Dutchester United
Since the signing of Erik ten Hag, Manchester United has almost only brought in players who were known to the coach from the Netherlands. Now his next favourite players are about to join the club.
In recent years, almost no other top club has pursued a transfer policy as tailored to the coach as Manchester United. Since signing Erik ten Hag in the summer of 2022, the club has almost exclusively brought in players who were familiar to him from his home country of the Netherlands or with whom he had previously worked at FC Utrecht and Ajax Amsterdam. In the meantime, ten Hag has so many players of a similar profile in the squad that it is no longer just a team of choice, but basically a team of choice.
What sounds praiseworthy in itself is, however, almost the only recognizable principle of ten Hag's tenure so far. Although minority owner Jim Ratcliffe, who is responsible for soccer operations, announced in the winter that the club would determine the direction in future, the coach, who was recently on the verge of being sacked, is still allowed to do as he pleases - possibly because the new management has yet to define a strategy.
United will probably pay around 60 million to FC Bayern for de Ligt and Mazraoui
Manchester United are now on the verge of announcing ten Hag's next favorite professionals, central defender Matthijs de Ligt, 25, and full-back Noussair Mazraoui, 26, from FC Bayern. Both were unable to develop into consistent top performers in Munich. Nevertheless, United are prepared to pay around 60 million euros for the double transfer, which would bring the record champions' transfer expenditure under ten Hag to around 600 million euros over two years. The transfer fee would be roughly equivalent to the amount Munich paid Juventus Turin for de Ligt in 2022; Mazraoui came on a free transfer from Ajax Amsterdam at the time.
However, nobody in Manchester sees the upcoming investment in this light. It is reportedly seen more as a clever special price, because the acquisition of a central and wing-back, which was necessary from the coach's point of view, would probably have been even more expensive in individual cases. In the case of de Ligt and Mazraoui, their time together with ten Hag at Ajax Amsterdam rather than their recent performances are considered to be a recruitment criterion. With them, a total of five professionals in the United team would have this characteristic, after André Onana, Lisandro MartÃnez and Antony, who have already been brought in, also played for ten Hag's Ajax.
In total, United signed eleven players with a connection to Dutch soccer
Four of the club's other signings also have a history in the Dutch Eredivisie: Christian Eriksen, Tyrell Malacia, Mason Mount and Joshua Zirkzee, who was acquired from FC Bologna a few weeks ago. Sofyan Amrabat and Wout Weghorst were loaned out in the previous seasons and the same applied to them. United also signed attacker Rasmus Hojlund a year ago, who is represented by the same - Dutch - consultancy agency as ten Hag. His assistants also all come from his home country. As a result, Manchester United is looking more and more like Dutchester United - dutch means "Dutch" in English.
Nine months ago, former United captain Gary Neville criticized the club for allowing ten Hag to dictate squad planning and "let the tail wag the dog", so to speak. In the Dutch daily newspaper AD, ten Hag recently defended himself. He said that United had been primarily responsible for recruiting players in this transfer period and described the Dutch league background of the professionals linked with the club this time as a "coincidence". At first glance, the strategy looks as if ten Hag wants to recreate his Ajax team in Manchester, which advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2019 with its energetic possession soccer.
If there is no development, Dutchester United will probably have to become Manchester United again
In reality, however, the collection of players with stints in Holland's Eredivisie seems to be more an expression of the coach's personality. In professional circles, ten Hag is said to rely predominantly on his own experience when putting together the squad. And this experience in top-flight soccer is almost exclusively based on his time at Ajax from 2017 to 2022. In his first season in Manchester, this approach looked promising with a third-place finish in the league. However, there has been no further development since then.
As a result, ten Hag is under pressure ahead of the season opener against Fulham FC on Friday to implement a style of play that is recognizable. If he succeeds in doing so, the team will ultimately be his doing. If not, the club will face the challenge of turning Dutchester United back into Manchester United.