Manchester United ground staff have been forced to order new mower blades to meet Erik ten Hag's orders for a specific turf height at the club's AON training complex and Old Trafford.
The new United chief had very specific demands for the height and quality of the pitches when he was in charge of Ajax - and even had the help of a BioTech scientist to oversee the pitch at the Johan Cruijff Amsterdam ArenA. And his request to have the grass cut to 15mm to aid speed of passing has meant senior ground-staff had to check the blades they were using on mowers at Carrington and Old Trafford.
They found they needed special blades to achieve the 15mm cut – and have quickly ordered new ones to satisfy perfectionist ten Hag. The 52-year-old Dutchman was known at Ajax as a meticulous planner who left no stone unturned in his quest for marginal gains and squeezing every ounce from his resources.
And true to form he checked the training pitches when he was given a tour of Carrington after completing his move at the end of May. His first job was to ensure the pitches measured up to his requirements after working with expert Joep van Cronenbroek who monitored pitches at Ajax.
Cronenbroek has developed a world-wide reputation for combining the biology and digital technology to maintain and monitor top level sports pitches. And sources at United say they may consult the Dutch scientist in the coming weeks.
Biologists Cronenbroek says: “What we are doing is showing what’s possible when you bring biology and data science together. And you can imagine that in every FIFA country they have carefully looked at what we manage to achieve in Amsterdam.”
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United Chief Executive Richard Arnold has promised improvements will be made to further upgrade Carrington this season after complaints that the facilities no longer befit a club of their stature.
Mirror Football recently highlighted grumbles from last season's leading scorer Cristiano Ronaldo that tiles in and around the swimming and pools at the training ground were chipped and loose.
But in a filmed chat with fans who were intercepted en-route to protest at Arnold's luxury Cheshire house, the United supremo admitted it would cost £250million to build a brand new state-of-the-art training centre. Arnold added it would also take at least £1billion to rebuild Old Trafford – money the club don't have.
