It’s no secret that Manchester United will require an extensive squad rebuild in the years ahead if they are to stand any chance of competing for the major trophies again.
A hotchpotch team assembled by various different managers has stumbled through another underwhelming season and appear to have all but given up the fight in recent weeks.
The man tasked with sorting out this mess appears to be the Ajax manager Erik ten Hag and he’s going to need plenty of time, money and patience to restore United to former glories.
Erik ten Hag faces a busy first summer if he takes the Manchester United job, with urgent decisions needed on which players to sell and who to bring in
But one factor in the Dutchman’s favour is that Ajax are accustomed to rebuilding parts of their team pretty much every summer.
As soon as another talented player rolls along that famous production line, Europe’s elite clubs start circling like hawks.
This was certainly the case after Ten Hag led Ajax to the Champions League semi-finals in 2019.
Ten Hag has achieved two league and cup doubles with Ajax and a third one could happen
That talented side was immediately picked apart, with Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt and Kasper Dolberg, then later Hakim Ziyech and Donny van de Beek snapped up by wealthier European rivals.
So Ajax find themselves in an almost perpetual state of rebuilding, pretty much out of necessity, and the fact Ten Hag has since led the club to a league and cup double, with another one potentially on for this season, suggests their strength hasn’t diminished.
United won’t have their stars pinched by rivals but a clearing out of the deadwood and the signing of replacements will be needed this summer and next.
Huge calls on personnel will have to be made almost as soon as Ten Hag walks through the door.
We evaluate his record of buying players in the transfer market since his arrival in December 2017 to see whether there have been more hits or misses.
Ten Hag will…