Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

[Greck]

I don't get this stuff from the Caf Ajax fans about he doesn't like youth. Your team constantly churning it out, he's worked well with it at different stages of his time their, as well as mixing it with experience.


He clearly values the experience to go with the youth. Looks like sound management to me.



He also been your most successful manager since Van Gaal I think. So I'm enjoying the talk from people like it's just standard from Ajax, he just doing what the club does, it's all down to the club, it's a given

Tbf they couldn't all have conspired to spin this narrative. Moreover it won't do us any good to deny it if there's the slightest bit of truth to it. It's worrying as hell and I hope the luxury of having more money to spend in some upside down way opens him to taking more risk on youth. Bit of a reach of a hope but yeah. Having a reputation for not using youth at Ajax of all places is like a Dortmund manager not using youth. It's supposed to be next to impossible not to be youth oriented at those clubs.

We might also have to rework our academy setup to favour the kind of youngsters that excel in tiki taka. In any case I'm not one of those who think he's going to give donkeys "proper coaching" to miraculously transform them into his type of player.

 

[MDFC Manager]

Because he doesn't seem to like youth, at least not as much as people say he is. Ajax has a proud tradition of giving loads of opportunities for academy players. Ten Hag doesn't give those opportunities. Players like Timber, Mazraoui, Dest only got in the squad because of injuries/absences and they immediately stayed in and around the starting XI, showing they were good enough all along, even though they didn't get any minutes before. The usual way Ajax eases in those players is with minutes in games against smaller opponents, games Ajax usually wins very easily. Ten Hag doesn't do that, he always makes the same 3/4 substitutes every match, unless there's an injury.
Examples of Ten Hag's reluctance to use academy players are Kenneth Taylor who has started the last 2 games after only having played a few minutes this season. He instantly became the best midfielder in those 2 matches, proving he was good enough all along. Another example is Unuvar, who has been tearing up the Dutch version of the Championship with 28 goals+assists as a winger/midfielder, yet has to play 1 minute in a league game and only got minutes in 2 cup games against amateurs.

The media and some people here seem to think that due to Ajax having a young squad(forced upon Ten Hag by the board due to club philosophy), Ten Hag favors youth. But that is totally not the case. If Ten Hag really had any power regarding transfers, he would've had a lot more players like Klaiber, Labyad and Haller, older players from his former club that aren't really good enough to play for Ajax. Luckily Haller scores a lot, but he's not good enough.

Ok this is worrying stuff.

 

[tenpoless]

MailSport.

 

[Caesar2290]

Tbf they couldn't all have conspired to spin this narrative. Moreover it won't do us any good to deny it if there's the slightest bit of truth to it. It's worrying as hell and I hope the luxury of having more money to spend in some upside down way opens him to taking more risk on youth. Bit of a reach of a hope but yeah. Having a reputation for not using youth at Ajax of all places is like a Dortmund manager not using youth. It's supposed to be next to impossible not to be youth oriented at those clubs.

We might also have to rework our academy setup to favour the kind of youngsters that excel in tiki taka. In any case I'm not one of those who think he's going to give donkeys "proper coaching" to miraculously transform them into his type of player.

Who is all? So far I've only seen only 1 Ajax fan that spins this. Tbf he views everything Ten Hag in a negative light. I mean he even stated that 4-4-2 today was a sackable offense and that Ajax played poorly despite putting 3 past PEC and being comfortable.

Re: the youth

Aside from the class of 92 even SAF would do the same thing. Macheda, O'Shea, Brown, Evans all got their breakthroughs when some members of our first team were injured.

Remember a certain Pogba that left United because the the likes of Fabio and O'Shea were starting ahead of him? Or Rossi who didn't want to warm the bench for us?

This notion that if someone is good enough is old enough is a bit romantic if you ask me.

Now I would be worried if Ten Hag would bench them after the player that got injured would return, but so far the exact opposite is true. If you are given the chance and you impress then you are playing in the starting XI. If not, then back to the bench you go.

 

[WPMUFC]

Ajax were still pressing 3-0 up in injury time He has soooo much work ahead of him. Our lot tried for 45 mins and chucked a sad for 6 months

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

Not good enough to play for Ajax and lucky?

Hasn’t he got over 30 goals, top scorer in the league and scored in several CL games on the bounce?

What would have made him good enough for Ajax?

May be according to the poster, good enough for Ajax is like VDB, FDJ, and De Ligt. Haller only looks good credit to ETH. Different manager might not even make him looks good at Ajax.

 

[Greck]

Who is all? So far I've only seen only 1 Ajax fan that spins this. Tbf he views everything Ten Hag in a negative light. I mean he even stated that 4-4-2 today was a sackable offense and that Ajax played poorly despite putting 3 past PEC and being comfortable.

Re: the youth

Aside from the class of 92 even SAF would do the same thing. Macheda, O'Shea, Brown, Evans all got their breakthroughs when some members of our first team were injured.

Remember a certain Pogba that left United because the the likes of Fabio and O'Shea were starting ahead of him? Or Rossi who didn't want to warm the bench for us?

This notion that if someone is good enough is old enough is a bit romantic if you ask me.

Now I would be worried if Ten Hag would bench them after the player that got injured would return, but so far the exact opposite is true. If you are given the chance and you impress then you are playing in the starting XI. If not, then back to the bench you go.

The others who have echoed those sentiments are Ajaxsuarez and ajaxcunian I think.

Spoiler: AjaxSuarez's post on ETH and youth.

I'm sorry to say that this won't be the case. Even at a club like Ajax, in a league like the Eredivisie, Ten Hag has a pathological need for the illusion of "depth". He's afraid of having to rely on academy players, and so for the past couple seasons we've bloated our squad with mediocre signings on his behalf (Klaiber, Labyad, Promes the best examples) and not let go of players when offers come in (Alvarez, Tagliafico, Neres(ish)) because he needs to feel like every position is at least double-occupied with "experienced" players.

Then he goes and never plays any of them, sticking to the same starting XI with maybe one or two other players occasionally swapped in (think Klaassen).

Our only DM for 2 seasons now has been Alvarez, and we have a promising player, Taylor, who can play in a similar (though more of a "footballer" in nature) role, yet he never ever gives him proper minutes, and not a single start, and so the second Alvarez falls away he ends up resorting to Klaassen or Kudus on Alvarez' position and then when the entire defensive organisation falls apart (which it invariably does in those games) everyone starts saying how clearly important Alvarez must be, rather than that plugging his position with completely different players who don't hold position is the problem.

Literally Ten Hag will never give a Taylor a chance to get the experience needed so that that same Ten Hag would be willing to trust him. It's so annoying.

Gravenberch and Timber are the two exceptions to this story. I guess Dest at the time maybe as well.
Dest and Rensch only got their chances because of how often Mazraoui is injured though.
Ten Hag then tried to prevent that from happening again by bringing in the completely mediocre Klaiber from his old club Utrecht (for millions), but then he tore his knee and so when Mazraoui had his inevitable spell of injuries Rensch got his minutes.

But the second Rensch had a bit of lesser form after losing his position at the start of this season Ten Hag has again become completely afraid of ever trusting him, or subbing him off at half time when he did get to start again but looked uneasy.

Ten Hag will revel in the chance to have a squad of 30 seasoned veterans at a top club, but will still only ever use 12-13 of them.

I'm not agreeing with any of this, I'm just pointing out several others have said it.

Also I'd rather not have to defend SAF's usage of youth against a manager who hasn't reported for work. It's becoming way too common on here for people to say SAF had all the flaws of whomever is the present manager. Mostly because it's rarely ever true. SAF blooded youth a lot. League cup games were academy players and reserves till we got to the semifinals. He also always brought on young players when we had leads. Players like Jones and Smalling broke into our first team relatively quick. Not only did SAF play youth liberally he was an adventurous risk taking nut who played them out of positions to help guide their development in weak areas. Players like Pogba and Rossi were absolutely not the norm in SAF's handling of youngsters.

 

[Cheimoon]

He does, but he doesn't decide which players are contracted at the club. Ajax always goes for youth, academy first, if there's no suitable academy player they preferably buy a young player. So the Ajax coach always gets a very young squad, not by choice. Ten Hag's preferred signings were all players of his old club and older(Labyad, Klaiber, Haller). The fact that Kenneth Taylor has been the best midfielder the last 2 matches while being basically ignored for the whole season proves to me that Ten Hag really doesn't favor youth players and only gives them a shot when he's forced to.

The bolded is not really true anymore. It was previously, but it's exactly the tradition Overmars broke with a couple of years ago in a bid to achieve a stronger presence in Europe for Ajax. Hence Ajax signing people like Tadic and Blind.

I also feel like you're cherry picking a bit the last few pages to hold things against Ten Hag, to make it seem that he's responsible for what doesn't go well and less for what does. I might be wrong, but I don't think this is entirely deserved by Ten Hag.

 

[sunama]

If he agrees to any of those being offered a contract he may as well stay in Holland

So true.
We need to get rid of most of these players. Remember, these are the players who can't run or play with any kind of intensity because they get too tired. If a player told me that, I'd transfer list immediately. He isn't athletic enough to compete with teams that do have athletes in their teams.
Ralf R has repeatedly stated that most of these players like the ability to raise their physicality and this should be the green light to sell them to clubs who are happy with players who can't run/play hard.
It is astounding how we have ended up with players who are so unfit, when compared to our rivals. Staggering.

 

[tjb]

Ok this is worrying stuff.

I would argue our issue is forcing our managers to get young players involved. We literally just wasted the last few seasons hoping that Rashford and Martial would come good

 

[Fluctuation0161]

Ecstatic about this. Next few years will probably my shape up like this if everything goes according to plan;

Year 1: Utter confusion. Starting XI at the beginning of the season likely very different from final match day starting XI as ETH explores who works and fits and works to impose his system (likely a 4-2-1-3 before shifting to his preferred 4-3-3). You’ll see wonky losses and things won’t often look fluid. Inconsistency will be common but there will be a plan, and the players will not look like they just don’t care. ETH will play with different tactics as he adjusts to the EPL. In a low stakes season, ETH’s experimentation will be welcome although many will think he’s out of his depth for going out on a limb with little on the line.
Year 2: Things start to make sense. There’s an established identity and ETH has quite a few players he really likes. The team has a defined playing style and they begin to accumulate results. They’re not world-beaters, but respectable on any given day. The team could go on a run for EFL or FA Cup, and the focus is top 4 football. ETH has mostly adapted his routine and his tactics to the EPL and this confidence is shared by a team that improves weekly.
Year 3: ETH has his team. The plan is in place, formations are drilled, and years of roster building have given him his ideal XI. The team competes as it should and challenges for the league or Champions League. However, United at this point are likely a team built around a strong XI and a super sub or two. The team can play, but the question is how far they go with whatever depth they have. Tactics are not so much the issue as filling in the edges to compete with the super teams (Madrid, Barca, Bayern, Liverpool, City). ETH likely drops a player everyone loves while simultaneously making a stunning signing that makes everyone clap and say ‘Yup that’s why we picked ‘em!’
Year 4-Forever: ETH has his men, a filled out bench, and the ability to rotate properly. Everything is on the table and United are competing for every bit of silverware. They combine a mixture of strong veterans in ETH’s system with youth who have come up being prepped to fit in and now United are in the proper business of flipping older players for cash and investing in promising youth to create a cycle of success. These are golden days


OR

It all comes crashing down after a year or so and we all head down to the pub for a pint and watch Liverpool/City win yet another league title while we wonder whether it’s worth living on this good earth any longer

Probably very accurate. Year 1 will be part of a big rebuild tactical change and culture shift, hopefully.

 

[nainaisson]

Ten Hag out!

Palace would also like to bring Aaron Wan-Bissaka home from his Manchester United misery but their hopes are slim.

United insiders claim new boss Erik ten Hag will stick with the £50m right-back.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/18426843/cheick-doucoure-crystal-palace-transfer-exclusive/

At least we know an in form Wan-Bissaka can defend. Not sure the same can be said about Dalot.

 

[Marcus]

I think the key is mentality. Whether young or older, as long as you have the fighting spirit and hate to lose (see Hannibal), that will be the key. We should not play young players for the sake of it. They need to be good enough in all aspects of the game. If you view being at United as merely a job to collect your paycheck and then party later on, this should not be the club for you.

 

[tenpoless]

To be fair our current academy graduates in first team havent been that good, in fact their demeanors towards the club are awful.

Pogba
Rashford
Lingard
Greenwood

If the next generation is similar to those then just skip them. I will leave McTomminay out of it at least he is not a twitter moaner.

 

[Mercurial]

To be fair our current academy graduates in first team havent been that good, in fact their demeanors towards the club are awful.

Pogba
Rashford
Lingard
Greenwood

If the next generation is similar to those then just skip them. I will leave McTomminay out of it at least he is not a twitter moaner.

It's not an academy issue.

Rashford for all his injuries and lack of form at least cannot be blamed for being a non pro against the club can he? Was a long time the darling and a model pro. Always tried his best and such, playing relentlessly while having big injuries etc. Not his fault the club didn't capitalize on the up, and not the best mixture to develop having top salary and shit leadership and a bunch of disgruntled seniors around to mentor you.

Pogba, a golden boy winner, went on to win a world cup for NT and an EL for us and titles in Italy, when him / us saw it didn't work out for various reasons sprinkled with inconsistencies and wanted out, the club/Ed vetoed (wrong move in hindsight). Keeping a player at that level and salary where it clearly doesn't work out is insane decision making.

Lingard was a headless chicken low rank speedy squaddie but had some decent spells when called upon in times of need and was never much more, ego was fed by poor leadership and should have also been let go when he wanted out / had hubris a few years ago and had run out his overall usefulness.

Greenwood is a whole different issue I'm not even interested in going into.

We have a hierarchy and leadership issue, not an academy issue.

 

[AjaxCunian]

Disappointed that Daramy / Ihattaren didnt get any minutes yesterday.

Ajax had so much space, they would have been awesome.

 

[DJ_21]

Why are people saying he doesn’t like youth? I thought that was one of his main traits to devlop youth and play attractive football, that’s obviously why we chose to hire him as our manager. Didn’t he bring de light and de jong up to the first team and developed them and then made massive profit on them? If your good enough then it doesn’t matter how old you are. He does buy quite a lot of younger players though which is good, we know he can develop younger players but we don’t know how he’ll work with older and star players With big personality’s like we have.

 

[PepG]

Ten Hag is giving the youth players a chance as much as Guardiola does at City.. Make of that whatever you want. First priority of both managers is winning not development of players. If a player is ready to go into the first team straight away like Foden he will be played. Otherwise will stay at the bench.

 

[MDFC Manager]

I would argue our issue is forcing our managers to get young players involved. We literally just wasted the last few seasons hoping that Rashford and Martial would come good

Agreed, but there needs to be a balance.

 

[Flexdegea]

Because he doesn't seem to like youth, at least not as much as people say he is. Ajax has a proud tradition of giving loads of opportunities for academy players. Ten Hag doesn't give those opportunities. Players like Timber, Mazraoui, Dest only got in the squad because of injuries/absences and they immediately stayed in and around the starting XI, showing they were good enough all along, even though they didn't get any minutes before. The usual way Ajax eases in those players is with minutes in games against smaller opponents, games Ajax usually wins very easily. Ten Hag doesn't do that, he always makes the same 3/4 substitutes every match, unless there's an injury.
Examples of Ten Hag's reluctance to use academy players are Kenneth Taylor who has started the last 2 games after only having played a few minutes this season. He instantly became the best midfielder in those 2 matches, proving he was good enough all along. Another example is Unuvar, who has been tearing up the Dutch version of the Championship with 28 goals+assists as a winger/midfielder, yet has to play 1 minute in a league game and only got minutes in 2 cup games against amateurs.

The media and some people here seem to think that due to Ajax having a young squad(forced upon Ten Hag by the board due to club philosophy), Ten Hag favors youth. But that is totally not the case. If Ten Hag really had any power regarding transfers, he would've had a lot more players like Klaiber, Labyad and Haller, older players from his former club that aren't really good enough to play for Ajax. Luckily Haller scores a lot, but he's not good enough.

I honestly don't get the whole push back from Ajax around the youth. You talk like he only playing them because he forced too, but he quite clear from he started to now their has been a strong presence of youth in the team, more so when they went on that champs league run.

Even the team now got the youth as well. Timber etc all young, He clearly can work well with youth, he just doesn't play ever young kid available for the sake of it.


Seems a strange point to keep hammering it making out he doesn't like playing youth. From what I seen he clearly thinks a mix of youth and experience is the way to go and how could you argue he dominated the league since they.

I'd not be expecting him to just come into us and just play the under 21s for the sake of it. If they good enough they will play, it's that simple. It's winning football in the end of day.

Obviously yous boys know more than me, but it's the same point in seeing from the Ajax fans since he was announced, like black and white people are saying

 

[TheReligion]

I honestly don't get the whole push back from Ajax around the youth. You talk like he only playing them because he forced too, but he quite clear from he started to now their has been a strong presence of youth in the team, more so when they went on that champs league run.

Even the team now got the youth as well. Timber etc all young, He clearly can work well with youth, he just doesn't play ever young kid available for the sake of it.


Seems a strange point to keep hammering it making out he doesn't like playing youth. From what I seen he clearly thinks a mix of youth and experience is the way to go and how could you argue he dominated the league since they.

I'd not be expecting him to just come into us and just play the under 21s for the sake of it. If they good enough they will play, it's that simple. It's winning football in the end of day.

Obviously yous boys know more than me, but it's the same point in seeing from the Ajax fans since he was announced, like black and white people are saying

It does seem some of the Ajax bunch have suddenly tried to make out EtH isn’t very good now he’s leaving them.

I guess they are just disappointed which is understandable

 

[R'hllor]

ETH has to be careful, some decisions have to be made from a get go and there is no correction if he makes a wrong move.

 

[phelans shorts]

So true.
We need to get rid of most of these players. Remember, these are the players who can't run or play with any kind of intensity because they get too tired. If a player told me that, I'd transfer list immediately. He isn't athletic enough to compete with teams that do have athletes in their teams.
Ralf R has repeatedly stated that most of these players like the ability to raise their physicality and this should be the green light to sell them to clubs who are happy with players who can't run/play hard.
It is astounding how we have ended up with players who are so unfit, when compared to our rivals. Staggering.

It is very important to point out that Ralf isn’t, and never really has been, a very good manager who gets the best out of what he has. Just because he isn’t capable doesn’t mean others can’t.

 

[Cloud7]

Ten Hag is giving the youth players a chance as much as Guardiola does at City.. Make of that whatever you want. First priority of both managers is winning not development of players. If a player is ready to go into the first team straight away like Foden he will be played. Otherwise will stay at the bench.

Yeah I don’t see the need to force youth players into the team above all else. Pep has the right of it in how he handles integration of youth. If they’re good enough they get a chance.

 

[Flexdegea]

It does seem some of the Ajax bunch have suddenly tried to make out EtH isn’t very good now he’s leaving them.

I guess they are just disappointed which is understandable

That exactly the vibe I'm getting, basically he just a figure head there and they always dominated it, even heard some glad he going


The whole youth thing is strange angle as well to try and hammer him when the team he is even playing at the moment has got younger talent playing too, and the best Ajax team he had back 2019 was mostly all kids, who then got sold. Why any one from our side be worried about the ajax fan narrative I'm not sure, he hardly expected to start the youth team for us and build from their. If they good enough they get their shot, if they don't get their chance it's because they arent good enough to be starting for a team who aiming for big prizes, it's always been that case.

 

[VP89]

That exactly the vibe I'm getting, basically he just a figure head there and they always dominated it, even heard some glad he going


The whole youth thing is strange angle as well to try and hammer him when the team he is even playing at the moment has got younger talent playing too, and the best Ajax team he had back 2019 was mostly all kids, who then got sold. Why any one from our side be worried about the ajax fan narrative I'm not sure, he hardly expected to start the youth team for us and build from their. If they good enough they get their shot, if they don't get their chance it's because they arent good enough to be starting for a team who aiming for big prizes, it's always been that case.

Can you point out which Ajax fans here want him gone?

 

[Flexdegea]

Can you point out which Ajax fans here want him gone?

There was defo one of the Caf posters who an Ajax fan who was talking along them lines.



actually think he has Ajax in his name, was weeks ago

 

[VP89]

There was defo one of the Caf posters who an Ajax fan who was talking along them lines.



actually think he has Ajax in his name, was weeks ago

Ok so one, and not some. And even that one you cant seem to name or quote.

 

[Blood Mage]

Ten Hag is giving the youth players a chance as much as Guardiola does at City.. Make of that whatever you want. First priority of both managers is winning not development of players. If a player is ready to go into the first team straight away like Foden he will be played. Otherwise will stay at the bench.

Agreed. Unfortunately there seems to be this culture at United that you play the youth no matter what. Nah, they'll get chances if they're good enough i.e. Greenwood.

 

[Flexdegea]

Ok so one, and not some. And even that one you cant seem to name or quote.

I'll get a look here, think their 2 boys with Ajax in their name that's why I can't remember exactly, 2 minutes.


I'm not sure why you so shocked about this, have you not been on social media reading comments from Dutch fans under any ETH related posts, or do they not count?


Go onto Instagram etc

 

[VP89]

I'll get a look here, think their 2 boys with Ajax in their name that's why I can't remember exactly, 2 minutes.


I'm not sure why you so shocked about this, have you not been on social media reading comments from Dutch fans under any ETH related posts, or do they not count?


Go onto Instagram etc

Social media isn't an accurate general representation of the fan base. If I did that I might we well rule off our own fanbase as being a bunch of racists for example.

If you asked @AjaxCunian @Ajaxsuarez or any other poster of the Dutch league Id be surprised if anyone wanted Ten hag sacked.

Some may be more critical than others but that doesn't imply remotely what you claimed. Unless there's some post by a couple people to this effect of course.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

May be according to the poster, good enough for Ajax is like VDB, FDJ, and De Ligt. Haller only looks good credit to ETH. Different manager might not even make him looks good at Ajax.

Sounds snobbish to me .. "yes our CF scores lots but he doesn't deserve to play for Ajax"? If a manager makes a player look better than most people expected (top scorer in league, multiple CL goals), I view that as a positive. No-one who saw him at West Ham expected it.

He also said doesn't play enough youth.. I'm not saying he found these players (that's not his or any Ajax managers job) but playing Onana, De Ligt, VDB, FDJ (who'd all have been about what.. 18-21 in ETHs first season?) sounds like playing some youth to me. Your goalie, a CH and two midfielders (probably others I dont about).

Plays Haller "too old, not good enough". Plays young players "expected". There hasn't been a successful club in history who played all youth, even ours. Having a manager who gets a good balance and makes players look better than expected .... that sounds like a positive to me.

 

[C3Pique]

Shoehorning academy products into the team regardless of ability is how we ended up with McTominay starting every game in midfield.

If EtH would prefer to buy players of the required quality over forcing substandard youth players into the squad that can only be a good thing for me.

 

[roonster09]

Shoehorning academy products into the team regardless of ability is how we ended up with McTominay starting every game in midfield.

If EtH would prefer to buy players of the required quality over forcing substandard youth players into the squad that can only be a good thing for me.

Not addressing Herrera's contract, Matic being shit and old, De Beek playing like lower league player is the reason we ended up with McTominay in midfield.

McTominay is not big enough name or player to be forced into 11.

 

[Banat]

Can you point out which Ajax fans here want him gone?

I'v seen numerous posters on Ajax forum acting indifferent, eager for a fresh start with a new manager and stating some ETH flaws but I haven't seen some major criticism.
Sour grapes in my opinion.

 

[Forevergiggs1]

Ajax indeed can refuse to negotiate but I think what they really want is for Manchester United not to approach their players, because it will be difficult for Ajax to convince their players to stay if United came calling.

They are losing Mazraoui on a free and Bayern might go for Gravenberch, so they want to keep departures to a minimum

Ajax have always been a selling club. Offer them the right money for any player and he's gone.

 

[Invictus]

Why are people saying he doesn’t like youth? I thought that was one of his main traits to devlop youth and play attractive football, that’s obviously why we chose to hire him as our manager. Didn’t he bring de light and de jong up to the first team and developed them and then made massive profit on them? If your good enough then it doesn’t matter how old you are. He does buy quite a lot of younger players though which is good, we know he can develop younger players but we don’t know how he’ll work with older and star players With big personality’s like we have.

It's not that ten Hag doesn't like youngsters; he just has a demanding and ruthless streak so he won't indulge a considerable number of them in a manner that certain United supporters expect him to, and isn't a near-guaranteed endorser like van Gaal (who boasts a long history of creating special pathways and sets up a conveyor belt from the academy while pruning the First Team squad). Also, there's no tangible record of him buying a lot of younger players at Ajax (as recruitment was mostly handled by Overmars in close consultation with the scouting team). Managers of major clubs (particularly in the modern era) have to bear a colossal burden of expectations and run the risk of being discarded at a moment's notice while having very specialized schemes that require preciseness of decision-making, so they don't always have the inclination or patience to train and give innumerable opportunities to inconsistent youngsters who may or may not make it and can negatively impact the bottom line in a pressurized and highly-competitive environment. In that sense, ten Hag is no different to someone like Klopp; the latter didn't give a million and one chances to Woodburn, Brewster, Ibe, Wilson, Hoever et cetera and didn't turn them into bulwarks of the Starting XI at Liverpool — and if ten Hag is expected to compete with him and Guardiola over the coming years (while starting at a considerably lower level), he shouldn't be purposefully hamstrung with an intrusive youth-promotion mandate. If there's an outstanding youngster at the club who impresses him with a combination of technique and athleticism and mentality, they might be afforded an extended window to stake a genuine claim, but for the most part ten Hag will figure out his core of tried-and-tested first team players and the overwhelming majority of youngsters will get very few opportunities (which will probably rub some purists the wrong way).

 

[golden_blunder]

Not really, the farmers league argument does hold weight unfortunately. The premier league is considered the toughest league to adapt to, so you're likely to have a higher miss rate with signings compared to signing for a second rate league. If we were to sign 9 players in the summer, chances are quite a few would be considered busts. I can't think of a team in the top flight that's successfully signed a boatful of players who were mostly successful. Spurs's flurry of signings following Bale's departure were mostly flops, City and Chelsea had to sieve through a sea of flops when they did their sugardaddy spending speedrun, and thinking back to our own busy summers (such as 2014/15) almost all those signings were massive flops, or underwhelming at best.

QPR signed almost a new squad, Sunderland made loads of signings

there are lots of examples where it hasn’t worked and you’re right that the Pl you have more chance of being found out

 

[VP89]

I'v seen numerous posters on Ajax forum acting indifferent, eager for a fresh start with a new manager and stating some ETH flaws but I haven't seen some major criticism.
Sour grapes in my opinion.

Dont think anyone actually want him gone though. The fresh start is fair not because of ETH but I feel Ajax can do with some upgrades in certain positions.

 

[VP89]

I'v seen numerous posters on Ajax forum acting indifferent, eager for a fresh start with a new manager and stating some ETH flaws but I haven't seen some major criticism.
Sour grapes in my opinion.

That you're right about. There is a lot of criticism toward him that pre dates United confirmation. Just took a look

The poll on ETH they had there, 30% had sack and 30% said wait until end of season to sack.