Come on you, oranje Reds – but will Erik ten Hag’s Dutch makeover of Man Utd backfire?

Having survived review of his position, manager has wasted no time in strengthening his homeland’s influence on squad and coaching staff

When Erik ten Hag was appointed Manchester United manager in April 2022 the club ran an article on their website trumpeting the “four-decade-long Oranje-Red relationship” which went back to Arnold Muhren’s debut for them in the early 1980s.
Little did we – and probably United – know then just how all-in they would become with the Netherlands. After Ten Hag’s survival in the summer the link has been strengthened remarkably, even though the levers of control had apparently changed.
But with the Premier League campaign kicking off with a home fixture against Fulham on Friday night, will going Dutch give the magic touch to United?
The Dutchification of United is undeniable, both on the field and in the dugout. Ten Hag denies that it is a deliberate policy. “First of all it is club decisions, none of them is only my decision,” the United manager protested. “It is always backed or even brought up through the scouting, recruitment, technical director, sporting director, it is a decision made by more than only one. But, some, you know also players and personalities and it has to fit also in the finance.”
And yet five of the 14 permanent signings made under Ten Hag are players he coached at Ajax, the club he left to take over at United.
Given United’s resources, and with £560  million spent under him, and their global reach, the Dutch link is astonishing. Two of those five, Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui, were signed this summer following Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s takeover of the football side of the business and the recruitment of sporting director Dan Ashworth,  technical director Jason Wilcox and an interim director of recruitment, Christopher Vivell.
De Ligt and Mazraoui join Antony, Lisandro Martínez and goalkeeper Andre Onana as former Ajax/Ten Hag players. Christian Eriksen also started his career at the Amsterdam club, although not under Ten Hag.
The striker Joshua Zirkzee and left-back Tyrell Malacia are also both Dutch internationals. Even Mason Mount was on Ten Hag’s radar after a loan spell at Vitesse Arnhem seven years ago. In terms of loanees at United, Sofyan Ambrabat played under Ten Hag at Utrecht, while Wout Weghorst is another Netherlands international forward. Both have since left.
It means that United have spent £362 million on players with Dutch links. That is 65 per cent of the club’s total outlay, with 11 of the 20 signings having experience of the Eredivisie. Of course, managers like to surround themselves with the familiar although United’s Dutch contingent is, by any measure, a high ratio.
Jose Mourinho was famous for cleaving to the tried and trusted. Not only were the four-strong backroom staff who joined him at Chelsea in 2004 all fellow Portuguese (or Portuguese speakers or residents), but two of his key signings were from the club he left, Porto, as he brought in Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira. They had just won the Champions League and Mourinho’s thinking was they could help set the standard for Chelsea’s squad.
The logic is sound and proved successful. The same cannot, not yet anyway, be said of Ten Hag at United and not least because his most expensive signing of all, Antony at £85 million, has been an undeniable flop.
Yet Ten Hag appears to have won his battle, with United deciding to keep him as manager and extending his contract, despite the club talking to a host of other coaches, and Thomas Tuchel in particular.
There was also no renegotiation of his powers as manager, despite that being hinted at, and although Ten Hag has indicated he needs more support, and applauds the changes to the way the club are run, he appears to have got his way so far with a number of transfers. Admittedly, though, United have agreed better deals with De Ligt and Mazraoui, signed from Bayern Munich, than with other former Ajax players.
But it is not just the squad who have the Dutch thread running through them. Ten Hag was certainly encouraged by the new United hierarchy to change his coaching staff and while this is often regarded as a sign that the manager is being undermined, he brought in even more Dutchmen.
Out went Mitchell van der Gaag, another Dutch coach, and the former South Africa striker Benny McCarthy – he also played for Ajax – while Steve McClaren would have been retained but decided to leave and manage the Jamaica national team after his role at United was downgraded from assistant manager to first-team coach. McClaren, by the way, is another with Dutch links, having managed FC Twente, where Ten Hag was his assistant for a season.
The most significant appointment has been the return of former United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy. Although Ten Hag did not previously know his compatriot, he was asked to look at options and made the recommendation to hire the former Netherlands international.
Rene Hake left his job in charge of Go Ahead Eagles to take over many of Van der Gaag’s responsibilities, such as scheduling and session planning, while Jelle ten Rouwelaar joined as goalkeeping coach from Burnley having played for NAC Breda.
The only non-Dutch arrival was Swede Andreas Georgson, who will take the lead on set-piece coaching and individual development. Like Van Nistelrooy, who won the Dutch Cup with PSV Eindhoven, and Hake, he has managed, leaving Lillestrom to accept United’s offer.
That would point to a concern that Ten Hag needs more experience around him. Even Georgson has worked at three previous Premier League clubs. It would also suggest, with Van Nistelrooy in particular, that there may also be a caretaker-in-waiting should things not work out.
Maybe that is too cynical, because United have certainly continued to back Ten Hag’s Dutch stamp on the club and there have been many visible signs the club are supporting him and not least around the pre-season tour. For the Reds, the immediate future remains Oranje.