Guus Hiddink has seemingly been caught on camera telling Erik ten Hag to join Manchester United.
The Ajax boss has verbally agreed to become the new Red Devils manager but has yet to put pen to paper on the three-year deal that has been tabled to the Dutchman. Ajax technical director Gerry Hamstra suggested that the move would soon be made official by confirming Ten Hag has not signed a new contract with the Amsterdam giants.
Ten Hag had to put the speculation surrounding his future to the back of his mind on Sunday as Ajax took on PSV Eindhoven in the KNVB Cup final, but unfortunately, Roger Schmidt's men sealed a 2-1 win over their rivals. Despite Ten Hag's best efforts, he couldn't get away from the noise about his proposed move to United as Hiddink appeared to give his seal of approval directly to the 52-year-old.
The former Chelsea boss, who was in attendance to support his former club PSV, told Ten Hag 'do it! do it!' during an unscripted meeting caught on camera as the Ajax boss was getting interviewed by ESPN before kick-off.
Ajax chief Hamstra, who took over from Marc Overmars, seemed to concede that Ten Hag would depart the club at the end of the season insisting they have done everything to try and keep him. He said: "I can be very clear about this, we did. We did everything to, we are trying everything to keep him.
When asked if the club had put another offer in front of Ten Hag to stay, he said: "Yes. We tried everything. When? Recently."
Ten Hag is expected to bring his Ajax assistant Mitchell van der Gaag but Robin van Persie, who has also been offered a position, is likely to stay in the Netherlands at Feyenoord because of family commitments.
Ten Hag was tight-lipped ahead of Ajax's clash with PSV as he refused to answer questions about his imminent move to the Premier League.
Asked why he has not talked about his links to United, Ten Hag said on Friday: "Because I serve Ajax. We need to win the two remaining trophies."
He later told ESPN: "We are busy with training and with the matches. That way you keep the focus on it. I want to talk about the game and not about other things and whether or not I've had conversations. I won't comment on rumours."
