Manchester United risk upsetting Cristiano Ronaldo by not consulting him or the dressing room over the proposed appointment of Erik ten Hag.
The Red Devils have a verbal agreement in place with the Dutch manager who is set to become the club’s next permanent boss signing a three-year deal at Old Trafford. Ten Hag will finish out the season with Ajax before arriving in the summer.
Ten Hag and Mauricio Pochettino were initially the leading contenders for the job but the former emerged as United’s preferred candidate after the process for a new manager officially got underway. And United have gone against the squad’s wishes by pursuing Ten Hag.
It was claimed that Pochettino was the dressing room’s pick to become the new head coach. Club chiefs did not gauge the group’s opinion of Ten Hag, including Cristiano Ronaldo, who previously vetoed Antonio Conte when he was available back in October, according to the Manchester Evening News.
The report states that the United hierarchy were ‘not keen’ on the Italian and Ronaldo’s reservations about him were fed back to the board as they opted to stick with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who was eventually sacked in November – at which point Conte was unavailable as he had joined Spurs. The Red Devils decided against consulting the Portgual star this time around, however, despite his significant influence in the changing room as United finalise a deal for Ten Hag paying the 52-year-old’s £1.7million release clause.
Pochettino might have been the player’s pick for the job but his lack of silverware during his time as a manager was ultimately the deciding factor, according to The Athletic. Ten Hag, meanwhile, has two Dutch league and cup doubles, with a chance to make it three this season, to his name and has previous experience of a major rebuild, something he has done twice during his five-year spell at the Amsterdam Arena.
Ten Hag was initially reluctant to accept United’s offer given the scale of the project and how much control he would have over it in terms of recruitment, but once those concerns were eased, he was happy to verbally accept their proposal.
