What Man Utd must do to keep Ten Hag promise

FT Desk

Updated: 14 Aug 2022 04:03 CDT
3 min read

Erik ten Hag was promised five new players on taking the Manchester United job. So far two Dutch league defenders have been signed as well as a free transfer from Brentford.

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Not that Christian Eriksen is a bad player, but he must have been questioning his career choices on Saturday when his former employers thrashed the Red Devils 4-0 at their Gtech Community Stadium.

Lisandro Martinez - a €67 million signing from Ten Hag's former club Ajax - was hooked at half-time, while Tyrell Malacia, a €17m acquisition from Feyenoord, was only deemed good enough for a place on the bench while Luke Shaw started at left-back.

🤬 Angry Ronaldo snubs Ten Hagpic.twitter.com/wFI3tck1ci
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) August 13, 2022

Ten Hag has been public about the need to strengthen, and repeated the plea on Saturday: "we need new players!"

Ten Hag needs to take some responsibility for the team he puts out, but the suspicion remains that it was his own team who targeted Martinez and Malacia as much as Man Utd's.

Desired targets

In the Dutchman's defence, he wanted Jurrien Timber, Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal told the youngster a move to Old Trafford might affect his World Cup chances, and Ten Hag had to go for Martinez instead.

Frenkie de Jong was his desired flagship summer signing, but his former Ajax midfielder is still owed €20m in deferred wages by Barcelona and won't budge. Instead, he got Eriksen - a fine player, but one who is now the wrong side of 30.

As a minimum requirement, Man Utd must conclude the two transfers they have been most closely linked with in recent days: Mauro Icardi from PSG and Adrien Rabiot from Juventus.

Both bring significant off-field baggage with them. But Icardo could help replace Ronaldo's goals in a way Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford might only dream of, while Rabiot's presence in a midfield shorn of Paul Pogba and Nemanja Matic is urgent.

But was United must really do is allow Ten Hag the time to turn the club around. Implicit in the promise to "sign five players" is the commitment to sign five good players. The problem for United right now is that the best ones don't want to come.