Erik ten Hag has enough problems to deal with at Manchester United without the men who came before him adding to his misery.
As the new manager at Old Trafford, the Dutchman's first major task was orchestrating a successful summer transfer window alongside newly-appointed chief executive Richard Arnold, football director John Murtough and the club's new-look recruitment team. While you can do your best to work around the clock, answer your phone in the middle of the night, and spend hours on planes trains and automobiles, sometimes all it takes to make or break a transfer are some choice words from important people.
Unfortunately for Ten Hag - who's at least been able to bring in three new faces for a total of £70million - those are the people who once stood in his shoes, roaming around the Old Trafford technical area. In the Red Devils' pursuit of two particular targets, Louis van Gaal and Ralf Rangnick have each put a spanner in the works and helped kill any chance of a deal being done this summer.
All the way back in mid-June - before Ten Hag had held a single training pre-season session - United chiefs were busy working on signings, with Ajax defender Jurrien Timber identified as one of his priorities. The 21-year-old Netherlands international was one of the multiple young players who Ten Hag nurtured during his time in charge of the Dutch giants, who reportedly named their price tag at £36m.
With Ten Hag hoping to take Timber with him to Manchester, the ever-outspoken Van Gaal - who now manages the Netherlands in his first job since being sacked by the Red Devils in May 2016 - warned the centre-back not to join his former employers ahead of the World Cup later this year.
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"I think a player with his qualities can play in the Premier League. That's not a problem," Oranjes boss Van Gaal affirmed. "But if he has to make this big step now – that's the question." Asked what would happen if Timber struggled for game-time at Old Trafford, he replied: "Then he's not so wise I think. He has to play."
Following the press conference in which Van Gaal made his thoughts crystal clear, the intense speculation dissipated and Timber decided to stay at Ajax for at least another season, knowing that regular minutes in the Eredivisie and Champions League would likely serve him better than attempting to quickly settle in at an unstable club like United.
The same can be said for another rising star, too, Stuttgart striker Sasa Kalajdzic. The six-foot seven-inch Austrian has continuously been linked with the Red Devils throughout the summer, with Bayern Munich are believed to be admirers. Ten Hag is desperate for some extra firepower in his forward line, identifying a low-cost striker like Kalajdzic as the solution.
But Rangnick's recent comments have scuppered United's chances. Taking a leaf out of Van Gaal's book, the acclaimed German coach urged the 25-year-old marksman, who he coaches as manager of Austria, to stay put for the sake of his development. "It is important that Sasa remains injury-free this season and trains and plays at the highest possible level," Rangnick told Sky Germany. "If he stays in Stuttgart this season, it will not be detrimental to his development."
Understandably speaking in their own teams' interest like so many international managers do, Van Gaal and Rangnick - the latter of which was set to have a consultancy role at Old Trafford following his tumultuous spell as interim boss in the second half of last season - have inadvertently made Ten Hag's task of bringing back the glory days even tougher. Transfer chiefs at all 20 Premier League clubs will tell you to ignore much of the noise during a window, but the fact is players themselves can't.
With Timber and Kalajdzic not budging, it leaves Ten Hag scrambling for signings in the three weeks before deadline day. It's now glaringly obvious that one of his long-term challenges will be to make Old Trafford more of an attractive destination to players who actually are interested in developing themselves than having Manchester United on their CV and a significantly higher bank balance.
