The starting gun has been fired on a busy few months for Manchester United, with the appointment of a new manager to be followed by a significant upheaval within the squad.
United have been aware that they need to appoint a new manager sooner rather than later so that prospective transfer targets know who they will be playing for next season and it looks like Erik ten Hag will be that man.
The 52-year-old will be tasked with transferring his progressive and attractive style of play at Ajax across to United and he will be busy this summer trying to sign players who fit into that approach.
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United will lose four first-team players on free transfers in a few months and more could follow through the exit door. New arrivals are required in midfield and in attack, at the very least.
Part of the attraction of Ten Hag is that he can fit into a system at Old Trafford that is handing more power to football director John Murtough.
Murtough played a key role in the interim appointment of Ralf Rangnick and the pursuit of a new permanent boss, while he will be active in working on transfers and assessing targets this summer, with United already making progress on bringing new players in.
But once a deal is done with Ten Hag it is inevitable that the Dutchman will have ideas of his own when it comes to shaping the squad and this will be the first major test of how he will fit into the new structure at United.
Having spent five years at Ajax, Ten Hag will have formed a close relationship with some of his players and he will also believe that bringing one or two with him might help assimilate his United players into adapting to his system and ideas.
There is a clear risk in pursuing that strategy, however, and United have to be mindful of giving Ten Hag what he wants while not signing players who aren't going to work in the Premier League.
United don't need to wind the clock back far to be reminded of the risks of signing players from the Eredivisie - and from Ajax. Donny van de Beek was a much-hyped £35million signing who has made four Premier League starts and hasn't made much of an impression since moving to Everton on loan in January.
Maybe Ten Hag will believe he can rehabilitate Van de Beek but Rangnick and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer both decided he wasn't equipped to play in midfield in the Premier League.
United can point to Ruud van Nistelrooy as an example of a player signed from the Eredivisie who made an immediate impact at this level, but for every Van Nistelrooy there is a Memphis Depay, for every Daley Blind and there's an Alexander Buttner and for every Ji-sung Park there's a Van de Beek.
The history of the Premier League is littered with players who shone in Holland and then found the going difficult once they'd crossed the North Sea.
While there might be some talented players in this Ajax team, Ten Hag has also signed Premier League flops Dusan Tadic and Sebastien Haller and both have looked exceptional in the Eredivisie.
Jurrien Timber and Antony are the two Ajax players most regularly linked with following Ten Hag, given the 19-year-old midfielder Ryan Gravenberch looks set for a switch to Bayern Munich.
Timber and Antony have certainly looked the part this season but the risks to United don't need spelling out. Van de Beek looked the part for Ajax as well.
This is a defining summer at Old Trafford and the decision over appointing Ten Hag and then strengthening the squad are ones that United simply cannot afford to get wrong, so if that involves disappointing their new manager over some transfer targets then so be it.
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