Louis van Gaal tells Erik ten Hag not to take Manchester United job
Holland manager Louis van Gaal has advised his compatriot Erik ten Hag not to take the Manchester United job because they are primarily concerned with making money rather than being successful on the pitch.
Ten Hag is on a four-man shortlist to take over as manager at the end of the season, but Van Gaal thinks the Ajax head coach should seek another job elsewhere because of the way that United are run at boardroom level.
Van Gaal, the Holland head coach, has branded United a money-making machine in the past and reserved his strongest criticism for Ed Woodward, the former executive vice-chairman, whom he once described as “a banker” and an “evil genius”.
Van Gaal, speaking at a Holland press conference on Monday said Ten Hag would be tarnishing his career if he headed to Old Trafford in the summer.
“Erik ten Hag is a great coach and that is always good for Manchester United,” Van Gaal said. “But Manchester United are a commercial club, so it’s a difficult choice for a coach. He’d better go to a football club.”
Ten Hag, 52, has one year left on his contract, but is expected to leave Ajax in the summer.
The highly regarded Dutch coach, who has won two Eredivisie titles with Ajax, is understood to have offers on the table from a number of other clubs.
His stock rose across Europe when he guided Ajax to the Champions League semi-finals three years ago and is also regarded as one of the best coaches of young players in Europe.
Under his watch, homegrown players like Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt and Donny van de Beek excelled before being sold to Barcelona, Juventus and United for more than £170 million.
The club are also keen to talk to Mauricio Pochettino, the Paris Saint-Germain manager, Spain’s Luis Enrique and the Seville head coach Julen Lopetegui.
Van Gaal spent two seasons in charge at Old Trafford before being sacked in 2016 after failing to qualify for the Champions League. The Dutchman did win the FA Cup in his final game in charge of United however.
In a 2019 interview with the BBC, Van Gaal hit out at Woodward, who was replaced by Richard Arnold, the former managing director, last month.
“At the moment there is a structure with a scouting division and above that is someone at Woodward’s right hand,” Van Gaal said three years ago. “The structure is not so bad but the right hand has to be a technical director with a football view, not somebody with a banker’s role.
“Unfortunately, we are talking about a commercial club, not a football club. I spoke to [ Alex] Ferguson about this and in his last years, he also had problems with it.”
Van Gaal took his criticism of Woodward further the following year in the podcast Een-tweetje met Yves, when he accused the former investment banker of going behind his back and lining José Mourinho up to take his job at the end of the 2015-16 campaign.
