly close to a deal with Girona for a mind-blowing £500k, four years after United paid Ajax £35m. In return Van de Beek scored twice in a total of 62 appearances.
The Ajax scar runs deep. The presence of Antony, for whom Ten Hag campaigned and paid twice the market rate, continues to undermine the manager’s competence and authority. Though Ten Hag held on to power, the contract extension that eventually came his way was no ringing endorsement.
Against that, he is still there despite a transparent pursuit of alternatives that might have shamed others into resignation. Not Ten Hag, who read the room brilliantly, aided by his FA Cup victory over Manchester City and the immediate power transfusion that followed. He stayed calm, retreated to Ibiza and waited for the wind to change direction.
Just how much his influence extends in the recruitment of players is hard to disentangle at this juncture. However, it would appear his voice was heard in the revamp of a coaching staff that retains a distinct Dutch flavour. And if swerving the guillotine has given him renewed vigour and the confidence to deliver on the vision he sold the old regime two years ago, there may yet be an “I told you so” end to his troubles at Old Trafford.
