Erik Ten Hag's no-nonsense approach to managing his Manchester United squad is in keeping with comments made by legendary Old Trafford boss Sir Alex Ferguson.
Ferguson spent 27 years in charge at Old Trafford, winning several Premier League titles and two Champions Leagues. During that time, he dealt with a number of decorated players, and surprised some by his readiness to part ways with stars such as David Beckham, Jaap Stam and Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Ten Hag, who only took over in 2022, has been similarly ruthless. He allowed last season's top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo to leave the club by mutual agreement and dropped captain Harry Maguire from the first team, while helping his team climb back into the top four after they finished a distant sixth last season.
"I think that if you're managing Manchester United for 27 years, you have to deal with issues at some point along the way," Ferguson said in footage shared by Sky Sports Retro in 2022. "And the important thing is it was always my mantra to make sure [I] kept control of the club.
"Not easy when you're dealing with a lot of top players and star players and great players, and therefore the most important thing was to always keep your control. And also it's important for people to understand how difficult that is, and the important decisions I had to make in relation to that.
"I always had to go back to that point - did I feel I was losing control if I let things carry on - and therefore that was a determining point in terms of managing the structure."
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Ten Hag took over after a difficult 2021-22 season in which he suggested the club had lost their fear factor. In laying out his plans, he invoked Ferguson and the work the Scot did at the helm.
“There was no spirit. I saw no team dynamic in the squad," the former Ajax boss said. "The mental resilience was very low. I saw that as an outsider - and also noticed it in my first weeks at the club. I looked at the culture of the club. I asked ‘how did Manchester United become great?’
“And for me, it was about Sir Alex Ferguson. His teams excelled in togetherness, collectivity, spirit. You just couldn't beat them.
“When we get players, you look at their quality and technical skills. But you also look at their mental quality, that mental resilience - and we had to bring that back.”
Ten Hag's strictness with his squad has been rewarded on the pitch at the halfway point in his first season. A return of 12 wins from the first 18 games of the season is just four fewer than the entirety of the previous campaign under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick, with the new boss refreshing the squad in his own image.
"The predominant thing is to make sure you have control over a group of players for a long period, and we talk about the number of players I've had in that time - there's bound to be one or two issues and you have to deal with it," Ferguson continued in his comments about his longevity. "It's not a matter of settling scores, it's about explaining why we had to make certain decisions
"For all United fans who wondered why we did certain things, there had to be a reason, and the most important reason was I couldn't lose control of players if I wanted to remain at United. In terms of control over players for a long period, I think the manager is the most important person in that respect."
