Spurs also had Poch who hardly spoke a word of English and relied on a translator.
Next permanent manager | Poll updated
- Thread starter Untd55
- Start date
- Status
Aye that would be the ideal scenario. For years now we’ve pissed about and left things to the last minute, completely unorganised. I just hope with Ralf here now we’ll have a clear plan with everyone going in the same direction.
It's like having an untrained puppy, you're tired of it pissing and crapping everywhere despite your best efforts to teach him and hope one day he'll eventually get the hang of it. Then one morning you'll wake up and instead of slipping and landing in piss he lovingly runs up to you with his favorite toy feeling incredibly proud of himself. Right now we're in the stage of waking up and wondering what mess awaits us or weather he's going to run up to us with a shiny new Ten Hag.
This "English was poor" thing sounds like a pile of bollocks frankly. English is widely spoken in Holland, taught in schools, and I've not known a Dutch person whose command of English was not excellent.
We will achieve feck all this season anyway. If we are getting the business done behind the scenes and setting the wheels in motion for the summer/next season then I'll be happy even if we announce it late. But knowing this board, we will act late and still get it all wrong.
If it means getting Enrique in January 2023 and holding on to Ralf as manager for another 6 months then that would be my preferred choice. I don't think Ralf is doing as bad a job as many seem to think on here.
‘As quoted by Voetbal, Driessen adds that Ten Hag’s English wasn’t too great either, which added to Tottenham’s reasons not to hire him.’
Obviously they’ve never listened to Ray Parlour or Tony Cascarino’s command of English on TalkSPORT yet?
Obviously they’ve never listened to Ray Parlour or Tony Cascarino’s command of English on TalkSPORT yet?
Yeah its nonsense. Someone already pointed out the fact that Poch relied on a translator, and even by his own admission still doesn't have the strongest grasp of the language yet.
ETH's English is fine anyhow, and no worse than someone like Pep.
Think we’ll most likely know our new manager before our next league game against Leicester kicks off. Players can’t be off half arsed in the pitch anymore knowing now that the new manager could be watching, which can only be a good thing
Just seems odd, and perhaps disrespectful, the new manager would be announced when his current team still has a season to complete? That goes for both candidates.
Ok that's fair enough so a relative overall attractiveness list rather than an ability list. I'd wager Zidane should be T1 as well based on what he achieved in a short space of time but that's not important.
I think the club and the player's might, not sure we will.
If United announced it soon but that it wouldn't be complete until January, then I'd accept it. Long-term vision. What we don't want is to get to the end of the season knowing we picked the wrong guy when the best choice has now gone elsewhere and making a success of it.
I agree. I could understand it more with Pochettino though. They're out the CL which is their whole season. And the league is just a formality at this point, and I imagine they'll be crowned champions very soon.
I think anyone who hasn't given Rangnick 110% will be in for a rude awakening in summer anyway, the latest briefs show that we fully intend to utilise his experience and knowledge, he'll be going straight upstairs to Murtough and Fletcher to let them know exactly which players aren't good enough to be here. Quite a few of our lads will unknowingly be playing their last few games as United players.
No news about the meeting yet 
If it was Enrique there's no way they're announcing it until he comes out himself and says it after the WC. Remember Lopetigue?
Is that your only take away? I don't care about his grasp on English, the language of football is universal.
Back to the article, you don't think Ten Hag was also saving face? It could be interpreted as such going by his quotes.
It's not like he was going to come out and say he wanted the job but didn't get it.
Now if it's indeed true that he only intended to bring one member of staff along with him to Spurs how would you react if he did the same at united? Would it fill you with confidence that he'd have immediate dependancy on the club to fill those roles? Personally it tells me that Ten Hag is used to having a well oiled structure put in place for him and that could be problematic at united in it's current state.
Further more, how is it he hasn't forged close professional relationships with a core of people who understand his ways and who would gladly become members of his team wherever he goes? It's almost unheard of and I'm not sure if this is unique to the Netherlands.
A bit of a background on Sjors Ulsee (the coach he apparently wanted with him at Spurs), he's the 34 year old manager of Fortuna Sittard. Ulsee got his first job in coaching at Utrecht in 2006 as an assistant 'technique trainer' at age 19. He rose up the ranks and was assistant manager at Utrecht before Ten Hag took over in 2015, and Ten Hag retained him at age 28. So Ten Hag couldn't retain his assistant from Go Ahead Eagles or any staff he worked with at Bayern Munich II prior to his role at Utrecht. He's absolutely used to clubs sourcing staff for him.
Ajax's coaching staff are dedicated to Ajax first and foremost, with former players Michael Reiziger and Winston Borgarde part of the assistant manager triumvirate. Ten Hag didn't have much input in their appointments. He also wasn't asked for input when Hunteelar took a position at the club after Overmars's exit.
He did however with the third assistant manager, Mitchell van der Gaag. Van Der Gaag is likely the only staff member Ten Hag would request to bring along with him to united as Sjors Ulsee is settled at Fortuna Sittard (despite them being in a relegation battle). I'm sorry but I'm not sure this sits well with me but I'll still welcome him if he gets the appointment as I've stated previously
Last edited:
Good post. I agree. I really like Ancelloti but he's not the future. Barcelona for instance have found their 'new' Guardiola in Xavi in my opinion. Real Madrid will continue their merry go round of managers but Barcelona will have more stability and longevity with Xavi at the helm and I foresee another period of dominance from the Catalans. I digress.
Presuming ETH gets the job then what does it matter if h only brings in an assistant?
He clearly trusts his assistant to implement his philosophy.
Maybe the coaches he is working with at Ajax don't want to leave?
If we are talking about this new structure couldn't the discussions between Murtough, ETH & RR be discussing potential backroom staff?
The club could start be looking for a new backroom team anyway with the new structure being put in place as RR's backroom team are only on deals till the end of the season, probably asking ETH who he prefers after narrowing the candidates down.
He clearly trusts his assistant to implement his philosophy.
Maybe the coaches he is working with at Ajax don't want to leave?
If we are talking about this new structure couldn't the discussions between Murtough, ETH & RR be discussing potential backroom staff?
The club could start be looking for a new backroom team anyway with the new structure being put in place as RR's backroom team are only on deals till the end of the season, probably asking ETH who he prefers after narrowing the candidates down.
I am not for buying every single player who manager wants (what our fans and pundits call "full backing"). We gave that freedom to Ole and look what we have now.
But staff is another story. Manager must have complete freedom to pick his complete staff.
Just a question, but is this one of the few instances where Daily Mail stories are given credence to on the CAF? Haha
My issue here is Ten Hag's history of not taking any staff with him wherever he goes. He expects his clubs to fill these positions while he focuses on coaching and that's how it's gone down looking at his past.
Can you trust united to find him the right people? Shouldn't be be doing it himself at the least? He's a head coach and nothing else. The rigors of actually managing a club, let alone one in this league and one of United's magnitude could prove to be too much for him.
I hope that's not the case if he's hired, but I don't trust united to properly support him. He'll need Rangknick's help and a lot of it
There is absolutely no way that PSG would ask for compensation for Poch, surely?
Why...he has a contract?
But are they not planning on terminating that contract?
He did an interview in English after the Benfica game on BT Sport and his English was fine.
Why should they not? He has a contract, and even if they sign a new manager he would be on their books until that ends or both parties agree to terminate it. A third party paying them a fee might speed that up...
Because they want him off the books? Their ideal world is one where Poch leaves without them having to pay him off, so why would they make it harder for that to happen?
He's Head Coach, so he isn't a manager. He'll want a system in place to do all the other stuff for him, like a lot of modern managers these days do. No worrying about contracts, agents, etc. He's purely there to coach the players into playing how he wants to play. He isn't there to negotiate transfers, he provides a list and the system in place will then go and try and get them for him. IT gets rid of a lot of noise and allows him to spend his time coaching players.
Someone else paying money to get rid off him would be even better, wouldn't it?
But no one's going to, when they know you're gonna sack him.
Not every manager like a Guardiola takes there team everywhere.
ETH has gone from Go ahead Eagles to Bayern II which will have better standard of coaches.
Then when he returned to Utrecht maybe the coaches didn't want to leave as they hoped to move to the 1st team.
Then from Utrecht to Ajax which is full of ex players & a huge budget & greater pulling power than Utrecht.
The Current Backroom staff at Ajax contains 3 assistant managers according to Transfermarkt - Michael Reiziger & Winston Bogarde who both played for Ajax & Mitchell Van der Gagg who was player for PSV.
The above might not want to uproot there families as they probably have a job for life at Ajax.
Also Keiran Mckenna was apparently a top coach and he was picked up from Tottenham and came through the club, I also trust RR & Murtough to get the new backroom team right.
If we want to appoint Poch, we'd want to do it before the end of the season and all indications are that they will want to keep him until then. They also might not sack him if they don't think they can get a better option in too.
Why would PSG sack him and pay him millions when there's a chance we'll come knocking and give them millions for him to come to us?
Can you name one manager at a top club in the PL who is merely a 'head coach'? Just one. The role and official title at united is manager. Unless Ten Hag negotiates different terms with united he'll be expected to take on roles beyond just focusing on coaching.
You really don't believe a united manager or any manager in this league will merely and exclusively be a head coach even in this modern era do you? Do you trust that united has such a structure in place for him?
Ten Hag only had one spell at Utrecht. Can you name any other top manager in the PL who only brought one assistant with them? Bringing on staff is not unique to Guardiola. I know about the assistant coaching triumvirate at Ajax, mentioned it in my post. I trust RR but just how much involvement beyond his consultancy role do you think he'll have in actual staff and coach selection? What are you basing your trust of Murtough over this issue on?
Has Murtough been involved in hiring coaching staff at the club before? Genuinely asking. I never bought into the hype about McKenna being a 'top coach' by the way. There was no evidence of it anyway in my eyes based on the last three seasons.
Last edited:
I'd say.. most of them? You seriously think Guardiola and Klopp are busying themselves with transfer deals other than giving their opinion and maybe calling a coveted player?
That's not answering the question. Do you know for a fact that these managers you mention only came with a single assistant coach/coaching staff member and needed their respective clubs to source the rest of their staff? That's the pertinent question
I meant Returned to the Netherlands, as i didn't mention Utrecht more than once.
I don't really follow teams backroom staff, ETH might have a list who he wants that aren't former Ajax players so he hasn't been able to work with nobody actually knows.
Seeing a Murtough sought out RR during his Leipzig days i am confident his opinion will carry some serious weight, as him & Fletcher were instrumental in bringing him here as reported.
Murtough was in charge of the academy and oversaw it's rejuvenation with staff & recruitment.
I don't even think I'm being pendantic here but how was I supposed to guess that when you mentioned Utrecht? No biggie.
Fair enough but you're missing the key piece in the puzzle or that rejuvenation. I know Murtough had serious clashes and conflicts with Nicky Butt who by all accounts was doing a superb job as head of first team development after moving up from chief of reserves. Butt was overlooked for the technical director role Fletcher now holds and Murtough was influential in Butts exit due to their contrasting approaches.
Butt's work resulted in more visible improvements at youth level and in my opinion the club slighted him by siding with Murtough who had more political clout on the inside despite only joining united in 2013 after Moyes took the managerial role. Butt invariably contributed more to the club than Murtough ever did/has done at youth levels in various roles
Nobody actually knows what will happen, I am just trying to have some faith.
Butt should still be at the club no doubt.
Only time will tell if we make any on & off the field progress.
- Status