I spoke to Erik ten Hag about Jadon Sancho and the new Man United era - his answers spoke volumes

Erik ten Hag strode purposefully through the double doors protecting the sanctity of the dressing room and tunnel area at the Lerkendal Stadion and into a bustling mixed zone dominated by Norwegian journalists and TV crews.

He strode over to the three British journalists who had made the trip to the north of Norway to watch Manchester United's opening pre-season friendly of the summer, shook our hands and exchanged the briefest of small talk. He had had a good summer, he said. Everyone knows where he holidayed, that's for sure. He was still in Ibiza when he found out his job was safe.

In truth, small talk has rarely been Ten Hag's thing. The mind goes back to his first sit-down with the written journalists covering United's pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia in 2022. In an attempt to put him at ease, we planned to ask the golf enthusiast if he caught the end of The Open the previous evening. "Not that much," came the reply.

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It feels like it's all business with Ten Hag, which is no bad thing, so we got straight into it again in Norway, but not before he asked the local journalists not to record the conversation. He made it clear this was for the three of us who had followed United out here, a gesture always appreciated in friendlies that come with no contractual obligations from a media perspective.

In truth, getting to speak to Ten Hag was going to be more important for us than the game. It was a young, low-key squad and a forgettable fixture. When the manager came out to speak we breathed a sigh of relief. The presence of a backpack revealed