Eric ten Haag seems ready to win his battle with Manchester United to appoint his friend and former colleague Steve McLaren, who must return to Old Trafford to be one of two new assistants with Mitchell van der Haag.
Telegraph Sport revealed today that the club initially rejected Ten Hague’s request to attract McLaren, together with Van der Haag, in the days before today’s official announcement of the Dutchman’s appointment. Instead, Ten Hag was asked by United to review existing staff first before making any important decisions. It is now clear that McLaren will be appointed.
McLaren and Ten Hague met at FC Twente in the Netherlands in 2008, when Ten Hague was the English manager’s assistant in his first season before leaving for PSV Eindhoven. Van der Haag was Ten Hague’s longtime assistant at Ajax. Ten Hague agreed to a three-year contract with Old Trafford for another year, but the club announced the deal without reaching an agreement for its behind-the-scenes staff. Negotiations on the contract are being led by United by Matt Judge.
Van der Haag has not yet left Ajax and negotiations for his deal to join United continue. The club is also expected to make a deal for McLaren in the coming weeks. There are currently a number of employees at United from Sir Alex Ferguson’s former assistant Mike Phelan and football director Darren Fletcher, who is sitting on the bench during matches and has been told by interim manager Ralph Rangnik not to shout instructions at players.
Eric Ramsey is another recent employee in the first team, promoted by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer from the academy. Chris Armas will leave when Ranknik retires. Richard Hartis is the current goalkeeping coach. Ten Hague wants McLaren because of his experience in English football, as well as his knowledge of United when they were a successful club that won trophies at Ferguson. McLaren joined in the middle of the season, winning the triple trophy in 1999, and left in 2001 to pursue his own managerial career at Middlesbrough.
In recent years, he has worked with FIFA on a project led by Arsene Wenger to assess development paths in all 208 FIFA nations. McLaren will step in as assistant manager with the usual responsibilities for the match in support of Ten Hag. But he will also have some oversight over the day-to-day running of the club and check who does what.
The appointment of United’s Ten Hag was led by the club’s de facto sporting director, John Murtow, based on new CEO Richard Arnold. Murtow is emerging as a key figure in the collapse after Solskjaer, appointing Rangnik and now Ten Haag.
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