Erik ten Hag has been in the news in recent days as the manager, who was shown the door by Manchester United earlier this season, was seen at an AS Roma match and visited the club’s training ground.
That inevitably encouraged rumours the Serie A club were looking at him as a potential replacement for Claudio Ranieri, who is set to leave his short term stint in the summer. There’s been denials, but it’s quite the coincidence.
Back in the Netherlands, Ten Hag was a pundit for Dutch TV for their Champions League coverage. He was supposed to be concentrating on Bayern Munich and Inter Milan, although Arsenal beating Real Madrid caught his eye.
That gave Ten Hag the chance to throw some praise towards Jurriën Timber, who he worked with at Ajax. The 23-year-old defender faced an injury nightmare after moving to Arsenal but is now putting that behind him.
Tuesday’s brilliant 3-0 victory over Real Madrid has presented a chance to praise him.
Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf quote Ten Hag as saying: “This season I have been able to watch a lot of Arsenal games, so Jurriën’s leading role does not surprise me.
“You can send Timber, both Timbers by the way, on an errand (and trust them). Jurriën is a soldier. Ruthless and he knows that in top football it is ‘eat or be eaten’. That’s how he sees it. He is proactive, he doesn’t wait.
“I am happy with how Jurriën is manifesting himself at Arsenal. He has become a permanent force. And I am sure that he will slowly take on a leading role.”
Ten Hag wasn’t the only one with praise for the Arsenal player, with Giovanni van Bronckhorst making clear how useful Timber is for his manager: “It’s great to deliver such a performance in such a match. For Mikel Arteta it’s fantastic. Jurriën plays great as a left back and right back and has shown that he belongs to the top.”
Asked about Timber’s ceiling, Michael Reiziger, who has also worked with the defender, said: “As one of the major powers of the Premier League, Arsenal is already the absolute top, a really big club. Now it’s all about winning prizes. In his youth at Ajax, everyone already saw that Jurriën is a really special boy and would become a very good player. But then you don’t know exactly how far he will reach. I hope we can still enjoy him a lot, like against Real Madrid.”
