Erik ten Hag told to have a discussion with the Manchester United squad before making signings

Nigel de Jong is hoping Erik ten Hag will be a success at Old Trafford and has offered his compatriot some telling advice before he makes the switch to Manchester United this summer. Ten Hag is preparing to swap Amsterdam for Manchester, though he must first try to navigate his Ajax side to a third Eredivisie title in four seasons.

De Jong played 137 games during a three-and-a-half-year spell with United's rivals Manchester City and also helped them to their first Premier League crown in 2012. However, while his allegiance to Manchester will always be blue, the Dutchman wants Ten Hag to be able to silence any naysayers in England and in the Netherlands.

Speaking to the Daily Star, former City midfielder De Jong said: "Even though he's going to manage the red half of Manchester, I hope he's going to be a huge success. But there's always going to be backlash with him being a more unknown coach and not being an elite coach, one we're always talking about.

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"There's already a lot of negativity. It also comes with how United are set up at this stage - with the team that they have and the chaos that's been created behind the scenes. [Question marks] are not only from the English media at this stage, but also the Dutch media. We're hearing a lot of negative signals."

De Jong added: "He needs to have his own recruitment. It doesn't mean that the majority of players need to leave, but he needs to be straightforward and honest with them and say to them; 'You're not going to be first choice, but everybody starts from zero and I'm bringing my own players in'.

"That's the way you go forward, especially for him. It's very important and he did such