Erik Ten Hag was rejected by this former player of his from Ajax

Unlike Lisandro and Antony, Ten Hag could not convince his former striker to join him at United

17/01/2024, 08:15 PM +00:00

The Dutchman was not able to recruit one of his ex players this time around

Erik Ten Hag had a big job to do when he arrived at Manchester United. The club was coming off their worst finish ever in the Premier League era. The locker room morale was at an all-time low and needed a huge boost. Several veterans had left the club for free that summer such as Paul Pogba, Nemanja Matic, Juan Mata, and Jesse Lingard. It was time for major change and Ten Hag was the one chosen to oversee it.

To oversee this change, Ten Hag wanted to bring in some players that he has big trust in and are willing to go to battle for him. Every coach needs his soldiers and Ten Hag needed plenty of them for United. This led to United having interest in many former Ajax players and a couple other Eredivisie players. The first big link was Jurrien Timber who was a centre-back under Ten Hag at Ajax, but the Dutchman rejected United after a conversation with his international coach Louis van Gaal, where the coach warned him about the club.

That led to Ten Hag and United switching their radar onto Timber’s partner Lisandro Martinez. The Argentinian felt different than Timber and wound-up snubbing Arsenal to join the Red Devils. The business did not end there as United next signed Christian Eriksen who trained with Ajax while recovering from major injury, and Tyrell Malacia who impressed Ten Hag whilst the player was at Feyenoord.

Whilst this was going on United were locked in deep negotiations with Barcelona for a player Ten Hag felt could be his architect at United. Frenkie De Jong. The two clubs agreed a deal, but the midfielder never wanted to leave Catalonia. This would lead to United switching their sights once again and wound up paying 82 million pounds for Antony.

The player that ended up rejecting United and Ten Hag

The player that rejected Erik was Ajax forward Brian Brobbey. In an interview with Der Telegraaf the forward revealed the call he had had with Erik. "Erik ten Hag called me and said that at United, my agent would get millions of euros and I could earn a multiple of my Ajax salary. But our decision was clear: we wanted to go to Ajax," Brobbey revealed.