Ten Hag lines up another Dutch raid for Man Utd

Stuart Telford

• 9 Apr 2023 08:46 BST
• 3 min read

Erik ten Hag, Antony and Lisandro Martinez all arrived at Manchester United from the Netherlands last summer, and there could be more where they came from…

Ten Hag won the Dutch domestic double with Ajax in 2021 with Antony and Martinez as cornerstones of his team, and he was keen to bring both to Old Trafford last summer, eventually getting his way with more than €150 million spent on them.

With and EFL Cup win in the bag and a place in next season's Champions League in sight, United are set to dip back into the Dutch market, although this time at Eredivisie leaders Feyenoord.

READ: Arsenal scout 'next Luka Modric' at Feyenoord

"A host of Premier League clubs had scouts at the explosive Dutch De Klassieker this week to watch highly-rated Feyenoord pair Orkun Kokcu and Santiago Gimenez," report the Mirror.

"Manchester United, Tottenham, Brighton, Leicester, West Ham and Brentford were in Rotterdam for a KNVB Cup semi-final with Ajax that had to be halted twice by the referee because of crowd trouble."

Feyenoord lost the game 2-1 despite Gimenez scoring his 22nd goal of the season, but that won’t have put United off, with the Red Devils confident of beating other interested parties to their signatures.

READ: Paul Scholes' doubts about Man Utd signing Harry Kane

A pair of profiles United need

A new No.9 is understood to be a priority at Old Trafford, with Wout Weghorst misfiring and 27-goal top scorer Marcus Rashford doing his best work from the left wing, but they have been quoted fees in excess of €100 million for top targets Harry Kane and Victor Osimhen.

Mexico striker Gimenez is rated at €14.5m by FootballTransfers' in-house algorithm, and could be a significantly cheaper alternative.

Kokcu is more of a box-to-box midfielder, meanwhile - which is a profile of player Ten Hag wants as he looks to move to a 4-3-3 next season. The Turkey international has been likened to Luka Modric and valued at €22.9m.