Speaking about Erik ten Hag’s admirable decision to start work at Manchester United almost immediately after the end of the Eredivisie season, Gary Neville has warned the incoming Dutch coach that will need a rest before a busy season.
The former United club captain believes it would benefit Ten Hag if he were to take a short break before officially starting his role as Manchester United manager.
“I think if he’s coming over for a short period of time… the players are only going to be there for a week, [he needs to] sit down with the players one to one and get to know them,” Neville told Sky Sports, as quoted by the Manchester Evening News. “But I hope he goes on holiday for a couple of weeks and gets some break because the job’s big at United and the seasons are long.
“So I hope this week is to get to meet the staff because the players will all disappear after this week. I’m hoping it’s a ‘getting to know you’ trip rather than sitting down and starting to look at tactics and all that stuff.
“He needs a break; it’s a long season, he’s got a big job in front of him and he’ll need that rest come next season. He’ll need to be fresh, but I’m sure he’ll know that.”
While Ten Hag is expected to hold a number of meetings over the new couple of weeks, he is not going to be stuck at Carrington while everyone in football is on holiday, so we don’t need to worry too much about him not getting a well-deserved rest after a successful campaign at Ajax.
Moreover, from Neville’s assessment, I wonder if he spent too much time getting to know the Valencia players and too little spent on tactics? Ole Gunnar Solskjaer knew his players and that wasn’t enough.
The next few weeks will be important for Ten Hag and United because they haven’t had a lot of time together to prepare for the new season, which is why the new manager has had to put off holiday plans for a week or so at least.
He may also get the opportunity to meet his squad of players before they jet off on their holidays – knowing that a number of them won’t be returning to the club.
Ralf Rangnick will remain in charge for the last game of the season against Crystal Palace on Sunday.
