Erik ten Hag winning the battle with Cristiano Ronaldo at Manchester United was not a surprise as the Dutchman prefers to ‘confront’ players on issues.
That’s according to compatriot Fred Rutten, who has revealed he once spent an hour and a half stood in the sea with Ten Hag discussing football.
Rutten worked alongside Ten Hag at FC Twente earlier in his career, first encountering him towards the end of his playing days before later having him on his staff at the club and PSV Eindhoven when he was manager.
That was the start of a rise up the ranks for Ten Hag, who has since gone on to enjoy success at Bayern Munich and Ajax.
He’s now in charge of the rebuild at Manchester United, something he has started successfully this season, reshaping the squad and making the club contenders for the top four once more.
That was something Rutten was not surprised by, revealing his conversations with the Manchester United manager ahead of him taking the job.
“He’s a winner. I’ve always seen a manager in him,” Voetbal International report him saying.
“He has an opinion, and he can often substantiate that opinion well. Once we started talking about football, it never stopped.
“That eventually ended in us going on holiday together with the families. Then we stood in the sea talking for an hour and a half. Our wives said they were there too.
“Before he signed for Man Utd we had a few chats. ‘How do you deal with big stars?’ He has a plan and in the execution of that plan: if things don’t go as they should, he intervenes.
“So immediately confront the players. I wasn’t surprised that Erik would come out as the winner (vs Ronaldo).”
