How Ten Hag also struggled at start of Ajax career

Karan Tejwani

• 15 Aug 2022 09:49 BST
• 4 min read

Erik ten Hag’s start at Manchester United has been difficult, and the 2-1 and 4-0 defeats against Brighton and Brentford don’t even tell the whole story.

The Dutch boss has had to deal with Cristiano Ronaldo wanting to leave, Frenkie de Jong’s dragged-out transfer saga, an inability to land players quickly and an inadequate squad, amongst other things.

However, a complicated start isn’t something new to Ten Hag – he had something similar at his previous club, Ajax, and it could be a sign for encouragement in the coming months.

Ten Hag joined Ajax in December 2017 in complicated circumstances, and while he left Ajax as a legend, there were a few storms to weather before he could impose his qualities across the club.

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Ten Hag has seen this all before

Ajax had a poor start to the 2017-18 season, having missed out on European football altogether for the first time since 1990, and having not won a league title since 2014.

There was also a somber mood around the club after Abdelhak Nouri’s cardiac arrest in a friendly against Werder Bremen in the summer, and that was reflected across many players.

At the time of Ten Hag’s arrival midway through the season, Ajax were five points behind league leaders PSV, and were knocked out of the KNVB Cup, meaning there was only the Eredivisie to fight for.

Although he had a good reputation, the fans didn’t warm to him immediately, as they believe Ten Hag was only appointed because he had a good relationship with Director of Football Marc Overmars.

However, initial results proved otherwise, as Ajax beat Feyenoord 2-0 in his first match, with Donny van de Beek and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar getting the goals for the Amsterdam side.

They then drew 0-0 against his former club, before a four-game winning streak that put them in a good position to fight for the title, raising some hopes.

However, that positivity soon ended, as a draw against ADO Den Haag and loss to Vitesse dented their hopes, before a trip to Eindhoven in a title-decider a month later.

All PSV had to do was win this April match to win the league, and they did just that, embarrassing Ajax 3-0 to claim the title, and the reaction came soon after.

As Ajax were on the bus heading home, they were stopped by fans as they expressed their disappointment over the result and season overall – losing the game and title on the same day was unacceptable.

The scenes affected many, with star player Hakim Ziyech deleting all his posts related to Ajax on social media – he was rumoured to be unhappy and was looking to leave the club at the end of the season.

Ajax ended the season in second and knew it would require a change so that they could compete domestically and in Europe – ending their title drought was of the highest importance.

That prompted the club to tune their transfer policy, making more expensive signings that summer, such as Southampton’s Dusan Tadic and Manchester United’s Daley Blind.

In the 2018-19 season, Ten Hag carved one of the all-time great modern Champions League stories as Ajax reached the semi-finals of the competition, overcoming holders Real Madrid and Italian champions Juventus on the way.

They also won the league and cup double and laid the foundations for an era of Ajax dominance, making Ten Hag the greatest Ajax manager since Louis van Gaal in the 1990s.

Ten Hag has seen a tough start before – whether he can weather the storm at Manchester United remains to be seen, but there is evidence that he can do it, having proved it at Ajax.