Management issue at club hasn’t changed Manchester United based idea – ‘Off the record’ comments made clear

Ajax director Alex Kroes has told people off the record he wants to bring Erik ten Hag back to the club from Manchester United this summer.

That’s according to journalist Valentijn Driessen, who insists that plan would be followed even if Kroes is not allowed to continue with the Dutch giants.

Ten Hag appears to be increasingly closer to leaving Manchester United in the summer, with even the recent win over Coventry City in the FA Cup semi finals seemingly pushing him closer to the edge than away from it.

A potential return to Ajax, where his work earlier in his career convinced Manchester United to hire him two years ago, has long been mooted, with them desperate to change in the summer and rebuild.

He is seen as the ideal man to do it under, having helped the club re-establish themselves and create an identity during his spell in charge.

The question is whether the current Manchester United manager would want the return, having stepped up the ladder when he moved to Old Trafford and that very much a step back for him.

There is interest from Ajax, though, at least according to Driessen, who says Kroes has been clear on the matter behind the scenes.

“Surely Alex Kroes will know whether Ten Hag is keen to return to Ajax after Manchester United?” he said.

“Off the record, he has told people several times that he would like to wait for Ten Hag. You don’t say that when you know he will say ‘no’ anyway.

“They (the supervisory board), Marijn Beuker and Kelvin de Lang, would follow him (if he isn’t allowed to continue). And Michael van Praag of course just said out loud: ‘we will continue to work in the line of Alex Kroes’.”