Erik Ten Hag wants to reunite with this ex Ajax player this summer

A reunion is on the cards between Ten Hag and his former captain

15/01/2024, 08:32 PM +00:00

Ten Hag is once again looking at one of his former guys to help him out

A common theme when it comes to Manchester United transfers since Erik Ten Hag became manager in May 2022, is the continuous links between United and Ten Hag’s former players. In the first transfer window under Erik Ten Hag, Manchester United were linked constantly with his former players and ended up buying two players directly from Ajax. Lisandro Martinez and Antony.

Upon arrival in Manchester, Ten Hag wanted to build a squad he could trust, and he could go to battle with on a weekly basis. To do that he recruited his players from Amsterdam as previously mentioned. This summer we saw the arrival of his former goalkeeper in Andre Onana who replaced David De Gea, and Sofyan Amrabat who he coached during his time at FC Twente.

With United in the market for centre-backs, the opportunity has arrived for Ten Hag to once again recruit one of his former players. This time he has his sights set on his former captain at Ajax in Matthijs de Ligt. The 24 year old Dutch cb is currently at Bayern Munich but is not one of the starting defenders as Thomas Tuchel favors Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-Jae.

According to Florian Plettenberg, Erik Ten Hag is very interested in the centre-back and if he were to remain in the job after the season, he could make De Ligt one of his top targets. De Ligt had previously been linked with United back in the summer of 2019 when he was ready to move on from Ajax but he chose Juventus instead of moving to Manchester.

De Ligt’s thoughts on Erik Ten Hag as a coach

De Ligt has always had high praise for his former coach and had great things to say about him when asked about Ten Hag and what he could achieve at Manchester United. De Ligt says, “He is someone who loves his job and he loves to work. He’s really into the details. This makes him a really good trainer. He has a lot of qualities [to succeed]. We will have to see how he goes. He definitely improves players. He wants to do everything to make his team play better."