Ten Hag to Man Utd: Inside the ‘inside stories’

He’s been the leading candidate for the last couple of months, with Mauricio Pochettino, Julen Lopetegui and others falling by the wayside. But why did Manchester United plump for Erik ten Hag? What’s the budget? Who’s coming with him?

We’ve gone inside the ‘inside stories’ on the man talkin’ bout a revolution at Old Trafford.

We start with the folks over at The Athletic. Take a breath, there’s a lot to unpack…

They report that the United bigwigs – football director John Murtough, technical director Darren Fletcher and chief executive Richard Arnold – flew over to Amsterdam to hold talks with Ten Hag on March 21, when they were ‘taken aback by Ten Hag’s forthright views’. They don’t appear so happy with Ralf Rangnick’s honesty, but anyway…

They were ‘extremely impressed’ with the lack of ‘sugarcoating’ and came away from ‘multiple direct meetings’ after that initial contact ‘with the impression of him enhanced’.

They had been keen to speak to the Dutch boss since January having ‘factored in underlying metrics and transfer spend’, and despite ‘large dossiers’ being compiled on Pochettino and Lopetegui, both of whom the club met with, Ten Hag was ‘more compelling than others’.

United did also look to tempt Luis Enrique, but having spoken to the Spain boss it became clear that he would not leave the national team before the World Cup in Qatar and the club did not want to extend Ralf Rangnick’s interim spell.

Ten Hag was the ‘standout choice’ by February, when Fletcher and Murtough ‘placed calls to contacts to gain a fuller picture’.

‘One early reservation for some at Old Trafford about Ten Hag centred on his ability to take on a club the scale of United’, with club officials concerned by Donny van de Beek’s struggles in