LOS ANGELES — For most clubs, the summer transfer window is about refreshing the playing squad. For Manchester United, it’s also been about clearing out manager Erik ten Hag’s coaching staff and pretty much starting again.
Aside from bringing back one of the greatest goal scorers the club has ever seen, most noteworthy about the changes is that the new arrivals are not really backroom staff at all.
New assistant manager Ruud van Nistelrooy, who scored 150 goals for United between 2001 and 2006, was boss of PSV Eindhoven from 2022 to 2023. Rene Hake left a head coach job at Go Ahead Eagles to move to Old Trafford. Even new set-piece coach Andreas Georgson was in charge at Norwegian side Lillestrom before getting the call.
You could have thrown in a fourth in Steve McClaren, who has managed eight clubs in three countries and spent a year in charge of England, before it was announced on Wednesday that he was leaving Old Trafford to lead the Jamaica national team. McClaren’s departure means the United training sessions will be run by completely new faces, other than Ten Hag himself.
It’s tempting to question the wisdom behind bringing together four men all used to getting their own way and asking them to work together. But club sources insist it’s not a coincidence that the three coaches now at the club have served as managers in their own right.
Given the chaotic way in which Ten Hag kept his job at the end of the last season, it’s also tempting to think that if it doesn’t go well for the Dutchman next season, United will have a number of ready-made replacements.
That, though, is not the view inside United. They believe the moves only strengthen Ten Hag’s position by surrounding him with big personalities and good coaches.
“I think having Ruud come back has been great, especially for myself,” defender Jonny Evans said. “I grew up idolising Ruud and the way he used to play. It’s good to have someone of that calibre and respect in the squad already. It’s been great and it’s always good to freshen up.”
According to sources, Van Nistelrooy, Hake and Georgson are all aware of their specific roles in the setup with areas of particular responsibility. More importantly, sources insist the players will be under no illusion that Ten Hag has control. Any suggestion that his authority has been eroded by the lengthy INEOS-led end-of-season review or by the new coaching appointments has been swiftly knocked down by sources inside the club. He’s retained his title of “manager” and is still in charge.
The official explanation about why the changes have been necessary is that INEOS felt the coaching staff needed to be “refreshed.”
Mitchell van der Gaag and Benni McCarthy, who arrived with Ten Hag in 2022 as assistant coach and first-team coach respectively, have gone and there’s now a distance between last year’s disastrous campaign and the new season, even if the manager remains the same.
