Impressing greatly at KV Mechelen soon after his transfer from Salitas in Burkina Faso, Hassane Bandé quickly caught the eye of Ajax Amsterdam, who spent around €8m on his services in 2018.
What happened afterwards wasn’t exactly what was planned, as the forward never made an appearance for the Eredivisie side’s first-team, getting loaned out to FC Thun in Switzerland and NK Istra in Croatia instead.
A lot came down to Erik ten Hag, linked with the Manchester United role, as the manager never seemed to believe in the now 23-year-old, who spoke about his treatment to De Gazet van Antwerpen on Tuesday, relayed by SoccerNews in Holland.
He said: “After my serious injury, I hoped to get back to playing as soon as possible, but after one half in a practice match, ten Hag threw me out of the dressing room and sent me to the reserves.”
Bandé then went on to explain how this affected him personally: “Mentally, I was left to my own devices. I tried to talk about my situation, but got no answer. According to Marc Overmars, it was the manager’s choice that I had to accept. It’s difficult to accept a situation when you never got a real chance. Carel Eiting, who, like me, just came back from a serious injury, was allowed to stay with the first-team.”
To get to the bottom of this, it seems there would be a need to speak to the favourite for the Manchester United job directly, but Bandé did open up some more about his thoughts.
He said: “Then you start to ask yourself whether there might be something more involved. Racism? I never experience it openly, but I did think about it, yes. I just never got an honest answer to the question of why I didn’t get any more opportunities.”
The forward is still contracted to Ajax until 2023, meaning there could still be time for him to get a chance in Holland should Erik ten Hag end up at Manchester United or somewhere else, but it seems like an exit would best be suited for everyone.
As for the manager, he was recently warned by Louis van Gaal to ignore the advances of the Red Devils this summer.
The Netherlands head coach will have been speaking from his own experience, having managed Manchester United himself in the past in a spell that didn’t end well for him, getting sacked and replaced by José Mourinho despite winning an FA Cup in his final season.
