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Transfer dealings that have taken place since Erik ten Hag took charge of Manchester United have been largely hit or miss, with more misses if one is being honest.
His penchant for trying to bring in former Ajax players and targeting stars from the Eredivisie have not been seen in good light by many top professionals.
The Premier League is a much tougher competition as compared to the Dutch league, and it can be seen from the less-than-impressive displays from some of the recruits.
The biggest failure has been Antony who joined the club for €95 million in 2022 and has not registered a single goal or assist this season.
EtH’s recruitment has not been up to the mark
The Dutchman also insisted on bringing in Sofyan Amrabat, a player he worked with during his FC Utrecht days, as he thought the Moroccan could fill the void in the place of Casemiro.
The Fiorentina star has looked well off the pace and currently, there is no chance he gets offered a permanent contract at the end of the current campaign.
Under the Glazers, the manager has always had a major say in terms of recruitment, a flawed method that has not helped the club grow and has seen more than a billion pounds wasted on player recruitment.
INEOS have recently been announced as the new minority stakeholders and Sir Jim Ratcliffe is expected to take charge of sporting affairs once the deal is ratified by the Premier League.
Once that is done, the British petrochemicals giant has plans to revamp the club’s transfer structure by bringing in competent people behind the scenes, including a sporting director and head of player recruitment.
The INEOS chairman has no plans of messing about and is targeting early deals and Ratcliffe and Ten Hag could possibly be on a collision course regarding transfer targets.
Recent reports have revealed that the manager is now targeting Brian Brobbey again, with the Ajax striker claiming Ten Hag had called him and tried to persuade him to join him at United back in 2022.
INEOS’ vision includes trying to bring in British players or stars who are proven in England and thus, they may not sanction a deal for Brobbey as claimed by journalist Dean Jones.
Ratcliffe has other plans
Add to this the uncertainty surrounding the United boss’ future given the atrocious run of form they are in currently, and it makes sense why the new regime might have their own plans of moving forward.
“They don’t want to build a team that suits ten Hag because there is a reasonably good chance that he won’t see this project through. They want the players to suit any philosophy, so it is a really difficult one.
“Ultimately, I don’t know whether the people that have come into this club are going to want to risk listening to ten Hag over another Ajax player.
“Ratcliffe has seen what has happened with Antony. He has also seen what has happened with Sofyan Amrabat. I know he wasn’t an Ajax player, but he is somebody that ten Hag pushed so hard for.
“They will have their own ideas, and I don’t think that Brobbey is one that they are going to be listening too hard about,” Jones told Givemesport.
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