The Dutchman has made big calls ever since his arrival at Old Trafford, and so far he has been proven right as he chases more trophies in 2023-24
It was the start of the biggest week of Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United career at that point, a Europa League play-off decider against Barcelona followed by the Carabao Cup final. So the Dutchman naturally decided to begin it with a dinner with Sir Alex Ferguson.
The pair ate at Cibo restaurant in Wilmslow, where Ferguson still lives, and in addition to enjoying Italian food, Ten Hag feasted on the knowledge of the club’s greatest-ever manager.
"I always enjoy speaking with people who have a lot of knowledge, who have a lot of experience,” Ten Hag later explained. “He wants to share it, so he wants to help and he wants to support. You feel Manchester United is his club and he feels so committed.”
Ten Hag would not give away many details of their conversation, but five months on, after the Dutchman has made seismic decisions on the futures of Harry Maguire and David de Gea, it seems likely that they discussed how to deal with high-profile players who had passed their sell-by-date. It is, after all, one of Ferguson’s specialist subjects.
Ten Hag has only been at United for one year, but he is following Ferguson’s lead, making the tough calls his predecessors were often afraid to and looking to the future.
Getty Images'Dare to rebuild your team'
Long-term squad planning was the key to Ferguson's sustained success in his trophy-laden, 26-year reign at Old Trafford, and he was never afraid of showing players the door, no matter how much they had given the club.
Ferguson gave an insight into how he managed a player's decline during his collaboration with the Harvard Business School. In a publication titled ,the Scot outlined eight aspects of his leadership of United, one of which he called ‘Dare to Rebuild Your Team’.
"The goal was to evolve gradually, moving older players out and younger players in,” Ferguson explained. "Some players can go on for a long time, like Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, and Rio Ferdinand, but age matters.
"The hardest thing is to let go of a player who has been a great guy — but all the evidence is on the field. If you see the change, the deterioration, you have to ask yourself what things are going to be like two years ahead."
AdvertisementGetty Telling Van Nistelrooy it was over
Ferguson was an expert at spotting when a player was on a downward curve and, despite him describing it as “the hardest thing”, he often delivered the message in a cold-hearted way.
Take his treatment of Ruud van Nistelrooy, who had scored 150 goals in five seasons. Speaking to Gary Neville on , the Dutchman recently described how Ferguson told him his days at United were numbered hours before the final game of the 2005-06 season against Charlton Athletic, leaving him out of the matchday squad and barring him from attending the game. His methods were out of the Tony Soprano playbook.
Van Nistelrooy recalled: "It was in the hotel, he got me travelling to the hotel for a home game. I remember just waking up in the morning and going towards the game and he decided overnight and said, 'You're not in the squad. You'll be brought to Old Trafford and get your car and that's it'. That was the end.
"I started pre-season but you knew he was moving on without me and putting the future of the club into other players, so that was clear."
Getty Showing Keane who was really boss
Ferguson was also ruthless with Roy Keane, sacking the Irishman in the middle of the 2005-06 season after his infamous, fiercely critical appearance on following the 4-1 thrashing by Middlesbrough Keane admitted that after being told the news, he sat alone in his car and burst out crying.
Two years earlier, the manager broke David Beckham’s heart when he told the much-loved winger he was going to be sold to Real Madrid. Beckham recently admitted he could not bring himself to watch United on television for three years after he left the club for Santiago Bernabeu in 2003.
Not even United’s inspirational captain Keane or a global icon like Beckham were beyond reproach from Ferguson, who sensed that both players had lost sight of who was in charge.
"I think Roy realised he was coming to the end of his playing career and was starting to think he was the manager. He was assuming managerial responsibilities, and, of course, it’s not a managerial responsibility to go on Manchester United television and slaughter your team-mates," Ferguson wrote in his 2013 autobiography.
"The one thing I could never allow was loss of control, because control was my only saviour. As with David Beckham, I knew the minute a football player started trying to run the club, we would all be finished."
Getty ImagesDisciplining Ronaldo then drawing a line
Ten Hag is yet to kick a boot at any of his players or, to anyone’s knowledge, make them cry. But he has made tough calls on four players who all had big status for different reasons. First he took action against Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the greatest players in the world, a United legend and a man who doesn't take criticism well.
The manager gave Ronaldo only a handful of appearances after the player had missed pre-season, and when the Portugal forward refused to come on as a substitute against Tottenham in October and left Old Trafford before the full-time whistle, Ten Hag excluded him from first-team training for a few days and he was dropped for the next match against Chelsea.
To tell the truth, Ten Hag could have been tougher on Ronaldo, and he strangely brought him straight back into the team only a week later, starting him in four consecutive matches leading up to the player’s infamous interview with Piers Morgan. He also did not punish Ronaldo at the start of the campaign when the Portuguese left a pre-season friendly with Rayo Vallecano early.
In the end, Ronaldo made Ten Hag’s decision for him by rescinding his contract with the club during the World Cup. But he was not willing to dwell on the saga, and in his first media appearance after Ronaldo’s departure, the manager drew a line under it.
"He's gone and it's the past," Ten Hag said. "We are now looking forward and we're looking to the future."