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.
