Erik ten Hag appointment will put two Manchester United careers on the line

The winds of change are about to blow through Old Trafford, but there are more than a few careers on the pitch on the line with the appointment of Erik ten Hag.

The Dutchman will become the fifth permanent manager since Sir Alex Ferguson when he takes over from interim Ralf Rangnick this summer and he will be in no doubt just how much has to change to get this club back on track.

Ten Hag is the crowd-pleasing appointment, the overwhelming favourite amongst United fans, but his reputation has been almost entirely forged in the shadows of the mainstream.

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The 52-year-old is exciting because he's an unknown. He's built impressive Ajax teams, but they've underachieved in three successive seasons in Europe, playing some dazzling football before departing earlier than expected.

United have been hamstrung to a degree by the lack of a truly standout candidate this summer. It is essentially boiled down to a race between Mauricio Pochettino and Ten Hag.

They were the two leading candidates when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked in November and that has never changed, despite a thorough process being conducted by football director John Murtough and chief executive Richard Arnold.

So whoever got the job this summer was going to represent a gamble, but it does feel like Ten Hag is the bigger risk, although maybe he also has the bigger upside. United will hope the style of his football will take the fight to Manchester City and Liverpool, but there are no guarantees.

He has never worked at a level quite like United and while many will see him as the new kid on the block in coaching terms, he's actually older than Pochettino and Guardiola. Ten Hag's experience before 2017