New Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag is expected to hold individual virtual meetings with every player in the squad to allow him to start making key decisions before he officially begins work.
The scale of the task that Ten Hag faces at Old Trafford is widely publicised, with current interim boss Ralf Rangnick earning plaudits from all quarters for his refreshing honesty about the problems.
Indeed, the German has already said that the club needs five or more new signings in summer – possibly even up to 10 – in order to start competing for trophies again.
Having previously spent time working under Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich, Ten Hag is known for his eye for detail, as well as his demand for hard work and application.
As such, he seemingly isn’t prepared to waste time and will soon get to work assessing the players and situation he is about to inherit.
The Daily Mirror claims the video calls will happen ‘in the next three weeks’, although at first glance that time frame appears challenging given that Ten Hag’s Ajax side are still embroiled in an Eredivisie title race with PSV Eindhoven – the Dutch season runs until 15 May.
But whether now or the day after he takes charge of his final Ajax game, Ten Hag is set to speak with every United player, including those who are soon to be out of contract like Paul Pogba.
The same report adds that the idea is to enable the new boss to quickly decide which players he wants to keep and which can go. It is also suggested that he could use the interviews to help decide who should be club captain, with Harry Maguire not certain to keep the role.
Listen now to 90min’s brand new podcast, Talking Transfers, with Scott Saunders & Graeme Bailey. On this week’s show they react to Man Utd’s appointment of Erik ten Hag, as well as Erling Haaland’s potential path to Manchester City & more.
For the players, it will be a chance to ‘discuss any issues or problems in private’. Everyone may get a chance to prove themselves, with Andreas Pereira even potentially also to come back in from the cold should a stalling permanent move to Flamengo fall through. The Brazilian is actually already known to Ten Hag when their paths crossed at PSV more than 11 years ago.
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