Manchester United may reportedly be heading down an interesting new direction as they are supposedly now expected to make Ajax boss Erik ten Hag the leading candidate to be their next manager.
This is according to a report from the Times, with Ten Hag now seemingly the man in pole position to take over as permanent manager once current interim boss Ralf Rangnick steps down in the summer.
Man Utd fans may have mixed feelings about this, with Ten Hag yet to test himself in a more competitive league, while the philosophy and overall expectations at a club like Ajax seem vastly different to the culture at Old Trafford.
In many ways, Paris Saint-Germain’s Mauricio Pochettino seems like the more obvious candidate for the Red Devils job, and the Sun recently reported that the club’s players expected it would be the Argentine taking over next season.
Of course, there are some issues with Pochettino, as PSG blogger Ed spoke to us about here, but Ten Hag would truly represent a bold change of direction by United.
One imagines that hiring the Dutch tactician could indicate that the club are willing to undergo a more long-term rebuilding job, rather than chasing instant success in the way they have since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson.
Ten Hag has undoubtedly impressed at Ajax, but it will be interesting to see if he can really build such a promising team in the more high-pressure environment of Man United, where the expectations of the fans and media will be hard to ignore.