'He will blow your mind!' - How 'awkward' Manchester United target Erik Ten Hag transformed Ajax - Inside Europe

Let me start by telling you a little story about Erik Ten Hag’s first day at Ajax. Normally not so much of big deal but… he walked in with a suitcase from his former club FC Utrecht. The equivalent would be Bielsa walking into Carrington in his Leeds United tracksuit after being appointed Manchester United manager.

You can imagine what kind of first impression Ten Hag made at the Ajax supporters. Not so good… Ad/> Ajax fans hated him, even before his first day. Ten Hag is a so-called ‘farmer’, from the countryside and this is everything the arrogant Ajax fans detest in the big city of Amsterdam.

He also has a strange voice, all reasons to make a lot of fun of him. The bald, talking easter egg meme was born… Premier LeagueMan Utd speak to Ten Hag as manager search hots up6 HOURS AGO Also his media appearances are quite… s***! His first press conference was a couple of days before ‘de klassieker’ against Feyenoord and Ten Hag only gave answers consisting of one sentence. One of the worst we’ve seen from a new Ajax manager.

It was like Ajax was playing against a small team, not the biggest match of the season against their biggest rival. All the journalists were laughing, “what was this?!” Ten Hag was literally the opposite of Louis van Gaal. With Van Gaal you can laugh.

A press conference is a game and he plays with you and your questions. He speaks a lot, about himself and his philosophy and all things around a match. But Ten Hag won’t.

He is very reserved. Ten Hag won his first match, 1-0 against Feyenoord, But Ajax was in ruins when he took over. PSV won the championship after beating Ajax with 3-0 in Amsterdam.