Erik ten Hag: Man Utd boss' TV chat with Johan Cruyff, aged 13, is remarkable | OneFootball

New Manchester United manager, Erik ten Hag, has made an encouraging start to life at Old Trafford – winning all three of his games in charge so far.

The United job is the most high-profile of the 52-year-old’s managerial career so far.

Ten Hag began his journey as a head coach with Dutch side Go Ahead Eagles in 2012, before going on to manage the Bayern Munich second team and Utrecht.

Success in those posts ultimately saw him make the move to Ajax, where he was in charge for five years until he departed for United back in May.

On paper, then, Ten Hag has only 10 years of management experience. However, an interaction that the Red Devils’ boss had with the legendary Johan Cruyff on Dutch television when he was just 13 years of age has recently resurfaced – and its content is truly fascinating.

The exchange, which took place back in 1984, has been translated into English by Twitter user @TenHagBall, shows that a young Ten Hag had wisdom well beyond his years when it comes to the psychological side of the game.

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Ten Hag, dressed in a red polo and with far more hair than we’re used to seeing today, was part of a panel of young aspiring footballers who were given the opportunity to chat to Cruyff about the beautiful game.

At one point, Barcelona icon Cruyff talked to the youngsters about the communication between them and their coaches.

“It happens a lot right, that a trainer yells. Or does that not happen with you guys?”

Ten Hag then spoke up with a thoughtful response.

“I think you should watch out that you don’t yell to the youth too much, because you can break a player like that. But on a higher level, such as the first team of Ajax, you should be able to say something about it.

“Those guys train almost every day in the week. If they keep making the same mistakes, you should be able to confront them,” argued Ten Hag.

“So that means you differentiate between youth and paid football?,” asked Cruyff, who went on to manage both Ajax and Barcelona following this appearance.

“Yes,” confirmed Ten Hag.

Nearly 40 years later, Ten Hag clearly hasn’t changed his mind when it comes to having high expectations of his senior players.

Throughout United’s pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia, Ten Hag has frequently been seen bellowing instructions at his squad, both in training and in matches.

In the most extreme example, during Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Crystal Palace, Ten Hag screamed “what the **** are you doing?” at one of his players.

United were in a comfortable lead – and there were less than three minutes to go at the time – but that mattered little to Ten Hag.

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He has his standards and wants them upheld at all times.

Despite the club’s woes in recent years, the Manchester United job is one of the biggest in world football. It’s also one that Ten Hag has seemingly been preparing for since his youth.