Erik ten Hag is the latest man to be asked to pull the sword from the stone: or in this case, to rebuild Manchester United.
On Saturday, he will face another man who has helped put a once-great side back together. Mikel Arteta has done what Ten Hag will hope he can, and this weekend the Dutchman may be a keen observer from afar in search of an example to learn from.
A team with a high wage bill, underperforming talent and a lack of playing identity: not that long ago the phrase could have applied to both teams, but thanks to Arteta’s hard work, it now really only applies to United.
One thing Arteta has been given is time. He has now spent more than two years in post and is overseeing his third run-in. He is approaching the same number of games in charge as Jose Mourinho’s entire reign at Old Trafford. Stability has given him confidence to make bold choices that are starting to pay off.
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What Fulham need to win Championship title and how Bournemouth can seal second automatic spot22 April, 2022The Spaniard has not been shy of cutting “dead wood” from the squad. By shipping out Mesut Ozil and Pierrre-Emerick Aubameyang, he freed up a combined £700,000 a week.
The latter move was also a sign of authority, as Arteta arguably put Arsenal’s season on the line getting rid of their most prolific scorer, netting 92 goals since his arrival in 2018, but it was a way to demonstrate that no player holds power over the manager.
United will also need to reduce their wage bill which is significantly more costly than Arsenal’s. Their highest earner Cristiano Ronaldo earns a reported £510,000 per week, one of seven players on £200,000 per week or more. Offloading some of that burden would create more flexibility in the transfer market.
Last summer window Arteta spent £156.8m on five players – a figure that some see as the bare minimum that ten Hag needs to succeed in Manchester. Interim boss Rangnick has suggested the club may need to sign 10 players in all. With a rumoured £200m to spend ten Hag will need to prioritise a defensive midfielder – Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips have both been linked to United.
As Arsenal have found to their benefit, clearing out the big-earners not only creates financial freedom to revamp the squad, it also frees up minutes for academy products to filter into the first team. Arsenal now have the youngest team in the Premier League and the Hale End faithful have delighted in the flourishing talents Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe.
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And the single positive of their 4-0 loss to Liverpool, according to Gary Neville at least, was the appearance of Hannibal Mejbri, 19, who showed the passion the starting eleven lacked. But for the young players to thrive Ten Hag needs to imprint his style of play – something Ralf Rangnick has struggled to do.
Ten Hag, having been part of the world-famous Ajax set-up, appears to know what it takes to get the best out of world-class talent such as Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong, who have hardly been the same since big-money moves away to Juventus and Barcelona respectively.
He even took players who faltered in the Premier League like Dusan Tadic and Sebastian Haller and turned their fortunes around.
Since the start of the 2018-19 season, Tadic has averaged a goal involvement for Ajax every 88.9 minutes while Haller has netted 11 Champions League goals this campaign.
There is of course no exact blueprint for what Ten Hag has to do; United have tried to replace Sir Alex Ferguson every which way and failed every time. Is the Arteta way the right way? Perhaps Ten Hag will take some tips and find out.
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