Dutch journalist Valentijn Driessen has claimed that Manchester United’s pursuit of Matthijs de Ligt highlights Erik ten Hag’s weakness in identifying talent in the market.
Manchester United are in talks with De Ligt’s representatives over a transfer and have offered him a five-year deal to move to Old Trafford.
The club are in contact with Bayern Munich to work out a fee with Ten Hag pushing to land his former Ajax captain this summer.
The Manchester United manager appointed the then-teenaged De Ligt as the Ajax skipper in 2018 and has been in contact with the player to convince him to reunite with him at Old Trafford.
Driessen is hopeful that Ten Hag will get the best out of the defender at Manchester United but feels his willingness to sign him is also a ‘sign of weakness’.
He stressed that the Manchester United manager seems obsessed with signing players he previously worked with rather than identifying new talents in the market.
The Dutch journalist said on the De Telegraaf’s Kick-Off Podcast (via Voetbal Primeur): “Now with Ten Hag, hopefully, we will see the old De Ligt there.
“I think it is a sign of weakness of Ten Hag, that he always looks for people he has worked with and has very little eye for the rest of the market.
“Or he is bad at rating talent.”
Lisandro Martinez, Antony, Andre Onana and Sofyan Amrabat are all players who previously worked with Ten Hag before joining Manchester United in the last two years.
