Erik ten Hag has long shown a willingness to seek out the footballing greats. A clip surfaced recently of a rather more hirsute 13-year-old talking with precocious maturity to Johan Cruyff. It acquired an added pertinence when, more than three decades later, an older Ten Hag followed in Cruyff’s footsteps by becoming manager of Ajax.
Pictures emerged this week of Ten Hag dining at an Italian restaurant in Wilmslow with another decorated predecessor, Sir Alex Ferguson. As United host Barcelona, the other club Cruyff served as both iconic player and manager, it was a timely occasion for a chat. The Scot may not have too many fond memories of a 4-0 defeat to Cruyff’s ‘Dream Team’ in the Nou Camp in 1994, though Barcelona’s ground staged the most dramatic denouement to any Champions League final ever; Teddy Sheringham, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, “football, bloody hell” and all that in 1999.
Ten Hag’s United drew 2-2 in the Nou Camp last week. Beating the La Liga leaders in the second leg at Old Trafford would, the Dutchman said, require United’s best performance of the season. As Ferguson can testify, wins against Barcelona are not easily accomplished but they are something to savour. He lost two Champions League finals to Pep Guardiola’s team. As an underdog, he won a Cup Winners’ Cup final against Cruyff’s Barca, Mark Hughes’ brace delivering victory in Rotterdam in 1991. When his United lifted the Champions League, they encountered Barcelona en route, drawing 3-3 in two group-stage epics in 1998 and then, courtesy of Paul Scholes’ stunning long-range strike, winning a 2008 semi-final.
It is safe to say Ferguson and Ten Hag would not have been short of conversation topics. “It’s massive,” said the current manager. “I always enjoy speaking with people who have a lot of knowledge, a lot of experience. He wants to share it, he wants to help and support. Manchester United is his club and he feels so committed. We are doing well. It was a great night and I look forward to the next night with him.”
He is the sixth man to walk in Ferguson’s footsteps since the Scot’s retirement and, without winning silverware – though that could change against Newcastle in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final – looks the best fit. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was the Ferguson disciple but a one-man nostalgia project. David Moyes was the hand-picked successor, the hard-working Scot with superficial similarities, but Ten Hag has brought toughness and principles. Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho were Champions League winners, but the Dutchman played bafflingly boring football and the Portuguese’s negativity became toxic. Ralf Rangnick, meanwhile, was miscast as manager.
Then there is Ten Hag; perhaps too pragmatic to be a pure Cruyffian, he shares Ferguson’s love of winning, his unrelenting nature, his faith in young players and his belief in standards. “It’s not about credit, it’s about trophies,” he said. Raphael Varane won 18, some at Barcelona’s expense, in a decade at Real Madrid and played under managers of the calibre of Carlo Ancelotti, Zinedine Zidane and Mourinho. His explanation of United’s revival under Ten Hag was instructive. “I think in the last months we grow a lot. I think first of all it is the confidence and secondly I think it is the discipline,” said the centre-back. “Tactically we are following exactly the rules. We know exactly how we want to play and manage the game. We know exactly how we want to play: with patience, discipline on the pitch and belief.”
Which would mushroom if United eliminate Xavi’s team. “The next stage is to beat teams like Barcelona,” Varane said. “It is a great challenge for us and a great opportunity.” With wins against Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester City already this season, United have a host of scalps but Barcelona may feel the biggest of all.
In a way, United already passed a test at the Nou Camp. “In general we played with character and personality on the pitch,” Varane said. Some might expect that after the expense paid to import Champions League winners like the Frenchman and his former Real teammate Casemiro. Now the Brazilian returns from a domestic suspension while Barcelona’s midfield, long their defining feature, will be without Pedri and Gavi. They still possess the threat of Robert Lewandowski in attack, though the Pole is not the only high-class striker who has come to Manchester.
Robin van Persie was Ferguson’s last great signing and revisited an old haunt to interview Ten Hag. They are separated by a divide in the Dutch game – Feyenoord against Ajax – but united by United. If Ferguson has plenty of tales of the past, Ten Hag also seems to have borrowed the ethos of a man who was forever looking to what he could achieve next. “For me the next game is always the biggest game,” he said. “So I am not the type who is looking back.”
