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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Rich Jones

Uncovering Erik ten Hag: New Man Utd manager's obsessive philosophy to wake sleeping giant

Ten Hag Erik ten Hag Utrecht van den Berg Manchester United Ajax FC Twente Fred Rutten Football Holland

When Erik ten Hag took charge of Utrecht in 2015, he was inheriting a club sleepwalking behind its rivals and showing few signs of waking up.

Despite being the club of Holland’s fourth-largest city, the club were perennial underachievers who were torn apart by financial troubles in the 1990s. But they spotted some potential in Erik ten Hag, who spent a single season as a player for the club in 1995-96, and opted to hand him his first big break in top flight management.

Ten Hag also spotted the potential in Utrecht, leaving Bayern Munich II to return to his homeland. He arrived with grand ambitions at the Stadion Galgenwaard and an urgency for change which meant he got off to a rocky start.

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